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Archive Category: 2005

In The News:
Frontiers of Science on NPR's Talk of the Nation

December 30, 2005. Professors Darcey Kelly and David Helfand were featured guests on Talk of the Nation's "Science Friday," where they spoke with Ira Flatow about the deterioriating state of scientific education in America today. They discussed the Frontiers of Science course and its role in Columbia College's core curriculum as an important effort to engage students in rigorous scientific inquiry in different areas of science, including astronomy, biodiversity, neuroscience, and climate change.

Listen to Talk of the Nation

Frontiers of Science


Announcements:
2005 Client Survey Report Released

January 5, 2006. The Columbia Center for New Media Teaching & Learning (CCNMTL) has released its Fall 2005 client survey report. CCNMTL conducted 20-minute in-person surveys with a random sample of faculty clients in an effort to learn more about how faculty at Columbia are incorporating technology into their teaching and how effectively CCNMTL's service and outreach activities have been in helping faculty reach their goals. The results of the survey are available as a PDF below.

CCNMTL Fall 2005 Client Service Survey Report


Announcements:
CourseWorks Workshops for Instructors

December 8, 2005. CCNMTL offers workshops for instructors interested in learning the basics of the CourseWorks course management system. The one-hour sessions will provide an overview of CourseWorks and introduce participants to the system's rich features.

All workshops will be held in 204 Butler Library.

Introduction to CourseWorks
* Wednesday, January 11..........10:30-11:30am
* Wednesday, January 11..........12:30-1:30pm
* Wednesday, January 11..........2:00-3:00pm
* Thursday, January 12.............12:30pm-1:30pm
* Thursday, January 12.............2:00pm-3:00pm
* Friday, January 13.................10:30-11:30am
* Friday, January 13.................12:30-1:30pm
* Tuesday, January 17..............10:30-11:30am
* Tuesday, January 17..............12:30-1:30pm
* Tuesday, January 17..............2:00-3:00pm
* Wednesday, January 18..........10:30-11:30am
* Wednesday, January 18..........12:30-1:30pm
* Thursday, January 19.............10:30-11:30am
* Friday, January 20 ................10:30-11:30am

Discussion Boards
* Wednesday, January 11..........3:30-4:30pm
* Thursday, January 19.............12:30-1:30pm

Media in the Classroom
* Thursday, January 12.............10:30-11:30am
* Friday, January 20..................12:30-1:30pm

Register online or contact us at (212) 854-9058 or ccnmtl-workshops@columbia.edu for more information.


Announcements:
Personal Life-Long Learning Plans Launched

December 2, 2005. This summer, CCNMTL and the School for Dental and Oral Surgery introduced the Personal Life-Long Learning PLans (PL3P) to post-doctoral dental residents in the Advanced Education and General Dentistry and General Practice Residency courses. Funded by a three-year grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), PL3P serves as a portal for post-graduate dental education at Columbia, providing students with tools that promote active learning and reflection, including private home pages and blogs.

Students can upload files, including images, Word, and PowerPoint documents, into various folders that can be organized by topics, cases, or seminar presentations. Mentors can then review completed portfolios and provide feedback on student work. PL3P provides a space that promotes reflection and dialogue between residents and their mentors.


In The News:
SimCity Project Detailed in Columbia Daily Spectator

November 15, 2005. The Columbia Daily Spectator highlighted the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching & Learning's work with Professor Hilary Ballon to incorporate the game, SimCity, into her Urban Studies course. Josh Hirschland concludes that "by using technology in innovative ways, Ballon improved what was already one of the best courses for Urban Studies majors."

Read full article


Announcements:
CCNMTL Contributes MediaWiki Plug-ins

November 7, 2005. CCNMTL programmers have developed two plug-ins that make it easier for MediaWiki users to add category tags to organize entries within their collaborative Web sites.

MediaWiki software is the engine that powers the Wikipedia. At Columbia, CCNMTL has deployed the MediaWiki for several courses, including the Social Justice Movements Wiki for Robin Kelley's "Black Movements in the U.S" and the University Writing Program's (UWP) Instructors' Resource Site. While creating their wiki pages, the UWP instructors realized that they needed a more user-friendly way to organize pages within the site. The new Category Editor plug-in adds a menu of existing categories from which a user can select the appropriate category in which the wiki page that they are editing should be associated, and the Category Search plug-in makes it easy to find articles that are associated with certain categories. Contributing these plug-ins to the open source community helps improve the MediaWiki software, making it easier for multiple participants to collaboratively develop and edit a site.

See the Category Plug-in page at SourceForge.Net.

See a screenshot of the Category Editor plug-in.


In The News:
TC Library Adds CCNMTL Paper to its Collection

November 4, 2005. The Teachers College Library recently added
"Developing New Tools for Video Analysis and Communication to Promote Critical Thinking"
by Michael D. Preston, Gordon A. Campbell, Herbert P. Ginsburg, Peter Sommer & Frank A. Moretti to its collection. The authors discuss CCNMTL's research on Video Interactions for Teaching and Learning (VITAL), a Web-based study environment used by Prof. Herbert Ginsburg in his course on the Development of Mathematical Thinking, and examine how VITAL promotes student engagement in critical thinking activities such as interpretation, hypothesis generation, and use of evidence.

Teachers College Library.


In The News:
University Seminar on Wikis in Columbia Daily Spectator

November 1, 2005. Columbia Spectator writer Josh Hirschland discussed Professor Mark Phillipson's presentation about implementing wikis at Bowdoin College at the University Seminar in New Media Teaching and Learning. Hirschland suggests that wikis could "revolutionize" courses in Columbia College's core curriculum by fostering a sense of community and encouraging students to engage in active discussions: "Wikis have the potential to provide a democratic forum for lively debate beyond the classroom."

Read full article


Announcements:
Columbia and Stanford Share a Virtual Classroom

November 1, 2005. "African Civil Wars in Comparative Perspective," a graduate research seminar offered by the Political Science department here and at Stanford University, uses various technologies to create and share a virtual classroom space. The course, a collaboration between Professors Macartan Humphreys (Columbia) and Jeremy Weinstein (Stanford), engages students in the "rigorous, empirical analysis of multiple dimensions of contemporary civil conflict."

Using a networked-based video conferencing system and online tools to share data sets, presentations, and a whiteboard, the students grapple with data sets to debate issues surrounding civil war, including the organization of rebel groups and bargaining as a part of negotiating peace processes. Students in the Columbia course meet in the Experimental Digital Classroom in 308 Lewisohn Hall, which is outfitted with a Polycom video conferencing system complementing the SmartBoard system already in place.


Electronic Digital Classroom


In The News:
Film Language Glossary on Columbia Homepage

October 31, 2005. The Film Language Glossary was recently highlighted on the Columbia University home page. The story, entitled "CCNMTL Uses Big Screen Classics to Teach Film Fundamentals," includes direct links to the glossary, quotes from our faculty partner,s and a screenshot of the term "180 Degree Axis" with illustration from the film Harakiri.


Features:
Edward Said Discussing Salman Rushdie's Work and Influence at the 2003 Humanities Festival

: Edward Said Discusses Salman Rushdie's Work

In The News:
Film Language Glossary in The Record

October 14, 2005. The Record profiled the Film Language Glossary as part of its special report on "Columbia and Film."

View a PDF of the clip.

Film Language Glossary


Announcements:
Mark Phillipson Discusses Wikis in the Classroom

October 27, 2005. On Thursday, October 27, Dr. Mark Phillipson ('88C) shared his expertise with class wikis at the University Seminar for New Media Teaching and Learning. He discussed the effects of wikis on peer interaction, modes of analysis, notions of authority, and course organization based on his experience with wikis in his Romantic Audience course at Bowdoin College. Detailing his collaboration with educational technologists and librarians, Phillipson identified crucial areas of support for pedagogical wikis, and invited discussion of comparable projects at Columbia University.

University Seminar: Implementing a Class Wiki


Features:
Harakiri Clip from Film Language Glossary

: Annotated Harakiri Clip from Film Language Glossary

Features:
Holocaust Videotestimony from the Oral History Office

: Dori Laub on Conducting Videotestimonials

Announcements:
New Online Music Reserves Launched

September 9, 2005. Students and faculty in the Music Humanities courses this fall will use the new, improved Online Music Reserves. This resource provides faculty and students with access to to an expanded collection of classical works selected specifically for the Music Humanities curriculum. Faculty can link to individual tracks or entire works from their CourseWorks sites, or they can direct students to explore the Reserves themselves. The new Reserves feature improved audio quality and are available to Columbia students both on and off campus with a UNI and high-speed connection.


Announcements:
Expanded Film Language Glossary Released

September 8, 2005. This fall, CCNMTL and the Butler Media Library have launched an upgraded Film Language Glossary for students involved in the production and study of motion pictures. Glossary definitions are enhanced by images, animations, and sample film clips, many of which feature expert commentary and annotations by Columbia film professors. Over 65 new entries were added by contributors Richard Peña, James Schamus, Larry Engel and David McKenna. Courses using the Glossary in the fall 2005 semester include "Intro to Film Studies," "Senior Seminar in Film" and "Screenwriting."

Film Language Glossary

"CCNMTL Uses Big Screen Classics to Teach Film Fundamentals" in the Columbia News (October 31, 2005)


Features:
Correcting Course Conference Keynote Presentation

: Fred von Lohmann on Library Copyright Issues

Announcements:
Fall CourseWorks Workshops: CU Medical Center

August 22, 2005. Join CCNMTL for CourseWorks workshops before the semester heats up. All sessions meet in the PC Classroom on the second floor of the Hammer Building

CourseWorks Basic Workshop
Learn the basics of course Web site development and how to apply technology to your teaching. The session covers the basics of CourseWorks, Columbia's course management system, and other tools.

  • Thursday, August 25: 1pm
  • Tuesday, August 30: 11am
  • Tuesday, September 6: 11am

CourseWorks Advanced Workshop
Note: Participants of this workshop must have a basic knowledge of CourseWorks
Learn advanced Web site development and how to apply technology to your teaching. The session covers the basics of CourseWorks, Columbia's course management system, and other tools.

  • Thursday, September 1: 1pm
  • Thursday, September 8: 1pm

Register online at http://www.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/services/workshops/index.html#hs.

For more information on workshops, please contact us at (212) 854-9058 or ccnmtl-workshops@columbia.edu.


Announcements:
Recent Publications by CCNMTL

August 2, 2005. The Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning has been busy writing and contributing to academic journals and books, both at Columbia and internationally. Frank Moretti, John Frankfurt, and David Miele co-authored "Malcolm X: Digital Media in a New Age of Learning and Research" in SOULS. The article describes the history of the Multimedia Study Environment and discusses the development of the Malcolm X Multimedia Study Environment (MXMSE).

Frank Moretti also contributed chapters to two books: "Support in the Use of New Media" in Supporting E-Learning: A Guide for Library and Information Managers, and "What have we learned and how have we learned it? Examples of Best Practices of a New Media Services and Development Center in Higher Education," translated into German for Online-Pädagogik, Band 3, edited by Burkhard Lehmann and Egon Bloh.

With publications like these, CCNMTL continues to play an active role in shaping the academic conversation on digital technologies and student learning.


In The News:
CCNMTL's Frontiers of Science work in Columbia College Today

July 2005. The Columbia Center for New Media Teaching & Learning (CCNMTL) partnership with the Frontiers of Science faculty was highlighted in this month's alumni publication, Columbia College Today. The article described the partnership, highlighting the course's multimedia textbook and the Fall 2004 field experiment in which students utilized handheld devices to document their fieldwork.


Announcements:
CCNMTL Shares Stickies Product With Plone Community

July 18, 2005. CCNMTL is actively developing PloneStickies, a content annotation solution that borrows the idea of "sticky notes" and applies it to Web pages. The product is currently being developed as a plugin for the Plone Content Management System, an open source CMS and development platform that is being successfully used in several educational web environments, including the Educational Multimedia Case Constructor (EMCC). Within the EMCC, students use stickies to attach notes to images, videos, and other multimedia assets. CCNMTL has made an initial release of this product available to the Open Source Community with the hope that others will benefit from this technology, and reciprocally continue to advance its development. Additional features are currently in the works that will allow users to attach more than one note to an asset, provide an enhanced user interface, as well as allow students to "tag" assets with keywords.

Educational Multimedia Case Constructor

Plone Stickies


Announcements:
Instructional Design for GIS Fellows

June 10, 2005. As a participating member of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Working Group, an organization dedicated to expanding GIS activity at Columbia, CCNMTL has been offering guidance on Instructional Design to graduate summer fellows. Educational Technologist Ryan Kelsey's contribution to the weekly workshops cover effective teaching practices, from setting educational goals to evaluating student work.

A recipient of an Academic Quality Fund (AQF) grant from the University, the GIS Working Group has organized a Summer Fellows Program for graduate students representing a broad range of social sciences departments from urban planning to public health. In addition to advancing their own research projects based on spatial information, fellows will design a one-week GIS course module to be integrated into a graduate course in their department, develop a spatial research bibliography listing exemplary papers relevant to their field of study, and compile an inventory of GIS-related research projects in their departments.

GIS Summer Fellows Program


In The News:
CCNMTL Papers Added to TC Library Collection

The Teachers College Library has added two papers by CCNMTL to its collection.
The Deconstructor: Providing the Scaffolds for Students to Excerpt, Describe, Analyze, Interpret and Synthesize to Form New Understandings by Kristen Sosulski, Lawrence Engel, Gordon Campbell, and Lee Davis describes the Deconstructor, a technology that supports a constructivist approach to learning about film. Video Interactions for Teaching and Learning (VITAL): A Learning Environment for Courses in Early Childhood Mathematics Education, by Michael D. Preston, Herbert P. Ginsburg, Susan Jang, Janet G. Eisenbrand, Frank Moretti & Peter Sommer discusses the implications of the VITAL pedagogy for the pre-professional development of K-12 mathematics teachers.

Teachers College Library.


Announcements:
Black Rock Forest Data in the Classroom

May 13, 2005. This spring, CCNMTL worked with the Black Rock Forest Consortium on an NSF-funded project to modernize wireless access to the Forest's remote sensing stations to allow access to real-time meteorological and stream data. Using a data viewing system designed by Vista Data Vision, students in Professor Kevin Griffin's Environmental Systems course studied Black Rock Forest's watershed-based environments to analyze rainfall and its correlation to stream flow. Students reported that they appreciated "the opportunity to examine real data" because the "intense data manipulation required us to understand the data and the situation to a much greater degree than other labs."

"The students came up with interesting questions to explore on their own and definitely got a true scientific experience using the lab," notes Professor Griffin. "I'm convinced this can be an excellent teaching tool."


Announcements:
Record Number of CourseWorks Sites

May 5, 2005. During the Spring 2005 semester, a record number of Columbia University courses actively used CourseWorks as class Web sites. More than 1,700 CourseWorks sites were activated, compared to 1,276 sites utilized in the previous Spring 2004 semester. At least 400 courses used the discussion boards section this semester, highlighting the growing popularity of using online communication tools to extend conversations beyond the classroom.

CCNMTL offers CourseWorks support for faculty with workshops and individual sessions. For more information, contact us at (212) 854-9058 or ccnmtl-workshops@columbia.edu.

Introduction to CourseWorks at Columbia.


Announcements:
CCNMTL and CUL Discuss Collaboration at ACRL

April 29, 2005. On April 8, 2005, Frank Moretti, Executive Director of CCNMTL, Jim Neal, Vice President of Information Services, and Patricia Renfro, Deputy University Librarian, made a presentation at the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) 12th National Conference in Minneapolis, MN. The presentation, "Menage à Trois: The Essential Computing, Library and Instructional Technology Partnership to Advance New Media Learning," discussed the collaboration among the computing, library, and instructional technology organizations at Columbia University.

View the presentation.

Download the PowerPoint presentation. (3.62 MB)


Announcements:
Journalism School Presents Case Study

April 22, 2005. On April 15-16, Dean David Klatell and a group of six students from the School of Journalism presented "Building the Front Page of the Washington Post" to more than 100 alumni and prospective students. The case study, produced in collaboration with CCNMTL, is an interactive learning environment that reconstructs the editorial process of designing the front page of a daily issue.

The multimedia case study presents students with background information on the The Washington Post. Students review the same news items that the editors of the newspaper considered for the June 16, 2004 issue and listen to audio clips of meetings from June 15 that document the editors' discussions and their decision-making process. Students then work out their own solutions, keeping the paper's mission, values, and readership in mind, as they reconstruct the layout of the front page. They are then able to compare their work to the actual front pages of The Washington Post and The New York Times that were published on June 16, 2004.

"I was delighted to work closely with the CCNMTL team because they brought so much to the table - ideas that pushed me and my Journalism School colleagues to re-conceptualize our original plans for developing The Washington Post case," said Dean Klatell. "Our alumni loved it."


In The News:
Tierno Bokar Resources Site in The Record

The Record, April 8, 2005. The Record published an article about the many special events that have been planned on campus to support Peter Brook's residency and production of Tierno Bokar this spring. The article highlights the rich multimedia content within the Tierno Bokar Educational Resources site that CCNMTL created for the Columbia community.

See the full article.

Printable version (PDF).


Announcements:
NIH Grant for School of Nursing and CCNMTL

April 7, 2005. The National Institute of Health has awarded Dr. Suzanne Bakken of Columbia University's School of Nursing a $675,000 grant to develop "Mobile Decision Support for Advanced Practice Nursing." Beginning in September 2005, over 300 doctoral and nurse practitioner candidates will use Palm and Pocket PC devices in three practice areas: depression screening, smoking cessation, and obsesity management. CCNMTL will collaborate with the School of Nursing to design and develop this program, which promotes evidence-based, error-free patient care for nurses in training.


Features:
Jon Ippolito: Hacking Copyright for Fun and Profit

: Jon Ippolito Art & Technology Lecture

Announcements:
Educational Multimedia Case Constructor Expanded

April 6, 2005. This spring, an expanded Educational Multimedia Case Constructor (EMCC) has been deployed in Professor Angela Calabrese Barton's course in Urban Science Education at Teachers College. First launched in fall 2004 as a multimedia library, EMCC enables students to analyze case studies that frame some of the unique challenges of teaching science in urban, high-poverty classrooms.

EMCC provides education students with opportunities to observe authentic classroom interactions and interviews with children and to review supporting documentation and researcher commentaries. These materials are indexed in a multimedia library that contains images, audio, video, and text files. Students can attach notes to these materials and write extended essays responding to the various issues raised by the case studies.

By fall 2005, EMCC will also include a Case Builder that will enable advanced students to create new cases and upload new materials for analysis by other students.


In The News:
Tierno Bokar Educational Resources Site in The Spectator

Columbia Spectator, March 30, 2005 The Columbia Spectator published an article on the University Arts Initiative and Peter Brook's production of Tierno Bokar on campus this spring. The article highlights CCNMTL's role in producing the Educational Resources site.

For full article, see Columbia Daily Spectator.

Tierno Bokar Educational Resources site


Features:
Gregory Mann on Tierno Bokar at Columbia (2005)

: Gregory Mann on Tierno Bokar at Columbia

Announcements:
Social Justice Movements Wiki Launches

March 24, 2005. This semester, students in Professor Robin Kelley's undergraduate course "Black Movements in the U.S." will develop the content of a new wiki, or collaborative Web site, about key social justice movements in New York City.

Developed in collaboration with CCNMTL, the Social Justice Movements wiki provides students the opportunity to create a Web site that will become a resource for exploring the broader political visions of these movements and their impact on local communities. Throughout the spring semester, students will explore organizations representing labor, civil rights, black liberation, reparations, socialism/communism, feminism, welfare rights, youth/Hip Hop activism, education, peace, environmental justice, and anti-globalization. As Professor Kelley continues to teach this course in future semesters, new groups of students will add to the site, making it a valuable tool for social justice research.

Access to the Social Justice Movements wiki is currently restricted to students in the course. When the students have completed their work at the end of the semester, the Web site will be made available to the public. The Social Justice Movements wiki is one of several wiki projects that are being developed by CCNMTL this semester.


Announcements:
Tierno Bokar Resources Site Launches

March 22, 2005. The newly launched Tierno Bokar Educational Resources site is now available to the Columbia community as an extension of the public Web site for Peter Brook's production of Tierno Bokar this spring.

The Educational Resources site provides faculty and students with teaching material on the play's themes, including history, religion, cultural theory, and drama, featuring an original essay on Tierno Bokar, Hambâté Bâ, and Peter Brook. The site also presents a glossary of key terms, slideshows of visual material, and a timeline of West African history to help students frame the play within its historical and cultural context. Columbia faculty, including Peter Awn, Ousmane Kane, Andrei Serban, and Gregory Mann provide video commentaries about the historical and cultural significance of Tierno Bokar. Also included are video footage from Keita!, a documentary on Mali, and clips from The Empty Space, documenting Peter Brook's theater workshop at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1973.

Additional materials will continue to be added to the Web site during and after the Tierno Bokar production, making it a living resource for the Columbia community. The Educational Resources site is available to students and faculty with a Columbia UNI and password.

Tierno Bokar Web site

Tierno Bokar Educational Resources


Announcements:
Image Annotation Tool Released

March 16, 2005. CCNMTL has released The Image Annotation Tool (IAT), a Web-based application that facilitates the close study of digital images.

The IAT was developed for Dean Letty Moss-Salentijn's Orofacial Histology, Growth, and Development course in the School for Oral and Dental Surgery. In Professor Moss-Salentijn’s course, students review and study a set of clearly annotated histology slides of perfect structures. After studying the annotated slides, students are presented with a set of unmarked images that are representative of typical structures that they are likely to encounter in the real world. Students annotate the slides that are then reviewed by Professor Moss-Salentijn.

Although the IAT was developed for a histology course, it can be utilized in any discipline that requires the close study of images. The tool is especially useful for labeling maps, illustrating art images, or highlighting specific elements of a graphic.

Image Annotation Tool


Announcements:
March 23: CourseWorks Workshop for Instructors

March 15, 2005. CCNMTL offers the following workshop for instructors interested in using CourseWorks to create surveys.

  • CourseWorks Test & Quizzes Workshop
    Wednesday, March 23, 2005     12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
    Learn how to create surveys in CourseWorks that solicit valuable feedback from your students. In this session we will cover how to create a survey using the Test & Quiz section in CourseWorks and different techniques for creating an effective survey.

The workshop will be held in 204 Butler Library on the Morningside Campus. Register online or contact ccnmtl-workshops@columbia.edu for more information.


Announcements:
Tech note: QuickTime and Firewalls

March 8, 2005. QuickTime streaming can be affected by firewalls on personal computers. If you suspect that your firewall is preventing access to streaming clips, use the QuickTime Preferences to set the transport to HTTP using port 80. This should solve most firewall issues.

Details: QuickTime streams are typically transported via the RTP/RTSP protocol, but many firewalls (including the recent Windows XP Service Pack 2 firewall) block these protocols. Should you wish to open your firewall to the RTP/RTSP protocols, you need to do the following:

  • Open port 554 for RTSP/TCP data
  • Open ports 6970 through 6999 (inclusive) for RTP/UDP data.

Alternatively, you can grant the QuickTime player an exception, but media embedded in browsers will still encounter problems and the browsers must be granted a similar exception.

For more information on QuickTime for Windows, see:
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/video/QT_pc/

Quicktime for Macs:
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/video/QT_mac/


Announcements:
CCNMTL Celebrates 6th Anniversary

March 2, 2005. March 1 marked the 6th anniversary of the opening of CCNMTL as a service organization at Columbia University. During this time, we have worked to help, support, and inspire many instructors to reflect upon their roles as teachers, and to think about how new media and technology can reach students more effectively. We thank all of our partners for the inspirational and stimulating collaborations we maintain, and look forward to continuing along this path.


Announcements:
Malcolm X MSE Article in SOULS

February 27, 2005. Frank Moretti, John Frankfurt, and David Miele co-authored "Malcolm X: Digital Media in a New Age of Learning and Research," published in the journal SOULS. The article traces the history and evolution of the multimedia study environment from the first, based on Fredric Jameson's monograph "Postmodernism: or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism," to the many innovations featured in the latest release, The Autobiography of Malcolm X.


In The News:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X MSE in The Spectator

Columbia Spectator, February 22, 2005. The Columbia Spectator published an article describing the newly launched Autobiography of Malcolm X MSE and the three-year collaboration between CCNMTL and the Center for Contemporary Black History. Professor Manning Marable introduced the project to artists, scholars, and students gathered in Earl Hall to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Malcolm X's assassination.

For full article, see Columbia Daily Spectator.


Announcements:
Kaleidoscope: Italian Cinema for Language Instruction

February 18, 2005. This semester, students in the Italian Department at Barnard College are using Kaleidoscope/Caleidoscopio, an innovative film-based curriculum for language instruction. Kaleidoscope immerses the student in an all-Italian site that features a series of activities based on the close analysis of Italian comedies from 1950 to 2000. As students watch selected film clips, they can choose whether to view the clip with or without synchronized closed-captioning of the dialogue (in Italian) and a glossary of relevant vocabulary terms. Students use the CourseWorks discussion board to analyze and reflect upon the films which are also discussed in class, integrating their Italian reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.

Kaleidoscope


Announcements:
Multimedia Study Environment Forum

February 17, 2005. On February 17, CCNMTL hosted an educational forum on the Multimedia Study Environment (MSE), The Autobiography of Malcolm X MSE.

With carefully selected annotations embedded within an online environment, the MSE is an innovative way to facilitate the close reading of a text. The Autobiography of Malcolm X MSE, produced in collaboration with the Center for Contemporary Black History (CCBH), presents the primary text with links to critical annotations that provide perspectives beyond the written word. In addition, the MSE features a rich multimedia archive of primary sources, including historical documents, images, and videos as well as original interviews with scholars and Malcolm X's contemporaries.

Frank Moretti, Executive Director of CCNMTL, provided an historical overview of the evolution of the MSE from the first, on Fredric Jameson's monograph "Postmodernism: Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" to the 17th, The Autobiography of Malcolm X MSE, and describe some of the lessons learned and developments made along the way. John Frankfurt, CCNMTL Educational Technologist, conducted a demonstration of the MSE highlighting some of the innovations implemented with this project. Manning Marable, Director of the CCBH, shared his experiences with the MSE as an educational tool and discussed the value of the MSE for scholarship.

CCNMTL Educational forum

View Program


Announcements:
Digital Media and the History of Science

February 10, 2005. On Thursday, February 10, Professor Adrian Johns of the University of Chicago led the University Seminar in New Media Teaching and Learning in a discussion of one of his major projects: Microcosmos, an online interactive environment that reproduces and conveys the skills of past scientific exploration to students. This highly interactive project asks students to assume the role of a scientist from the past and to develop a theory based on the intellectual resources available at that point in history. Microcosmos suggests new ways we could use digital media to enhance traditional teaching techniques in the sciences, but also to create new ones.

University Seminar: Digital Media and the History of Science


In The News:
Masterpieces of Western Music Online Reserves in Columbia Spectator

Columbia Spectator, January 27, 2005. The Columbia Spectator's article on recent changes to Masterpieces of Western Music discussed the role of the Online Reserves in the course. CCNMTL encoded nearly 200 CDs from the Gabe M. Wiener Music & Arts Library to comprise a new and expanded Online Reserves for the course, featuring high-quality mp3s that will be available to off-campus listeners with CUNIX IDs.

For full article, see Columbia Daily Specator.


Announcements:
Wikis: Experimenting in the classroom

January 31, 2005. A Wiki is a collaborative Web site that allows its users to contribute to a dynamic, interactive environment. "Wiki wiki" means "quick" in Hawaiian, referring to the ease with which users can modify existing material, create new content, and link between pages without having to employ complex Web authoring technologies. With simple tagging syntax that is even easier to master than HTML, Wikis have become popular as truly interactive and dynamic tools that capture the "ideal" of the Web as a virtual space that facilitates sharing information by enabling "open editing."

For a couple of years, CCNMTL has been using Wikis as part of its project planning. They have greatly facilitated project group interactions, documentation writing, and other collaborative endeavors. Recently, CCNMTL adopted the open-source MediaWiki engine used by the popular Wikipedia project.

After a successful experiment with the History of Electronic Music seminar in fall 2004, CCNMTL is expanding this R&D effort to other courses at Columbia. We have customized the Wiki interface to make it more intuitive and user-friendly for students and instructors. The goal is to learn more about potential uses in the classroom and to begin to compile some best practices that might inform future projects. Faculty in the University Writing Program, the Frontiers of Science core course, and an advanced Architecture Studio will be experimenting with Wikis this spring.


Press Release:
CCNMTL Releases The Autobiography of Malcolm X MSE

January 18, 2005. The Autobiography of Malcolm X Multimedia Study Environment (MSE) presents Malcolm X's memoir as the textual "spine" with links to critical annotations, audio, video, and images within an innovative interactive Web site. The Autobiography is the 17th MSE produced by the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL). Professor Manning Marable, Director of Columbia's Center for Contemporary Black History (CCBH), served as CCNMTL's faculty partner and Executive Editor for this MSE, which will be used in his lecture course on Malcolm X.

As a personal account of his life story as told to Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X is the most popular and accessible text on Malcolm X. However, as an autobiography, it fails to reconcile certain inconsistencies and factual errors. The MSE seeks to provide a resource for studying and understanding Malcolm X by delving beyond the Haley text through critical annotations, interviews, and other primary sources organized by four "lenses," or perspectives: politics, culture, globalism, and faith.

In addition to annotating this landmark text, the MSE provides access to materials that make it an invaluable resource for scholars, including a case file on the assassination of Malcolm X. This unprecedented collection contains material not readily available to the public before, ranging from photographs of the contents of Malcolm X's pockets when he was shot to files from the FBI and the New York Municipal Archives. The multimedia archive features original interviews with Columbia Professors Farah J. Griffin and Robin Kelley, as well as Malcolm X's contemporaries Max Stanford and Ossie Davis, among others. The MSE also incorporates four video lectures by Dr. Marable on the Malcolm X/Alex Haley collaboration, the assassination, Malcolm X and politics, and Malcolm X and gender.

Frank Moretti, Executive Director of CCNMTL, points out that "The Malcolm X MSE represents the culmination of an ambitious, three-year collaboration between CCNMTL and CCBH. We have created a site that supports research and education, with information and commentary never before gathered in one place. We hope that the combination of its design, along with the power of the Autobiography and the life of Malcolm X himself, will make The Autobiography of Malcolm X MSE a powerful tool for African American scholarship."

Access to The Autobiography of Malcolm X MSE is available to faculty or students affiliated with a course using the MSE. For more information on this or any of the other 16 MSEs, please contact CCNMTL.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X MSE

Press Release


In The News:
Music Plagiarism Project in New York Times

New York Times, January 13, 2005. Columbia Law librarian and CCNMTL collaborator Charles Cronin was highlighted in the Online Diary of the Circuits section. The article called the "Music Plagiarism Project" (http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/law/library) "better than a textbook, and used by professors around the world."

Excerpt of New York Times Circuits column

Columbia Law School Arthur W. Diamond Law Library Music Plagiarism Project


Announcements:
CCNMTL Hosts NSF Partners for VITAL Project Launch

January 10, 2005. On Friday, January 7, CCNMTL hosted a meeting to kick off an NSF-sponsored project, whose result will help colleges and universities across the country to prepare teachers of early childhood mathematics. CCNMTL and Teachers College will work with teacher education partners to develop model courses supported by a VITAL (Video Interactions for Teaching and Learning), a web-based study environment, which will be deployed at six other universities.

VITAL was first used in Prof. Herbert Ginsburg's course "The Development of Mathematical Thinking" at Teachers College during the spring 2003 semester. Based on this experience, CCNMTL continues to refine the VITAL environment and has received funding to collaborate with content experts and field testers to develop a large-scale, enterprise solution that will accommodate thousands of students nationwide.

VITAL project partners include William Paterson University, Rutgers University, Boston University, Boston College, Howard University, Hunter College, the State University of New York at Buffalo, Georgia State University, the University of Houston, Indiana University at Bloomington, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of San Diego, the University of Hawaii, and the Education Development Center.


Announcements:
New CourseWorks QuickStart Guide Available

January 5, 2005. An updated QuickStart guide to help instructors plan course Web sites using CourseWorks, Columbia's course management tool, is now available. This step-by-step guide shows you how to get started quickly and easily. Pick up a copy in the CCNMTL Faculty Support Lab in Room 204 Butler Library.

CourseWorks QuickStart Guide for Instructors (594KB)


Announcements:
CourseWorks Workshops for Instructors

January 3, 2005. Do you need to learn how to prepare a course Web site before classes start? CCNMTL offers workshops for instructors interested in learning the basics of the CourseWorks course management system. The one-hour sessions will provide an overview of CourseWorks and introduce participants to the system's rich features.

Morningside Campus sessions will meet from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm in 204 Butler Library.
* Monday, January 10
* Tuesday, January 11
* Wednesday, January 12
* Tuesday, January 18
* Wednesday, January 19
* Thursday, January 20

At the Health Sciences Campus, workshops will be held in the computer classroom on the second floor of the Hammer Building.

Basic Workshops for Faculty, Staff, and TAs:
* Monday, January 10, 10am
* Wednesday, January 19, 11am
* Thursday, January 27, 10am

Advanced Workshops for Faculty:
* Tuesday, January 18, 12:30pm
* Wednesday, January 26, 11am

Register for workshops online or contact us at ccnmtl-workshops@columbia.edu for more information.


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