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On October 11, the TLtC joined forces with UCLA's Office of Instructional Development (OID)
to present a forum on "Using Multimedia to Enhance Student Learning." Faculty from three UC
campuses demonstrated their instructional projects that employ multimedia technology,
including Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and discussed how they are using them in
their courses to enhance student learning.
The forum, part of UCLA's Scholarship in a New Media Environment series, can now be viewed
via streamed archived webcast from the OID website.
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Forum panelists (left to right): Barbara Holdrege, UCSB; Ben Crow, UCSC; and Diane Favro, UCLA
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Panelist Barbara Holdrege, professor of religion at UC Santa Barbara, discussed Sacred Sites of Asia , a georeferenced multimedia website that is being developed for use in 14 courses
throughout the UC system. The website will allow students in courses that study Asian
religions and cultures to take virtual pilgrimages, thanks to a database that store a
variety of digital media for each of the sacred site modules, including maps, textual
sources, iconographic images, photographs, video footage, audio recordings, animated
material, and ethnographic data. (Read more about Sacred Sites of Asia in our December 2001 feature story .)
Ben Crow, a professor of sociology at UC Santa Cruz, discussed the UC Atlas of Global Inequality . This web-based atlas was designed to be used as a resource for UC instructors
and students of large undergraduate courses that explore globalization and its social and
economic impact, says Crow. The goal of the atlas is to deepen student understanding by
presenting current data and information in map, graphical and tabular formats. (Read more
about the project in this month's TLtC feature article: Not Just A Geography Tool: GIS Is Being Used in Various Disciplines to Enhance Student Learning .)
Diane Favro, a professor of architecture and urban design at UCLA, and associate director
of UCLA's Cultural VR Lab , talked about the power of using multimedia technology, including
virtual fly throughs and reconstructions, to improve spatial understanding. She says
teaching and learning can be improved by using these tools because they allow information
to be presented in multiple dimensions, as opposed to two dimensions (as with slides).
"New media has changed how students learn and how I teach," said Favro, who uses multimedia
technology in both undergraduate and graduate courses. (Read more about the Cultural VR
Lab in our May 2002 feature story .)
Both the Sacred Sites of Asia and the Atlas of Global Inequality were partially funded
through TLtC Full-scale Expansion samp; Implementation grants. Sacred Sites of Asia grant proposal and Atlas of Global Inequality grant proposal can be accessed online.
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