What are they anyway?
What are the special pedagogical issues?
What resources are available on campus?
Has anyone else already tried these teaching tools?

What are they anyway?

There are many types of teaching technologies that can be used to enhance your presentations either by increasing the quality of the materials or improving the ease of their presentation. Some would argue that chalk was one of the first and most widely adopted teaching technologies. While it certainly improved the quality of presentation (now text could be written large enough to be seen at a distance) and the ease of presentation (text could be modified with a quick swipe of the hand) that initial success is hardly a reason to rest on our laurels. More recent innovations in presentation tools have included overheads, slides, videotapes, CD-ROMs and PowerPoint. One day, these too may seem as unremarkable and effortless as chalk.

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What are the special pedagogical issues?

The effective use of all these presentation tools relies on fundamental principles of visual design. While cramming a lot of text onto one PowerPoint slide, using five different fonts, and putting the title in your favorite UMass maroon may make you proud, it will not go very far towards creating visual materials that effectively communicate information to your students. In general, remember that less is more.

Using more engaging tools such as videotapes also broadens the learning styles that are served by your presentation. For visual learners and situated learners, a concept may come to life when it is seen in action and in context rather than just discussed. As they say, one picture is worth a thousand word.

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What resources are available on campus?

The organizations listed here provide support and/or resources for presentation tools and materials.

Overheads

Overheads can be the traditional acetate sheets that sit on the glass top of an overhead projector or they can be computer-generated slides that are projected by means of an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel or data projector.

Who can help me make overheads?

Black and white overheads can be produced from paper copy on most copying machines using acetate overhead sheets made to feed into copiers. If you would rather have someone else do it for you, then try Photographic Services.

Creative Services (Photographic Services)
Munson Building
545-2298

Who can help me print color overheads created on my computer?

As of this writing, there are no free, publicly accessible color printers or copiers on campus; therefore, unless you or your department have a color printer you will have to go off campus. Copy centers, such as Kinko's or the Copy Cat Print Shop, have the facilities to output color copies directly from disk.

Where do I get a projector to display my overheads directly from my computer?

Several of the larger classrooms on campus are now equipped with 3-gun projectors permanently mounted in the room (Academic Instructional Media Services can tell you which ones and how to use the projectors). Some departments may have their own LCD panels or data projectors available.

AIMS Equipment Distribution
302 Goodell
545-5765

Campus Center AV
Campus Center Concourse
545-1365

For equipment to be used in Campus Center only.

Valley Communications
Chicopee, MA
592-4136

An off-campus source of state-of-the art video and computer presentation equipment.

Videotapes

Use of videotape for teaching purposes can cover a wide range: it can be as simple as showing the class a portion of a videotape to prompt discussion or as involved as having students collaborate to research and produce their own videotaped projects.

Where do I get a VCR?

Most of the departments maintain their own VCRs.  You can also check out the video projection equipment at AIMS Equipment Distribution.

Academic Instructional Media Services (AIMS)
303 Goodell
545-2454

Where can I get cameras and other production equipment?

For you to produce a videotape, the best source is again  AIMS. In fact, they provide full video production and digital editing services. (The Foreign Language Resource Center is in the midst of constructing similar studio facilities). For students to gain experience and find help, the Union Video Center focuses on teaching undergraduates the fine art of video production. Several departmental and collaborative organizations also support media production.

AIMS Equipment Distribution
302 Goodell
545-5765

Communication Department
TV Studio/Film Unit
120 South College
545-4314

Five College Foreign Language
Resource Center
102 Bartlett Hall
545-3453

Union Video Center
216 Student Union
545-1336

Where can I find videotape libraries?

There are a number of departmental and organizational videotape libraries on campus (undoubtedly more than we know about) plus the resources of the five colleges. For starters try:

Center For Teaching
301 Goodell Building
545-1225

Stonewall Center
1st floor, Crampton House
545-4824

W.E.B. Du Bois Library
545-6851

Still Images

Still images can be presented either as traditional 35 mm slides with a projector or can be stored on photo-CDs for use with a computer. Photo-CDs have the advantage of allowing you to organize a large number of images on one convenient disk and to be able to move through and reorganize those images quickly (we all know how tedious it is to reorder regular slides in a carousel!). Existing slides can be converted to CD. If you are shooting new images for digital use, consider either the use of a digital camera or having traditional film developed by Kodak onto a photo-CD.

35 mm Slides

Photographic Services can do it all--shooting to processing to duplicating--at a nominal fee. 

Creative Services (Photographic Services)
Munson Building
545-2298

Photo-CDs and Digital Cameras

Kodak can create photo-CDs of images when developing regular 35 mm film. Existing slides can also be converted to photo-CD. Academic Computing provides limited use of a digital still camera (operated by their staff) to support instructional efforts of faculty.

Academic Computing
A209 Lederle Graduate Research Center
577-0072

Film

The Five College Film Program houses a collection of a wide variety of films and can provide expertise on content selection. 

DEFA--East German Film Library
Herter Hall
545-6671

Five College Film Program
101 South College
545-3659

Scanning Images

Many technology services providers on campus house either a flat-bed scanner or slide scanner. The Center for Teaching, Academic Computing are a few places you can go for scanning images.

Who can help me incorporate presentation tools into my instruction to optimize effective teaching and learning?

Center for Teaching
Mei-Yau Shih
Coordinator of Teaching Technologies
301 Goodell Building
545-5172
mshih@acad.umass.edu

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Has anyone else already tried these teaching tools?

The following colleagues are a few of those on campus who have been early innovators in the use of presentation tools and materials in their teaching. They have volunteered to serve as peer innovators by sharing tales and advice drawn from their own experiences. Please feel free to contact them and continue building the community of technology experimenters.

Jack Ahern
jfa@larp.umass.edu
Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
545-6632

Beatrice Botch
bbotch@chem.umass.edu
Department of Chemistry
545-4257

Steve Brewer
sbrewer@bio.umass.edu
Department of Biology
545-2272

Clement Seldin
caseldin@educ.umass.edu
School of Education
545-4707

Patricia Galvis-Assmus
tga@art.umass.edu
Department of Art
545-6938

Sara Grimes
sgrimes@journ.umass.edu
Department of Journalism
545-1376 or 253-3732

Jim Kurose
kurose@gaia.cs.umass.edu
Computer Science
545-1585

Laetitia LaFollette
laelaf@arthist.umass.edu
Art History
545-3595 (sec.), 545-0634 (o)

Bill Vining
vining@chem.umass.edu
Department of Chemistry
545-2352