yba@athena.mit.edu (Mark H Levine) (01/16/88)
I received no answer to the question "what level of data dump is appropriate to this newsgroup?" so I am sending two summary articles describing our efforts here at Project Athena in the Visual Courseware Group. This one describes actual course material preparation projects currently underway; each involves interactive video disc material of some sort. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ATHENA VISUAL COURSEWARE PROJECTS, USING VIDEODISC AND CD-ROM ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Athena Language Learning Project. Janet Murray, Director Major funding provided by The Anneberg/CPB Project a. German Language: Visual Atlas and Gazetteer Project Director: Bob Di Donato Description: Videodisk designed for integrated foreign language courseware. Teaches basic-intermediate language skills within the Annenberg Foreign Language project. A visual library of still photographs, motion and video segments related to the climate, geography and topography of Germany, for teaching first-year German. b. French Language: Paris Simulation and Documentary Project Director: Gilberte Furstenberg Description: Videodisk designed for integrated foreign language courseware. Teaches basic-intermediate language skills within the Annenberg Foreign Language project. A still and motion picture database of a single section of the city of Paris, to serve as a background for various pedagogical simulations. c. Spanish Language: No Recuerdo, Interactive Novel Project Director: Doug Morgenstern Description: Videodisk designed for integrated foreign language courseware. Teaches basic-intermediate language skills within the Annenberg Foreign Language project. An interactive fictional narrative for intermediate Spanish instruction. A multi-pathway story which derives input from a natural Spanish language parser. d. Japanese Language: Interactive Broadcast Program Project Director: Michio Tsutsui Description: Videodisk designed for integrated foreign language courseware. Teaches basic-intermediate language skills within the Annenberg Foreign Language project. First-year introduction to Japanese comprehension using a reformatted popular Japanese television program. 2. The Neuroanatomy Learning Environment Project Director: Steven Wertheim Description: A flexible learning environment for the exploration of the anatomy of the human brain. Designed for Medical and Neuroscience students. The four major components of the program are: an illustrated glossary, a 3D model of the brain, a slide browser and a brain dissection. 3. Introduction to Mechanical Engineering: Bearings Project Directors: David Wilson/Seichi Tsutsumi Description: An introductory course in mechanical engineering for teaching principles and concepts of mechanical bearings. The video disk to contain, animations, motion segments and a still frame library. The general program to include an expert system front-end for teaching bearing selection. 4. Architecture; Boston Architecture Collection;Rotch Library Pr Project Director: Merrill Smith Description: The development of a video disk based distributed visual data base of images from the Rotch Visual collection. Using the Boston Architecture Collection, this video disk and visual database will be used for individual instruction and classroom delivery of illustrations of American/Boston architecture. 5. Architecture; Interactive Video as a classroom facility Project Director: Patrick Purcell Description: The development of a visual intelligent data base of information about architectural library design. This visual and textual database to be stored on video disk will contain, motion segments, animations and a still photographic library of library design elements and information. 6. Architecture; "New Orleans", Video Disk Editing,Planning Project Director: Gloriana Davenport Description: A video disk designed for the teaching of Film and Video editing concepts. Based on documentary footage of the New Orleans Worlds Fair, this disk will be used to demonstrate the application of video disk editing to the teaching of film and video post production. Visual Information stored on the video disk will also be used for teaching the concepts of urban planning. 7. Biology; Introduction to Biology Project Director: Sheldon Penman Description: A set of basic biology learning modules written around existing video disks of biologic subject matter. Designed for first and second year biology students these modules will take advantage of the still frame and motion storage of visual molecular biology materials on commercially available video disks.