2008-09 Faculty Innovation Grants

Date Started: Jan 1, 2008
Status:Completed

Project Description

A call for proposals was launched in February, 2008 and 17 proposals were submitted as a result of the call for proposals. Nine proposals were selected as the 08-09 Faculty Innovation Grant award recipients. They are:
 

• Nathaniel Knight
  Department of History
  Documents in Russian History: A Wiki Redesign
  
  This project involves a redesign of the web site “Documents in Russian History” (http://artsci.shu.edu/reesp/documents) which was created in 2000 and which is used by scholars and teachers around the world. The site will be redesigned in a wiki format to allow users to contribute their own documents and supplementary materials. To ensure the quality of contributions, an editorial board made up of prominent scholars in the field of Russian history will be created. The editorial board will meet regularly and approve all major decisions regarding the site's structure and content.
  
  

• Rosemary Skeele
  College of Education
  Virtual Worlds in K-12 Education
  
  The effective infusion and the development of best practices for new and emerging technologies to support teaching and learning in the K-8 classroom is the goal of EDST3700/6307- Integrating Curriculum and Technology. Developing virtual world activities and resources for the K-8 environment using virtual worlds and a SMART Board meets our course objectives. We now have a unique opportunity to explore the potentials in the K-8 classroom through a unique collaboration with a small group of educational institutions. The grant project will be shared with other teachers through the development of a video about the project.
  

• Edmond Jones
  Department of English
  “Digital Storytelling to Illuminate Composing Processes in First-Year Writing”
  
  Writing concepts are notoriously difficult to teach, in part because students are already familiar with the language: revision, source citation, thesis, transitions. Revision in high school means one thing; in college it should mean another. Instructors can point to resources on the First-Year Writing website, but there are currently no resources that consciously bridge the gap between current student knowledge and advanced student knowledge. That's where stories come in, more specifically digital stories, told by selected freshmen who have had a sort of conversion experience. Ten students will create a mini-movie that will be uploaded to the First-Year Writing website to serve as a resource for 1,100 incoming freshmen in the fall of 2008.
  
  

• William K. Rotthoff
  School of Business
  Creation of `online text'
  
  A collaborative text book will be created for use in Sports Finance. Students within the course will contribute to this eBook, created using a Wiki, and this resource will be expanded upon in future classes to serve as the course textbook.
  
  

• Abe Zakhem
  Department of Philosophy
  The Business Ethics Hub
  
  The Business Ethics Hub will be an on-line resource for instructors who wish to develop their business curriculum to meet core ethical literacies. The site shall include such features as: pedagogical tools (e.g., video clips or power point lectures on key topics), ethics news and events, discussion boards and blogs, and a key concept encyclopedia/Wiki. It is hoped that in addition to using the Hub as a tool for business ethics and traditional business courses, the site will serve as a model to developed a more inclusive “Ethics Hub,” covering other areas such as health care and biomedical ethics, environmental ethics, ethics and computing, and media ethics, to name a few. As such, the Hub should provide a solid foundation for attracting outside funding to help facilitate a comprehensive ethics across the curriculum program and/or professional ethics institute.
  
  

• Costel Constantin
  Department of Physics
  The Physics Judoka 
  
  Teaching introductory physics at undergraduate non-major level is of great importance because the students constitute the educated future of the country. Physics is considered to be boring and not useful, that's why a good physics instructor has to prove otherwise; physics is fun and useful in everyday life, therefore worthwhile the endeavor. To make physics fun, the physics involved in Judo will be explained. A series of videos, involving real Judo equipment, will be created to explain physics principles such as torque, and center of mass. The videos will be integrated into the PHYS1001 (Intro to Physical Science) class by discussing the videos with the students and testing their understanding of the physics by weekly quizzes.
  
  

• Louise Stanton
  Political Science
  American Government & Politics in Real Life and in Second Life
  
  The purpose of this project is to explore the use of online media as teaching tools in an American Government & Politics course. Students will learn American rules, governance structures, and principles through The Constitution of the United States of America and other materials. Its principles and provisions will be explored through traditional teaching methods in real life (RL) and then examined in Second Life (SL) through cases studies in security issues.
  
  

• Genevieve Zipp and Catherine Maher
  Graduate Medical Education
  Use of Video Based Cases as a Medium to Develop Critical Thinking Skills in Health Science Students
  
  Healthcare practitioners face an enormous challenge in organizing, prioritizing, and planning systematic strategies for effective patient intervention. Similarly, educators often find it difficult to provide health science students with rich learning experiences that promote the development of critical thinking skills needed for effective patient care. One learning strategy that at present has not been widely used to its fullest in Physical Therapy education is “video based cases”. The purpose of this project is to develop two video based cases for utilization in the Doctor of Physical Therapy, Management of Neuromuscular Problems Fall 2008 course.
  

• Marian Glenn (Biology) and Beth Bloom and Martha Loesch
  (University Library) - CORE
  Journeying through Digital Storytelling
  
  Students arrive at Seton Hall University and embark on a journey of transformation in the company of many others. CORE 1101 - Journey of Transformation, a required course for all freshmen, explores the narratives of others, their struggles, achievements, hopes and passions. A text-based course, the reliance is primarily upon reading, writing, films, and class discussion to achieve its goals. This project aims to empower students with the skills and mediums to articulate their own narratives to others through the use of digital storytelling, using video, audio and still images. In addition to providing students with new literacy skills, concepts of rhetoric and narrative style will be explored as student learn as much about themselves as we will in their comprehension of the concepts covered in the course.