Archived 2003 Announcements

CourseWorks Mini-Workshops Summer Schedule

April 29, 2004. CourseWorks Mini Workshops for the summer have been scheduled. Learn the basics of course Web site development and how to apply technology to your teaching. The one-hour session covers the basics of CourseWorks, Columbia's course management system, and other tools.

Mini Workshop Registration

Brownfield Action Curriculum to be Adopted by Connecticut College, by Petra Tuomi Barnard News Center

The Brownfield Action simulation, developed by Professor Peter Bower and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL), is being modified to be used by Conneticut College. This adaptation is made possible through a National Science Foundation (NSF) "proof-of-concept" grant. For full article Barnard Press Release.

CCNMTL Attends Higher-Ed Meeting with Cisco CEO

March 18, 2004. John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco Systems, hosted an executive higher education dinner and discussion with representatives from New York metro area colleges and universities. Maurice Matiz, Vice Executive Director of CCNMTL, attended the dinner held at Le Cirque restaurant in midtown New York.

The dinner and discussion provided an opportunity to chat informally with the CEO of one of America's most successful technology companies. Chambers, who has served on President George W. Bush's Education Committee and has been given many awards for his efforts to improve education and performance, believes in the positive role that education can play in the economic growth of the United States. He was eager to hear comments and opinions about the role of technology in education from the assembled group.

NSF Awards Grant to Enhance Brownfield Action

March 15, 2004. The National Science Foundation has awarded a proof-of-concept grant of $75,000 to Peter Bower (Barnard College) and CCNMTL to support the modularization and distribution of the Brownfield Action curriculum and simulation. The award, effective February 15th, will be used to assist Dr. Bower and CCNMTL to prototype a new, more modular version of the Brownfield Action environmental assessment simulation that will also be tested in an upper-level undergraduate hydrology course at Connecticut College. If successful with these efforts, the project will be considered for additional funding to facilitate a major re-development of the simulation and to establish a distribution method to other educational institutions.

For more information see links below.

AACU Selects Brownfield Action as a Model Course

Brownfield Action Showcase

Interactive Video Learning System Developed, Inside TC

The Video Interaction for Teaching and Learning (VITAL) environment was featured by the Teachers College News Bureau. This article disscusses the collaboration between Dr. Herbert Ginsburg and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) in developing this tool for professional practice training. For full article see Inside TC. For more info on Video Interactions for Teaching and Learning see VITAL.

Ted Nelson Visits Columbia

February 27, 2004. Theodor Holm Nelson, hypertext theorist and fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, visited the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning.

The purpose of Nelson's visit to CCNMTL was to introduce his latest vision of a non-hierarchal interface entitled, "ZigZag" to the Columbia community. "Zig Zag," cross-viewable multidimensional lists, provides a new paradigm for computer structures including database, inheritance, file management, simplified graphical programming, and other useful computer concepts. These structures appear to streamline many aspects of data and programming.

Nelson occupies a unique place in the computer field, a designer best known as an agitator and visionary. "I didn't know what to call these ideas; "hypertext" came to me in 1962, and I published it in 1965. I first heard strangers use it around 1986."

He has been called "the Thomas Paine of the computer revolution." His book Computer Lib, proposing a new Utopian world of intellect around the computer screen, came out in 1974, just four months before the first personal computer was advertised. Computer Lib is said to have inspired much of today's software design, as well as personally influencing Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates.

Nelson's vision for hypertext preceded the Web by three decades. Nelson was virtually alone in predicting a worldwide hypertext. His 1981 book, Literary Machines, while describing the work of his group on Project Xanadu, contains many passages that predict the World Wide Web.

For more information see links below.

Ted Nelson's Web site

Zig Zag

Library Compass Released

February 5, 2004. Library Compass, a new resource to develop and enhance academic research skills, was developed by the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) in conjunction with the Columbia University Libraries and has been released today. It is an online environment that serves as an orientation tool to aid students in honing their research skills for academic scholarship. Through learning activities and detailed explanations, Library Compass supports the writing of academic papers by exposing students to specific library research skills and strategies. Students who work with the Library Compass environment can improve the quality of their research papers and also access online support and assistance during the research process. In addition, videotaped interviews with Columbia librarians offer guidance and advice to students new to academic research.

As students and researchers are challenged to find both method and meaning in the midst of an abundance of information, Library Compass points the way to new habits of mind in order to generate questions, locate sources for answers, evaluate the proffered solutions, and formulate responses. The Library Compass is another step taken by Columbia University Information Services to respond to a growing need to harness the University's vast knowledge resources.

Library Compass

VITAL Adapted for the School of Social Work

January 21, 2004. The VITAL environment has been adapted for use in five sections of "Clinical Practice with Couples," taught by Tazuko Shibusawa and Susan Oppenheim of the School of Social Work. VITAL was originally designed for Professor Herbert Ginsburg's "Development of Mathematical Thinking" course at Teachers College. VITAL has become a strategic technology for CCNMTL given the adaptability of the pedagogy and methodology for pre-professional and clinical training.

Students use VITAL to generate weekly essays based on video recordings of clinical sessions. In their personal workspace, students construct essays that can include video quotes to support their arguments. The linked video annotations within the essay allow faculty to follow student observations. Additionally, once completing an assignment, students have access to the essays submitted by their peers.

In "Clinical Practice with Couples," Professors Shibusawa and Oppenheim focus on relating concepts and theoretical frameworks studied in course readings to professionally produced recordings of couples' clinical sessions. Using VITAL, students identify and analyze different theoretical models and clinical techniques as well as consider their own intervention methods.

For more information regarding VITAL contact ccnmtl-vital@columbia.edu

VITAL

QT Video: Prof. Herbert Ginsburg Demonstrates VITAL Project

New Media in Education 2003 Conference Footage

January 8, 2004. Please see the link below for video clips from our 2003 New Media in Education Conference that took place at the Low Library on September 26th.

NME 2003 Conference Videos

New Video Assets Added to Midnight's Children MSE

January 2, 2004. Video footage from last spring's Humanities Festival has now been added to the assets menu of the Midnight's Children MSE (Multimedia Study Environment). Panelists include Edward Said, Manning Marable, Linda Williams, Gauri Viswanathan, Russell Banks and Lee Bollinger, among others. In addition we have added an audio recording of a conversation between Edward Said and Salman Rushdie from 1996 that took place at Miller Theatre in the resources section of the MSE.

For more information regarding using the Midnight's Children MSE in your course contact: John Frankfurt at 212-854-1865 or ccnmtl@columbia.edu

Midnight's Children MSE

Technology May Be Very Good For Your Health, by Carol Power, The Irish Times

Columbia University's School of Nursing is featured by The Irish Times this month for using PDAs in their teaching. This article mentions their collaboration with the Columbia University Center for New Media Teaching and Learning to incorporate technology at the point of care. For full article see Irish Times

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