Imagine the results of turning your course materials into exciting digital movies, narrating slide shows for your lectures, or even introducing yourself to your students over the Internet. Through the Faculty Multimedia Center (FMC), these are some of the opportunities that you have at your fingertips here at Penn State.
The FMC is Penn State's resource for faculty to learn about the methods and benefits of incorporating multimedia into teaching and learning environments. Recently, the Faculty Multimedia Center relocated, added several new services, and expanded current services to better serve faculty.
The FMC is now located at 212 Rider II Building on the corner of Burrowes and Beaver Avenue, a location recognizable to many as the previous home of Svoboda's bookstore. Some of the new services available through the FMC are the addition of a digital video studio as well as a digital camera copy stand for large-format scanning.
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Some of the possibilities include recording an introduction for your course or a biography to help students get to know their professor. Videos can be added to your Web site, placed on the FMC's streaming server for access any time, converted into a seamless computer-based presentation, burned onto a CD or DVD for future use--you can even do a Webcast that can be filmed live and viewed around the world.
While the studio does not provide the equivalent quality of a professional television studio, it does provide faculty with a better alternative to home videos, according to FMC manager Kim Winck. "With the new video studio, we want to provide faculty with a place where they can record just about anything for their courses in a dedicated and quiet space," said Winck.
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Large-Format Scanning--Faculty can also take advantage of large-format and 3D scanning capabilities via the recent addition of a digital camera copy stand. The professional-quality Nikon digital camera can be attached to the copy stand to produce high resolution "scans" of oversized originals or even 3D objects. A bank of lights on each side provides even illumination, and a removable glass panel keeps originals flat to the copy board. The wide-angle lens can capture originals that are as large as the width of the copy board (approximately 36"). The camera is mounted on an adjustable vertical arm for close-up or wide-angle shots.
"We're excited about the new scanning capabilities," said Winck, who indicated that the cost of a large-format scanner had prevented them from offering this service in the past. "It is an affordable way for us to offer a valuable service to those whose scanning needs transcend the capabilities of the smaller flatbed scanner," she said.
In addition to adding new services, the FMC has expanded many other components and services, including the multimedia lab. The new FMC lab features the latest versions of many multimedia software packages and offers a more functional work environment with increased privacy, better lighting, and less traffic.
The upgraded multimedia software in the lab, including iMovie and iDVD, will help faculty to edit their movies and perform other multimedia tasks more efficiently, according to Pat Besong, FMC multimedia specialist. He said that a lot of faculty members are using the FMC to digitize video and create their own DVDs to show in class, and he noted a recent trend whereby more faculty members are using DVDs, as opposed to VHS or CDs. According to Besong, the trend is likely due to the additional storage space, better quality, and longer life of the DVD.
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Other services include expanded flatbed scanning and digital photography capabilities. You can now scan multiple items at the same time, including transparencies, positive and negative film, and slides, in addition to traditional photography and artwork.
If you choose to photograph your own artwork, the FMC's professional quality digital camera can be used for a photo shoot in the new video room with the gray screen as a backdrop. Using the multimedia tools at the FMC lab, you can edit the images and create a slide presentation to post to your course Web site, for example.
One interesting project that the FMC staff has recently undertaken is that of helping faculty to create digital slide presentations of their traditional lectures by synchronizing slides with pre-recorded lecture audio. FMC staff is further exploring this method to address some issues that faculty members must face when teaching large lecture courses.
According to Besong, the nature of the traditional large lecture course can make it difficult for faculty to reach every student in the course. In response, FMC staff created a method of combining animations and audio to produce multimedia presentations that enhance course content and can be delivered online. These online presentations can be used to augment the traditional classroom lecture or even serve as an alternative.
The goal of this project is to personalize the course experience for students, thereby enhancing the learning experience. "The added visual stimulation combined with the audio can help students relate to the materials more comprehensively and hopefully learn more effectively," said Besong.
These are just a few examples of the type of work that faculty members can learn to perform on their own through the FMC, which was established almost ten years ago to help faculty adapt to the changes in teaching and learning brought about by the technological age.
Faculty members who have used FMC services seem to be pleased with their results, according to Winck, who said that much of their clientele consists of faculty members who have used FMC services in the past. "It's a great service for instructors, like myself, who rely on technology," said Dr. Sam Richards, senior lecturer in sociology and co-director of the Race Relations Project. "In fact, there is no way I could have increased the enrollment of my class with continued positive evaluations had it not been for the FMC," he added.
With the increased presence of technology in just about every aspect of daily living, along with constant developments and evolution in the uses of technology, the methods used for teaching and the ways in which students learn are shifting, according to Besong. "The traditional classroom environment is undeniably changing, and the Faculty Multimedia Center is here to help," he said.
FMC services are available to all Penn State locations. An open house event showcasing new and existing services available through the FMC took place at the new location on September 24. To view the presentation "Faculty Multimedia Center: Overview of Services," go to http://tlt.its.psu.edu/fmc/teach/.
To make an appointment at the FMC, e-mail fmc@psu.edu or call 814-863-7051. To learn more about FMC services, visit the FMC Web site at http://tlt.its.psu.edu/fmc/
