From iPads to 3D Video

Thousands of Duke faculty and students experimented with video in almost 500 courses last year, and more than 800 explored online publishing as part of a WordPress pilot.

This year, Duke is offering new learning tools and training -- from iPads and mobile polling to 3D video -- to help students make the most of their Duke experience using new media and Web 2.0 technologies.

In the coming academic year, as part of the Duke Digital Initiative (DDI), students and faculty can:

-- Experiment with iPads, both in classes and through loans from the Link at Perkins Library.

-- Use cell phones and other mobile devices to vote and share opinions in online polls.

-- Expand their use of video using a variety of equipment, including high-definition Flip cameras and small waterproof cameras for specialized shooting, which are available for checkout at the Link.

-- Learn more about 21st century digital fluency at a fall event, "The World in Your Pocket: How Easy-to-Use Tools Can Enhance Your Duke Experience." The Nov. 2 event will feature "backpack journalism" expert Bill Gentile.

-- Explore academic uses of 3D content, with a 3D "creation station" in the Multimedia Project Studio and a 3D display station in the Link.

Multimedia production and use has taken off at Duke, with more than 1,800 faculty and students across all disciplines checking out video equipment in the past year, according to DDI's coordinators in the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Center for Instructional Technology (CIT).

In addition, faculty and staff leaped into collaborative web publishing, creating 135 sites in WordPress as alternatives to Blackboard, as well as to publish blogs, student-led project websites, and student and faculty portfolios.

That pilot was so successful that WordPress was converted into an enterprise-wide service available to any Duke course this fall.

"Faculty and students have embraced these new technologies as tools for making learning interactive and engaging," said Lynne O'Brien, CIT's director of academic technology and instructional services.

This year's initiative aims to build on that interest in the creation, collaboration and use of digital media content, said Samantha Earp, OIT's director of academic services.

"New consumer-market equipment makes it even easier to collaborate using video and Web 2.0 technologies, and we want to provide new avenues for students to learn how these technologies can improve their academic and co-curricular experience," Earp said.

Digital storytelling with video and other technologies is as important in today's student experience as word processing, said Brenda Scott, an adjunct assistant professor in music.

Scott's students have produced videos defining different musical instruments and created web-based interactive museum tours containing text, images, sound and video. The tours, which can be browsed using mobile devices, featured organs in Duke Chapel and instruments in the Duke Musical Instrument Collections. Scott is hoping to teach a class using iPads for score reading and annotation, listening and accessing readings.

"Students are willing and eager to try the technology. If it looks like a toy or feels like a game, they'll play. And if learning is like playing, it will stick with them," Scott said.

The experience also gives students a better understanding of technology, Scott said.

"Just because an old technology went out of use doesn't mean it wasn't as good. Technologies do different things well," she said. "It helps knock down that ‘today is superior to the past' attitude."

Since its inception in 2004, DDI has supported the application of a range of technologies in teaching and learning. Funded by the Provost's Office, the program provides training to help faculty and students use the tools effectively.

Undergraduate faculty interested in learning more or joining one of these explorations should e-mail cit@duke.edu.

To learn more about other DDI programs, visit the DDI website.