Instructor: Elizabeth Chamberlain, Spanish & Portuguese Department

Overview: It has been repeatedly stated in professional literature that reading authentic texts represents a difficult hurdle for foreign language students as they move from the more oral-based language courses to the more text-based bridge and literature/culture courses. Appropriately designed pre- and post-reading exercises have been shown to be effective in aiding students through this transition. This project presents six primary cultural capsules which focus on reading but bring together speaking, listening and writing skills as well. All activities carefully build on foreign language development as it is presented in the course of study at Dartmouth; at the same time, these activities incorporate authentic literary texts, art, and film as a context to support meaningful learning and communication. The design of this project incorporates the multiple possibilities which technology can offer educators and students today and transforms what was once limited to paper into a multidimensional, multifaceted cultural tool where students can engage in interactive reading, writing and listening skills. In-class oral activities complement the work students perform outside of class in the effort to provide content-based learning revolving around authentic texts and cultural icons. The institutional impact of this project is very broad in that it is being created for use by all Spanish language faculty and students. One completed, it can serve as a model and provide an infrastructure for other foreign language reading projects at Dartmouth as well.

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

Instructor: Louise Hamlin (chair); Karol Kawiaka, Architecture; Brian Miller, Photography; John Wilson, Architecture

Overview: Computer technology is now a standard tool in the fields of both architecture and photography. It has broadened the frontiers and changed working methods in both, and produced work that was previously unimaginable. Professionals in both disciplines make daily use of the technology and every professor will expect to see and use it in the classroom. Computer technology is necessary as an instructional and design tool for the classroom and to enable our students to compete with their peers outside Dartmouth. Knowledge of it is required for many summer jobs, internships, graduate programs, and full-time employment opportunities. As part of their college education, we must provide students with this resource. This project proposes to set up a cluster of computers, printers, and scanners that will enable the Studio Art department to fully integrate computing into its curriculum in the fields of architecture and photography.

Instructor: Jerry Rutter, Classics Department

Overview: The Classics Department proposes to take advantage of Quicktime VR as a mode of graphic presentation, and of its uniquely designed Foreign Study Program [FSP] to Greece as an existing curricular venue, to design and produce a series of 360-degree panoramas of ancient Greek archaeological sites and the contemporary landscapes in which these sites are located. Dartmouth undergraduates will participate in all aspects of the production and use of these visual teaching aids.

Selection and design of the panoramas, as well as the shooting of the images required for them, will be an academic activity on the Greek FSP in which students will work in teams and for which they will receive a grade as part of the off-campus courses Greek and Roman Studies [GRS] 30-31 (the Greek FSP is offered every two years). The panoramas will be used in class in Greek history (GRS 14-15, one offered every year; also GRS 11 and 19, one of which is likewise offered every year) and archaeology (GRS 20, 21, 22; all three courses are taught every two years), as well as in the introductory course in Classical archaeology (GRS 6, offered annually). By mounting the panoramas on our Web server, we would make these visual aids available to colleagues in allied departments at Dartmouth (e.g. Art History, for use in AH 21 and 22; History; Religion; Geography) as well as to interested students and faculty at other institutions.

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

Instructor: Karen Gocsik, Director of Composition

Overview: On the World-Wide Web, there is a unique opportunity to create a virtual community for faculty teaching writing, and to establish the fundamentals for a common first-year writing experience for students as well. This web site, by providing students and professors with a common resource for composition instruction, will:

1. Provide a common “space” in which all students and professors can contribute to a growing discussion about writing;
2. Delineate a common understanding of the writing process, providing students and professors with a shared vocabulary as well as with a shared sense of the challenges involved in producing good academic prose;
3. Define in a very particular fashion the elements necessary to a paper’s academic excellence, thereby establishing a more common criteria of assessment among professors, and a more common understanding of the institution’s expectations among students.

The web site will seek to find ways to make composition more central to the campus by linking the Composition Center more fully to other disciplines, to libraries and their resources, and to other student services. The web site will not be limited to Dartmouth’s first year writers and their teachers, but will provide guidance for students and for the teaching of students at all stages of their academic careers, Because Dartmouth lacks any formal writing instruction beyond the first year, it is important for the web site to provide advice on upper level writing tasks — including writing a thesis or a culminating experience project. Finally, the web site will be used as a tool to train tutors and writing assistants, providing training materials, exercises, and “interactive” videos (one is already produced) aimed at improving peer tutoring techniques.

Site: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/about.html