Instructor: Karen Gocsik, Director of Composition and Chair of English 2-3

Overview: This past year, I had the opportunity to write a screenplay with a young director and Dartmouth graduate, Serguei Bassine ’94. Together we produced his short film, Because of Mama (18 minutes). The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and continues to be accepted into festivals worldwide. Working in the film medium taught me many things about writing. Especially interesting were the lessons I learned concerning editing and revision. So powerful were these lessons that it occurred to me that perhaps I could use my experiences in the film-making process to teach the writing process in new ways.

I began to envision a Web site that would serve not only my own writing classes, but that would offer useful exercises to students taking courses in screen writing and film production. In talking with members of the film department, I have discovered a common enthusiasm for the possibilities of such a site. Students can be given opportunities to edit and revise a “real” screenplay and “real” film footage. The final product would also be available to students via video streaming. Along with the film are the actual publicity materials–graphic and written text–that we produced for Sundance. All of these materials together present interesting writing challenges (both creative and critical) and are very instructive for students interested in producing and later marketing their work.

Site: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~shortflm/

Instructor: Marlene Heck, Art History; Karol Kawiaka, Studio Art

Overview: The Studio Art and Art History departments (where the College’s architecture courses are taught) are searching for appropriate ways to introduce computer-aided instruction to their course offerings. Architectural instruction — both in design studios and the history and theory of building design and use — is an obvious place for both departments to begin. We propose a joint project between the Studio Art Department and the Art History Department to introduce computer-aided instruction to course offerings in both departments. Specifically, with the support of Academic Computing, Karol Kawiaka will incorporate computer modeling into her Winter Term 2001 architectural design studio, Studio Art 65. In the Spring Term 2001, Marlene Heck will offer a freshman seminar, Art History 7, on museum history and design that will use computer models to study the physical and ritual spaces of museums and how they communicate social identities and cultural values.

Instructor: Jim Kuypers, Speech Department

Overview: This project involves the production of a searchable speech bank for use by instructors and students of Speech. The goal is to digitally tape students as they give speeches in Speech 21 (Informative Speaking) and Speech 25 (Persuasive Speaking) during winter 2000. These speeches will then be edited and stored for use by future speech classes. The editing will consist of providing samples of specific modules within the speeches. Multiple examples will be available for introductions, thesis statements, connectives, hypothetical and factual illustrations, etc. The instructor will use these speeches and examples for classroom lectures, and students will be able to view these speeches as exemplars while preparing their own speeches. Importantly, these speeches will be by Dartmouth students who would have previously taken the same classes, therefore providing true classroom-specific examples.

Site: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sbank/

Instructors: Bruce Duncan, Joan Campbell, German Department

Overview: For 30 years, Dartmouth students of German language have been writing much of their homework with the help of computers. Experience has shown us the efficacy of such drills when they are used to supplement regular classroom instruction and other, more playful activities. While some pedagogues disparage “drill-and-kill” activities, students do not experience these exercises as tedious; rather, they see them as providing a safe space in which to practice and even experiment with forms that must be mastered. Our task is to create a program in Java that permits German language students to do their written homework on either Mac or Windows machines. Students should be able to download the program and accompanying data files easily from a server onto their own Macs or Windows machines. They would also be able to download the program temporarily onto a public cluster machine when not using their own. Using GerDrill, a student could request any desired set of exercises, which would normally be geared to the textbook. Each set would consist of 1) instructions of any length; 2) a series of cues to which students would respond one at a time; 3) evaluation of that response by comparing it with stored correct answers; 4) acceptance or rejection of that response — acceptance would lead to the presentation of the next cue; rejection would mean a repeated presentation of the old cue.

Instructor: David Ehrlich, Film and Television Studies

Overview: Film Animation has been taught in the Film Studies Department every year since Spring, 1993, with an average class size of 15. In 1999, a course in Advanced Animation was also introduced, with a class of 8 students. I am requesting Venture funding for the G4 platform, camera and peripherals that will be housed in the Clement animation studios. It would be used by students in my FS35 class in Winter ’01 and Spring ’02, by students in the COCO class Winter ’02, and by the Independent Study and Senior Fellowship students that work throughout the year. I am further requesting a Lunchbox Sync from Animation Toolworks. Linked with the G4, it would permit higher quality capture than is possible with our present Lunchbox system, and used individually, would yield presentational quality VHS tapes. It will be used continually throughout the year, both linked to the G4 for Quicktime compression and separately for VHS capture, by the 15 FS35 students, the 50 CC8 students and by the Senior Fellows and Independent Study students I have throughout the year. As our courses in video documentary and creative video stabilize, it is also probable that students will wish to develop animated titling and animated special effects for their videos and will utilize the Lunchbox Synch.