Author Archives: Bill Porter

Faculty Spotlight: Dawn Burau

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One Adjunct Faculty Workshop Delivered Three Ways

Dawn Burau, Instructor of Expressive Therapies, Art Therapy

Dawn Burau, Instructor of Expressive Therapies, along with fellow Lesley faculty Valerie Blanc and Jason Butler, ran a three-part workshop for adjunct instructors in the Expressive Therapies graduate division called “Engaging Students: In Class and Online Discussion.” Participants attended the workshop in person or online via Blackboard Collaborate Ultra. For those who missed the live event, an edited recording and other resources were shared online in the Expressive Therapies Faculty Community in myLesley.

Dawn decided to live stream and record the face to face workshop because, “many of our adjuncts have jobs or families that make it difficult to come to campus during the day. For those who could, we wanted to give them an in-person learning experience. For those who couldn’t, we wanted to include them in the community and give them access to the information we were sharing.”

In order to reach her goal of making the workshop content accessible to all adjuncts, Dawn reached out to eLearning and Instructional Support (eLIS) to help go over her game plan and receive technology training. For the workshop, Dawn set up a laptop running Blackboard Collaborate Ultra and acquired a 360 microphone to ensure that all participants could hear each other, whether in the room or online. Dawn used Collaborate Ultra’s built-in recording feature to record the workshop, which she edited and posted in the faculty community along with PowerPoints and other workshop resources.

With a little planning and creative thinking, Dawn was able to make an interactive workshop much more interactive and accessible to all of her adjuncts. If you are interested in exploring the use of synchronous online meeting tools or want to record and share academic events, reach out to us in eLearning and Instructional Support (elis@lesley.edu). We are happy to work with you to devise new ways to engage with students and colleagues.

Resources on how to use Lesley supported software like Blackboard Collaborate Ultra can be found on the Lesley Technology Support Site.  

Academic Technology Innovation Grant Awards Spring 2018

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Lesley professors Jo-Anne Hart and Matt Nash were recently awarded Lesley University Academic Technology Innovation Grants. Jo-Anne’s grant award will supplement the cost of student enrollment in a virtual exchange with students in the Middle East. Matt’s award will fund the purchase of professional audio production resources that include a sound effects library and a Mackie-controlled DAW audio mixer. 

This Spring, twenty undergraduate students enrolled in Jo-Anne Hart’s Modern Middle East History course will engage in an 8-week virtual cross-cultural exchange with English-speaking undergrad students in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. Using the virtual exchange tool Soliya, each Lesley student will be enrolled into an online discussion group of about 12-15 other students. This technology platform allows students to explore how their identity impacts the way they view and approach the world, as well as how they communicate with those with different perspectives.

Screenshot of Soliya Exchange Portal

Soliya Exchange Portal from https://www.soliya.net

According to Jo-Anne, the live discussion forum, as a complement to the face-to-face course sessions, will “help bring the Middle East alive in important ways for my students. I will build my syllabus around their direct, active, learning experiences. In class I will have the Lesley students report back to us about their virtual exchanges each week. Students will keep a journal and write a reflection about their experiences and I will ask my students to draw on their exchange learning as part of their analyses in their exams.” 

Matt Nash, Chair of Digital Filmmaking, was awarded a grant for the purchase of a Mackie-controlled DAW professional audio mixer and a Hollywood Sound Effects audio library. The pairing of the hardware with the audio library will provide a full set of audio resources for faculty and students at all four levels of the Digital Filmmaking and Animation and Motion Media programs. The audio libraries will be installed on all computers in the LUCAD labs and available for students to use in their projects. The mixer will be permanently installed in the sound booth or editing workstation in Lunder 017 (or, alternatively, made available as a checkout item for students through Lockup).  

If you are interested in applying for an Academic Technology Innovation Grant or you would like more information on grant qualifications, please visit the Academic Technology Innovation Grant info page or email your questions to: tech.grant@lesley.edu. 

Giving Students Access to Film Footage and 3D Models to Enhance the Studio Experience

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Matt Nash, Chair of Video and Animation at the College of Art and Design, received a $2,500 Academic Technology Innovation Grant in Fall 2016 for the purchase of professionally-produced data assets for students to use in Digital Filmmaking and Animation and Motion Media courses. The data assets are raw film footage and 3D models, which will be edited and manipulated by students in courses that focus on concepts of 3D animation, editing theory, advanced technical proficiency, audio design and other aspects of post-production.

Two sets of digital assets were purchased through the grant: professional produced film footage ($1,050) and 3D animation models for Autodesk MAYA ($950). The grant award also includes the purchase of portable hard drives ($500), which will store the assets that will be available for check out by faculty and students.   The acquisition of these sets of video assets allows the Animation and Digital Filmmaking faculty to focus on their primary pedagogical goals without the distraction of creating and managing assets that are outside the learning outcomes.

The Teaching and Learning with Technology committee reviewed the proposal and found it aligned with the criteria for grant funding including:

  • Funding request is primarily to purchase hardware or software
  • The hardware or software represents innovative use of technology to advance teaching and learning
  • Priority is given to projects that would have a direct impact on students

If you are interested in applying for an Academic Technology Innovation Grant and would like more information, please email tech.grant@lesley.edu.

Introducing CaptureSpace Lite

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We are pleased to announce the addition of CaptureSpace Lite, a new tool from Kaltura Media. This recording and capture tool allows users to easily produce everything from a basic webcam recording to an edited screen recording with integrated audio, webcam video, live annotations, titles, and credits.

CaptureSpace Lite is a replacement for the soon to be discontinued Screen Recorder tool — a Java based tool that users had difficulty accessing due to web browser security settings. Unlike its predecessor, CaptureSpace Lite runs directly on your computer and is Java free, which makes launching and running the application a breeze. What really sets this tool apart, however, is its ease of use and wide range of recording options. The CaptureSpace Lite Desktop Recorder enables you to craft a media file using any combination of recording options, including screen capture, webcam, and/or audio. The tool also includes additional features such as the ability to pause while recording, incorporate annotations, edit out clips and add titles and credits.

CaptureSpace Lite’s wide range of features allows faculty and students the opportunity to easily incorporate different types of content into one video. For example, by combining voice with a screen recording and live annotations a user could produce a dynamic training video, a narrated presentation, a course overview, or provide detailed feedback on an assignment.

capturespace lite

For details on how to install and use the tool, visit our CaptureSpace Lite resource page. You can also email us at elis@lesley.edu to request a training session.

Technology Innovation Grant: Infusing iPads into EEDUC 5104: Literature for Children and Young Adults

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“Through the support of this Technology Innovation Grant I hope to further my own knowledge, improving my abilities to model effective and innovative technology integration for the practicing and prospective teachers in my courses.” Erika Dawes, Associate Professor, Literacy

Erika Dawes, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education is the most recent recipient of a Lesley University Technology Innovation Grant. The grant award will be used to purchase an iPad Pro (Wi-Fi 32GB), essential accessories and iTunes credits for purchasing apps. Access to the iPad Pro will allow Erika to test and evaluate content creation apps, prepare presentations and platforms for content exploration, as well as increase her competence with using a tablet as an instructional tool.

This spring, in her Children’s Literature course, Erika will be employing a set of 11 iPads (previously purchased for the GSOE with a Verizon grant) with the goal of trying to understand how this type of technology can improve the learning experience of teacher candidates while simultaneously serving as models for ways they could incorporate technology into their teaching methods and curriculum design.

EEDUC 5104: Literature for Children and Young Adults is a survey course focusing on resources for locating and evaluating literature across a wide range of genres and serves as an introduction to teaching strategies. Erika’s objective is for her students to become familiar with a range of content creation apps that can be used to encourage, facilitate, and share responses to literature and text sets. Her other goal is for the students to articulate an orientation toward the integration of technology in curriculum design and instruction. By incorporating the use of iPads, Erika plans to assess “whether a tech tool exists that would improve either [her] delivery of content or the students’ opportunity to process and innovate on content.” As part of this assessment Erika will be administering a pre and post course survey where she will ask the practicing and prospective teachers about the potential effectiveness of tech tool integrations. Lesley University sets aside dedicated funding each year to support faculty who are integrating technology into their academic work. The Technology Innovation Grant is open to Lesley University faculty and the application deadline is rolling. For details on grant program and the application process, contact eLearning and Instructional Support at elis@lesley.edu.