Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 6, 1994 TAG: 9409070055
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By LEIGH ANNE LARANCE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Text appears on the screen, and music comes through a headset, followed by a voice that reads the text and gives greater detail. The words fade and are replaced by a video skit with more information, followed by questions about the video segment.
The lesson, which teaches listening skills, allows viewers to advance at their own speed, to review a subject they didn't quite understand, and test themselves along the way. It's like watching a video, reading a book, listening to a lecture and taking a pop quiz - all at the same time.
``Mission Possible'' is an award-winning video textbook designed by Radford University faculty members and students. With help from a two-year $162,192 grant from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia, the university hopes to add to its computer library at least 28 similar electronic lessons in subjects ranging from business management to health sciences.
While video textbooks and interactive computer lessons are not new, Radford's grant is unusual in that the professors compiling the multimedia lessons won't be computer experts, but simply interested faculty members. Computer experience isn't a prerequisite; just expertise in a given subject matter and a good idea about how multimedia - text, music, animation, graphics, computer and sound - can be used in teaching.
Technology has advanced to the point where software makes it easy for a layperson to create an electronic lesson. Giving people the technical skills they need to develop their own lessons - without having to bring in a computer expert - is the key to making electronic textbooks available and affordable.
``No longer do you have to be a computer programmer to be able to do this,'' said John Fox, an academic computing analyst at Radford.
``This is very much a windfall,'' said John Bryan, Radford's executive director of information technology resources. ``[The council] is helping us develop this strategic area of technology. They think it's important for students of the 21st century. We think it's important for students of the 20th century.''
The idea behind the grant request was that people learn differently. Interactive lessons with computers stimulate the senses, allowing students to get the same message through reading, viewing, listening and typing on a keyboard. And with a computer, students can go at their own pace.
Missed an answer? Go back and try it again. Want to review a subject? Computers are patient.
``Think about learning something new - how to program your new VCR - and you're reading a manual,'' Bryan said.
``Add pictures, it becomes easier. Add a video, it becomes even easier. And having an interactive application, where you can ask questions ... is even better,'' he said. ``Human beings learn much better if they get more stimuli.''
In physics, properties of motion might be better taught if students watched objects in motion, rather than on a flat page, Fox said. And that's not the only application.
``Math approached through visualization is much easier to grasp than math approached just through equations,'' Fox said.
Bryan and Fox see applications for computers in the full spectrum of studies.
The grant will allow 28 faculty members - over four semesters - to enroll in a semester-long course that will teach them how to write and produce their own electronic lessons. Fox will teach the course, and faculty members will be relieved of one-fourth of their teaching load in order to develop the lessons. Participants will be chosen based on their interest and the merit and creativity of their proposals.
``It's not for one particular department. Anybody can apply to participate'' in the program, Fox said. Five people are enrolled this fall - from the media studies, dance, physical education and health sciences departments - and nine are scheduled to take the class in the spring.
Because of the grant and the school's contribution, Radford will be able to buy the equipment it needs to put the electronic textbooks on CD-ROM. The ``Mission Impossible'' computer lesson is on a laser video disc, a technology that gives broadcast-quality video images but is significantly more expensive and less accessible than CD-ROM. Bryan and Fox have even more plans for getting the lessons around campus.
``If we're going to build these electronic textbooks, we need to have the tools for students to use them,'' Bryan said.
Bryan hopes that in about a year, students' rooms will be wired with the networking equipment that allows them to access the lessons from their dormitories. Bryan and Fox also said they expect faculty members who graduate from the course to continue to develop lessons on their own.
``It is our goal to use this project as a catalyst,'' Bryan said. ``This will really determine the feasibility of using multimedia'' in instruction.
by CNB