The first annual report for the Weigle Information Commons summarizes activities and usage from April 2006 to December 2007. The annual report is available online.February 2008

Ed Dixon, SAS Coordinator for Technology in Foreign Languages, taught German 101 this semester using PC laptops in the WIC Seminar Room. His students used Blackboard chat and wiki tools extensively.

Ed commented, "The seminar room helped me greatly to achieve what I wanted with my students. They were able to collaborate online and continue collaboration at home. The movie reviews that the students wrote about in a wiki in BlackBoard and the chats that they produced outside of class collaboratively are the best examples of student work I have thus far for a GRMN101 class."December 2007

Folklore doctoral candidate Eric Miller, founder of the Graduate Student Videoconference Series, and Psychology doctoral candidate Athena Aktipis discussed clinical and research psychology via videoconference with Magdalene Jeyarathnam, the director of the Center for Counselling in Chennai, India. They used the built-in camera on the WIC's MacBook Pro laptop and free Skype videoconferencing software in a group study room.

Mr. Miller commented, "My dissertation concerns ethnographic videoconferencing - the use of videoconferencing to study cultures. Unlike photography or video, videoconferencing enables people of the culture being studied to speak directly for themselves. I would encourage members of Penn's academic community to explore videoconferencing -- I have enjoyed doing so very much! Skype is just one of many programs available. "October 2007

Graduate School of Education faculty member Susan Yoon used the WIC's handheld clickers to poll the mid-career doctoral students in her Technology Education in the 21st Century course. The K-12 school administrators appreciated the ability to vote anonymously. They chose "critical thinking" as the most important learning skill from a list of possibilities. The clickers allowed immediate graphical feedback and stimulated discussion.

Professor Yoon described, "Students became quite passionate while defending their selections. Being able to visualize how the group as a whole responded to the question provided fodder for rich argument on the issue. It was very successful!" June 2007

Dr. Jacqueline Sadashige has enlisted the services of the Digital Media Lab and their staff for two final projects. In the fall, each of her courses created running commentaries for feature length films. Each class chose one film to work on collaboratively, and each student chose a chapter of the DVD on which to comment. After scripting their commentaries, students used the lab to record their text for playback as an alternative to the film's own audio track. This spring, teams of students in both courses created trailers and pitches for imaginary projects (ranging from remixes of pre-existing films to a mock campaign ad). Students were given an initial tutorial in iMovie, and several class sessions took place in the lab to allow students time to work on their final projects.

Dr. Sadashige commented, "The lab contains a wealth of equipment, but it's the dedicated staff that has made these projects possible. Their generosity and patience have really encouraged me to be more creative with my syllabus! As a result, my students have not only broadened their understanding of the subject material, but the multi-media nature of this work has literally shifted the parameters of what it means to think and write." April 2007

English faculty member Mara Mills brought her "Sound Studies" class to the Media Lab for a lesson in audio sampling and mixing with GarageBand. Students remixed a cut-up by William Burroughs as part of their unit on the history and theory of sound recording. March 2007

Dr. Sue Weber, Associate Director of Communication Within the Curriculum (CWiC), taught CLST 135 - The Art of Persuasion in the WIC Seminar Room in Spring 2007. She reflects, "During this course, students prepare to become CWiC speaking advisors. The seminar room in the Weigle Information Commons is an ideal classroom because it houses the equipment students need to provide multimedia presentations and to facilitate interactive workshops. Participants are able to use the room's laptops for active learning exercises. They also often move to nearby booths to discuss collaborative projects. Finally, the large dry-erase board-wall encourages students to jointly make connections. "

One of her students, Flora Hsu (Wharton 2010) comments, "The Weigle Information Commons is especially conducive to The Art of Persuasion's curriculum because it is in the form of a business conference room. It is a great environment to execute discussions and small group presentations." March 2007

After teaching for the past two semesters in the WIC Seminar Room, Dr. Valerie Ross, Director of the Critical Writing Program, summarizes her experience, "The Information Commons is a superb space for collaborative learning. The resources are phenomenal, and the staff is friendly, helpful, knowledgeable. Last year, many of my cinema studies students, working on collaborative film projects, relied on the multimedia staff for guidance on laying down sound and film editing. Some turned to the writing tutor for feedback on their screenplays and analyses, and to the CWiC tutor to help them sharpen their story pitches. They found the booths ideal for hammering out script and casting differences.

This semester my Narrative Studies class meets in the Info Commons seminar room, an amazing base for a collaboratively-driven research-writing seminar. The room is beautifully equipped and the location couldn't be better: every resource imaginable is at my students' fingertips as they work toward their final research projects and collaborative short documentaries. Having laptops in the room, we can move with ease from discussion to writing, revising, and researching; having booths right outside the room, students can break out and work on their collaborative projects and peer reviews.

I am astonished to see how the space and its services are transforming my teaching and my students as they continue to take greater control of the process and production of knowledge. At home in the library, increasingly prepared to avail themselves of the many resources and experts available to them, my students are becoming scholars: god save them one and all." March 2007

Fine Arts faculty member Dr. Nadia Hironaka has assigned creating entries for the Mashup Contest as a spring 2007 extra credit assignment for her Advanced Film/Video students. Students are creating parody trailers for commercial films by editing and/or creating new footage.March 2007

As the final project for a critical writing seminar focused on Internet culture and communications, the associate director of the Critical Writing Program, Dr. Patrick Wehner, had his class create podcast tours of Philadelphia. Working in small groups, students decided on a tour theme and wrote a script; recorded interviews, soundtracks, and voiceover narration; added maps and still photographs; and edited their final podcasts using software available in the Vitale lab. While venturing outside the classroom and exploring Philadelphia's neighborhoods, the students applied their semester's lessons about writing description and narration, making effective use of research, and communicating their ideas for a specific goal and audience.

Dr. Wehner commented, "The equipment and support in the Weigle Information Commons made it possible for my class to go beyond reading and analyzing emerging forms of writing and experience some of the challenges for themselves. Both the process and the product were more meaningful because we were able to take advantage of WIC." February 2007

Penn Writing Fellow Dr. T. Mera Moore Lafferty conducted team writing projects in the booths and open space areas for her Critical Writing Seminars in fall 2006 and spring 2007. In fall 2007, her Global English for Multilingual Writers students will reserve the booth area for two hours each week for collaborative writing activities. February 2007

Penn Law faculty member Dr. Regina Austin is teaching students to produce video victim impact statements and clemency or pardon petitions. To assist the students in developing treatments and shooting scripts for legal clients, they are introduced to multimedia editing techniques. The Media Lab conducted an iMovie workshop customized for their needs. February 2007