by Pat Carrillo, ITS
Q: What does Biology have in common with Art History?
A: Both disciplines are visual; both have large
introductory classes; and both require readily available
visual presentations during lectures and for student
review.
Q: What does Mary Coyne, Professor of Biological Sciences,
have in common with professors of Art History?
A: They are all dedicated and exciting teachers
eager to adopt technological innovations that promise
to improve teaching and learning.
In her 25 years teaching biological sciences, Professor
Mary Coyne has sought appropriate diagrams and images
to illustrate the concepts of what she terms a visual
discipline. Until recently, she used both slides and
overhead transparencies during lectures--methods which
she found inflexible, colorless, or boring. Moreover,
these methods constantly thwarted her goal of new and
better ways to illustrate a point. Frequent refocusing
of the slide projector frustrated her by interrupting
the flow of her lectures. Worse still was the scarcity
of study review materials available for students. One
slide carousel left on reserve at the library was never
enough, nor was slide projection a practical study method.
Coyne saw a possible solution demonstrated by biologists
at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute two years ago:
instead of projecting slides, a professor could now project
digitized diagrams and video clips from a computer. Motivated
by the demonstration, Coyne met with Kenny Freundlich,
Manager of Advanced Technology Applications, to discuss
how she might adapt this new approach to her lectures
in cellular physiology. Freundlich suggested she digitize
her slides, transfer them to a networked AppleShare file
server, and project them from a networked Mac in the
classroom. This not only would allow Coyne to revise
and edit her images, but also would afford her students
quick and convenient access to these images from any
Mac on the campus-wide network. With help from a grant
from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate
Biological Sciences Education Program, the Biology Department
purchased a Macintosh Quadra 840AV to place in the classroom
and decided to use an Apple Workgroup Server 80.
To digitize her slides, Coyne sent a sample of 100
slides to a local Kodak developer to have them transferred
onto PhotoCD for only $150. Freundlich suggested she
use JPEGView, free software developed by Aaron Giles,
which could instantaneously display a set of digitized
images as a "slide show".
Reviewing the digitized sample set of slides, Coyne
was very pleased with electron micrographs of proteins
and cell membranes, but disappointed in some of the diagrams
of cellular processes. Fortunately, Coyne has artistic
ability as well as strong computer skills, and realized
she could create more focused, better annotated, and
full-color diagrams from scratch using graphics programs
such as Aldus SuperPaint and Adobe Photoshop.
Below is a sample diagram created by Professor Mary
Coyne for Human Biology.
While creating the first few diagrams was time consuming
-- Coyne often worked on images right up to the night
before a lecture -- the work was enjoyable. She is delighted
with the newer style of presentation and feels it helps
meet her goals of keeping her teaching up-to-date and
keeping the students interested. "Today's students need
something new, " notes Coyne. "They are video oriented,
and educators must keep progressing. Many students are
not listening to the old ways, and professors must do
something to capture their attention."
Coyne notices that during her lectures, the students
are more engaged and less inclined to scribble furiously,
since they know they can take detailed notes from the
slides over the network later. Lectures are still available
on audio tape. Students can even use the audio tape and
the digitized images together.
To gauge students' reactions to computer-based presentations,
Coyne developed a questionnaire for her students. They
overwhelmingly preferred the new method to conventional
overhead projectors. One student noted, "A professor
can personalize her drawings to emphasize what she wants." Students
especially appreciate the convenience it affords. Many
students view the images in their dorm rooms on their
own Macs. Others access the images from shared Macs in
the dorms common computer rooms or at public clusters
in Margaret Clapp Library and the Science Center.
Freundlich says, "It's wonderful working with a professor
like Mary. She has clear goals and, as we like to say
in our department, 'great attitude' -- a willingness
to put up with the inevitable initial glitches of any
instructional technology project. Mary has led the way
for others in her department in focused use of instructional
technology. By combining her artistic ability, knowledge
of computers, and personal commitment to innovative teaching,
she took the project further than I ever anticipated."
Coyne continues to search for fresh ideas to improve
her teaching. She added 170 images to the file server
for her fall course in human biology and will be adding
more this spring for animal physiology. She is planning
to enhance her collection of digitized images with explanatory
lecture notes and comments to give her students an even
better study tool. In December, Coyne attended a presentation
at Boston College which showed other computer-based presentation
software. Happy to share her techniques with other educational
leaders, Coyne demonstrated her use of JPEGView to a
committee from Tufts Medical School in January this year.
Last February, Freundlich discussed the success of
Mary Coyne's project with Carl Jones, Systems Librarian.
Jones encouraged Richard McElroy, Art Librarian, to consider
using the same technology to address a quite different
problem in Art 100 (Introduction to the History of Art).
Image recognition is a core skill for Art 100 students.
Traditionally, in order to study for exams, students
crowded into the Art Study Room at the Jewett Arts Center
to view reproductions mounted on the walls. Able to accommodate
less than one fifth of the one hundred students vying
for space, the Art Study Room is not even close to adequate
for the students.
Freundlich, Jones, and McElroy met last summer with
a group of faculty who lecture in Art 100 to discuss
digitizing slides via PhotoCD and transferring the images
to a networked file server. The faculty, including Anne
Clapp, Peter Fergusson, Leslie Schick, Alice Friedman,
Lillian Armstrong, Margaret Carroll, Anne Higonnet, Pat
Berman, and Miranda Marvin, agreed to try the experiment
for the 94-95 academic year. Instructors have continued
to use conventional slides and slide projectors in lectures
in Jewett Auditorium, but now, thanks to the availability
of the images on the network, dozens of students could
simultaneously review lectures and study for exams from
any Mac on the campus-wide network, at any hour of the
day or night. The Art Library purchased a PowerMac 7100
with a 20" display to provide a large-screen workstation
in Jewett on which to view the images, but many students
prefer to access the collection from the ultimate convenience
of their dorm room.
Here is a sample digitized image from Miranda Marvin's
Art 100 lecture on Greek Art.
Statuette of Aphrodite of Cnidos;
Davis Museum; Roman replica, 1st-2nd AD/CE
Among the most enthusiastic professors is Miranda Marvin,
who accepted the high-tech challenge even though she
describes herself and other Art History faculty as "low-tech
folks." The Art faculty have taken special advantage
of the capability to annotate the images with textual
comments that appear in a separate window and act as
captions to identify the slides. Different faculty use
this capability differently. Marvin's comments, for example,
reflect her personality and sense of humor. Annotating
two successive slides of the same statue group, Marvin
commented, "Note differences in color between this slide
and the preceding. Never trust a color slide!" Elsewhere,
Marvin described an image of a small Ionic temple in
Rome as the "So called 'Temple of Fortuna Virilis' (It's
not)."
Students used JPEGView to view the images in three
different ways:
- review all the slides from a lecture with the instructor's
comments, in the exact order in which they were shown
in class;
- select and view only certain images, resizing them,
or viewing several images on the screen at the same
time;
- test themselves by viewing slides in random order
with the file names and comments hidden.
The Art History department is hoping that the increased
ease and accessibility of the images will produce a direct
increase in students' recognition rates of images and
allow for more flexibility in assignments and lectures.
Marvin believes that "as we get more familiar with how
to use the technology, it will change the way we teach
art history courses."
To evaluate the Art 100 project, McElroy, Jones, and
Freundlich drafted a questionnaire for the students to
complete. The results showed that over 90% of the students
used the digital image network, with a third of the respondents
accessing the images from their own room or from a friend's
room.
By the end of fall semester, there were 847 images
stored on the file server in twenty-four "folders" (one
for each lecture).The collection of digitized images
on the network has become a virtual art library, readily
accessible to faculty and students in related disciplines.
Ingrid Stadler, Professor of Philosophy, asked students
in her course on the philosophy of art to view Art 100
images on the file server. Stadler plans to digitize
a set of one hundred slides for her spring semester seminar
on advanced topics in aesthetics. Ray Starr, Professor
of Greek and Latin, also recommended the images to students
in his seminar on literature of the Roman Empire.
This semester, other faculty in Biological Sciences,
Art History, and other departments will be adding their
images to the network, recognizing that students are
more motivated to review course material as access becomes
easier.
For more information, contact Kenny Freundlich, Manager,
Advanced Technology Applications, at x2810, or by email
(kfreundlich@wellesley.edu).
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