MIT-UQ Collaboration - Adoption of Web-Based Educational Technologies

MIT-UQ Collaboration - Adoption of Web-based educational technologies
You areinvited toattend the launch of the MIT-UQ iCampus Outreach Program Collaboration, to take place during Teaching and Learning Week 2005:
On: Wednesday, 2 November
At: 9.00 - 12.00 noon
Place: Seminar Room 470, Level 4, Sir James Foots Building (Building 47A), UQ St Lucia campus
Guest and Presenter: Dr Phillip Long, Director Learning Outreach, MIT iCampus Outreach Initiative
This Launch and Presentation will be followed by an afternoon Workshop to explore further the adoption of iCampus technologies:

At: 2.00 - 4.00 pmPlace: Seminar Room 470, Level 4, Sir James Foots Building (Building 47A), UQ St Lucia campus
In May 2005 the University of Queensland signed an MOU with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work closely with MIT as a 'hub' institution, implementing, supporting and redistributing MIT iCampus educational tools and pedagogies. See: http://icampus.mit.edu <http://icampus.mit.edu/outreach> for details of the iCampus tools.
Some of you will remember that Dr Phillip Long was a guest at Teaching and Learning Week 2004 and it was this visit that gave rise to the MIT-UQ Collaboration.
Dr Long will open the Morning Session with a presentation about MIT`s philosophical approach to teaching and learning, and the particular developments that have occurred around that philosophy that now distinguish MIT as an educational institution. He will then demonstrate the range of iCampus projects that are available for adoption by UQ.
MIT is particularly interested in UQ focusing initially on the development of two specific iCampus projects: iLabs and xTutor:
w The iLabs project "is dedicated to the proposition that online laboratories - real laboratories accessed through the Internet - can enrich science and engineering education by greatly expanding the range of experiments to which students are exposed" (cf http://icampus.mit.edu/outreach/). Staff from the School of Information Technology & Electrical Engineering (ITEE) are pursuing a number of experiments based around iLabs technology. One of these experiments will be demonstrated as part of the official launch.
w During 2005 ITEE staff have also been collaborating with MIT in the use of xTutor, through one particular instantiation: they have been using (part of) an MIT Scheme course (6.001) to teach ITEE's first year Scheme course (CSSE1001). ITEE have been running the course as a test case for MIT (with a view to providing feedback on any problems, suggesting improvements, and providing MIT with details of how ITEE have been using the online materials). The xTutor collaboration will also be demonstrated at the launch.
While iLabs and xTutor tools will be of particular interest to staff in ITEE, Engineering and the Physical Sciences, there are other iCampus tools that may be of interest to the Biological Sciences and the Humanities/Social Sciences areas and these are also available for adoption by the UQ community. The following details have been copied from the iCampus Outreach website:
w MIT Online Assessment Tool (iMOAT) <http://icampus.mit.edu/iMOAT/> is a service for Web-based administration and grading of writing examinations. It has been used for assessing writing skills of MIT entering students since 1998 and refined by writing instruction experts at five major universities.
w xMAS Cross Media Annotation System was developed to enhance the use of video and image in humanities classes. First used in Shakespeare on film classes at MIT, xMAS allows students to select, annotate and share video sequences for use in on-line discussions, multimedia essays and in-class presentations. The current version is optimized for use with DVDs.
w iDAT: Web-Based Wireless Sensors for Education is a major educational initiative - still in development - designed to empower both school and university students throughout the world with the ability to measure and investigate a huge range of phenomena by providing them with a wide range of extremely simple to use miniature wireless sensors. The sensors commonly used in teaching physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biological engineering, chemistry, biology, physiology, psychology, earth science, architecture and material science were surveyed and a common set of 50 sensors selected.
The Afternoon Session will involve a workshop to promote iCampus projects to the wider UQ community. Staff will have the opportunity to explore with Dr Long how they might incorporate iCampus projects in their courses and what would be involved.