Text-to-Movie Authoring of Anatomy Lessons

International audienceWith popular use of multimedia and 3D content in anatomy teaching there is a need for a simple yet comprehensive tool to create and edit pedagogical anatomy video lessons. In this paper we present an automated video authoring tool created for teachers. It takes text written in a novel domain specific language (DSL) called the Anatomy Storyboard Language (ASL) as input and translates it to real time 3D animation. Preliminary results demonstrates the ease of use and effectiveness of the tool for quickly drafting video lessons in realistic medical anatomy teaching scenarios

Authoring Edutainment Stories for Online Players (AESOP): Introducing Gameplay into Interactive Dramas

The video gaming industry has experienced extraordinary technological growth in the recent past, causing a boom in both the quality and revenue of these games. Educational games, on the other hand, have lagged behind this trend, as their creation presents major creative and pedagogical challenges in addition to technological ones. By providing the technological advances of the entertainment genres in a coherent, accessible format to teams of educators, and developing an interactive drama generator, we believe that the full potential of educational games can be realized. Section 1 postulates three goals for reaching that objective: a toolset for interactive drama authoring, ways to insulate authors from game engines, and reusable digital casts to facilitate composability. Sections 2 and 3 present progress on simple versions of those tools and a case study that made use of the resulting toolset to create an interactive drama

Exploring CALL Options for Teaching EFL in Vietnam

Research has demonstrated that computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has the capacity to enhance second language learning. Therefore, in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts like Vietnam, the government has invested in computers in schools as a way to address the lack of quality in education. However, Vietnamese EFL teachers have made little or no use of these computers. The purpose of this Alternate Plan Paper (APP) is to assist Vietnamese ESL teachers in choosing appropriate CALL programs. I select some of the most effective, user-friendly, and cost-effective CALL options for language areas and language skills. The options are selected based on the availability of resources, the teachers\u27 and learners\u27 computer proficiency levels, and the Vietnamese institutional context. The recommended options are also based on my personal experience as a CALL learner and user, and a one-month observation of CALL applications in a classroom at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The paper also discusses the pedagogical principles for using the recommended options effectively and efficiently

Gameplay, Interactive Drama, and Training: Authoring Edutainment Stories for Online Players (AESOP)

This paper describes initial efforts at providing some of the technological advances of the videogame genres in a coherent, accessible format to teams of educators. By providing these capabilities inside an interactive drama generator, we believe that the full potential of educational games may eventually be realized. Sections 1 and 2 postulate three goals for reaching that objective: a toolset for interactive drama authoring, ways to insulate authors from game engines, and reusable digital casts to facilitate composability. Sections 3 and 4 present progress on those tools and an in-depth case study that made use of the resulting toolset to create a large interactive drama. We close with lessons learned to date and a look at the remaining challenges: the unpleasant reality that state-of-the-art tools are not yet able to boost the productivity of edutainment authors

Developing a multimedia tree identification CD-ROM

Providing students with the skills necessary to identify trees is an ongoing challenge at Oregon State University. Several colleges within the university offer courses that teach tree identification. In the College of Forestry alone, two courses are offered that emphasize identification of native and introduced trees. The content and format of these courses are dynamic, and change depending on variables such as the availability of live samples on or near campus, the seasonal attributes of trees, and frequently in Oregon, the willingness of both teacher and student to tolerate inclement weather in order to identify samples in their natural setting. There is currently significant interest in using state-of-the-art technology to provide educational programs within the tree identification curriculum. The College of Forestry, for example, has developed several slide-tape and video programs dealing with tree identification and related information. Slide-tapes and videotapes are considered low-cost to produce and are easily accessed by both faculty and students through the Forestry Media Center (FMC). These programs are, however, linear in format and therefore require repositioning of slides and rewinding of tapes based on the particular needs of specific audiences. In 1994 the FMC began working with a master's degree candidate emphasizing natural resource education who was interested in the application of multimedia technology to tree identification. The program to be developed, Conifers of the Pacific Northwest, was intended to be a CD-ROM prototype, designed to be used in conjunction with the College of Forestry's tree identification courses. The goals of this project were to improve instruction in tree identification for the College of Forestry at OSU, and, to allow a natural resources graduate student the opportunity to apply various teaching and learning principles in the design and development of technologically advanced teaching applications. It was the first attempt by this student, a professional forester by education, to examine the process of designing and developing educational programs to support forestry education. The resulting program, Conifers of the Pacific Northwest , includes information on 12 genera and 29 species of conifers native to the Pacific Northwest, and three common ornamental conifers. Information about these trees is accessible either through indices of tree names or through an identification key. Also included in the program is a glossary of dendrological terms, an interactive map describing the geologic history of Oregon, and a key with practice samples that can be used to learn the skills necessary for the process of tree identification. Accompanying the program is a written user's guide that describes the main components of the program, described above, and the buttons used to navigate through these components. This paper contains two important themes. One of these themes is the pedagogical framework of the multimedia program development process, and how the process benefited me as an educator in-training. The other theme is that of the program itself, Conifers of the Pacific Northwest, and its design, development, evaluation, and implementation

Getting Noticed: College Recruiting Using a New Media

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AniAniWeb: A wiki approach to personal home pages

This article reports on my dissertation research on personal home pages. It focuses on the design of AniAniWeb, a server-based system for authoring personal home pages. AniAniWeb builds on a wiki foundation to address many of the limitations of static technologies used to author personal home pages. This article motivates the technical hypotheses behind AniAniWeb and reflects on these hypotheses, based on a two year study of adopters using AniAniWeb in academia, a prominent vocational setting where personal home pages are important. In particular, I reflect on two broad categories: 1) the usefulness of wiki features (wiki authoring, wiki mark-up, and interaction / collaboration) to authoring personal home pages; 2) the other features (structure, designing looks, and access control) needed to make a wiki approach to personal home pages viable

Visual syntax and intelligence

This thesis project is concerned with the role that graphic designers have in making learning materials more effective. It is focused on the need for instructional materials to reflect current advances in cognitive psychology and our society\u27s definition of intelligence. Most instructional materials today are outdated and ineffective. Some reasons are political, others are socio-economic, and some fall within the scope of the designed environment. Learning materials, especially textbooks, designed before the 1980\u27s have been designed without standards, and at a time when intelligence was seen as a narrow list of abilities