Success Stories

Regina Austin leads the Documentaries and the Law Program at Penn Law School and her course on Visual Legal Advocacy includes Final Cut Pro training in the Vitale Digital Media Lab. The Fall 2009 issue of Documentary magazine features her work and the program website includes powerful video clips including one on Schmul Kaplan. November 2009

Over 100 people attended workshops here for Family Weekend. Weingarten Learning Resources Center and CWiC conducted workshops on the second floor and WIC organized workshops on student-created video and image and graphic editing. The WIC Family Weekend 2009 page has links to the video and graphics showcased and the main event schedule lists all activities. October 2009

Six faculty presented to a packed lecture hall about specific technologies they use with their students. The symposium included a lively lunch in the WIC Data Diner Booths and a series of hands-on Tech Tasting sessions in the afternoon. Video clips and presentations are available online. September 2009

This multimedia faculty development module showcases the work of Jacqui Sadashige and includes video interviews with two students Danyal Kothari and Evan Dvorak. Funded through an ELIXR MERLOT grant, this is one of five such projects under construction. Jacqui and her students speak eloquently about the excitement and rewards of video assignments. September 2009

Three Penn undergraduates Mr. Chongping Chen, Mr. Maosheng Dong and Ms. Xiaomeng Hu have created the Chinese Film Directors educational website for a class taught by Dr. Mera Moore Lafferty after a year of research, writing, and web design. The site describes 33 notable Chinese directors from the 1970s to the present with biographies and filmographies.

One of the directors, Mr. Sherwood Hu, commented, "The website is a meaningful home for the Chinese film directors, the first of its kind, which focuses on Chinese directors through the generations. Great job!" A student-led presentation will launch the website in September 2009. June 2009

Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education is a student-run peer reviewed on-line journal published by the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. The editorial staff tapped the Vitale Digital Media Lab resources and staff expertise in Adobe InDesign to improve the design outlay of the journal. Comparing the before and after versions of the journal's front page shows the impact of images and visual logic. June 2009

Students Julia Luscombe and Kristin Hall joined WIC Director Anu Vedantham in presenting an update to the Penn Libraries Board of Overseers. The students discussed their academic research and how WIC has fit into their academic activities. The director's presentation and handout documented growth in usage over the past three years. April 2009

Eleven College students spoke informally with Rich Ross, President, Disney Channels Worldwide via videoconference in the Weigle Information Commons and asked him questions about his career path and choices. Organized by the College Alumni Mentoring Series, the event was facilitated by the portable videoconferencing system from SAS Computing. February 2009

Chia-Ying Pan from the Weingarten Learning Resources Center used the virtual roundtable in WIC's Second Life campus to host an informal conversation with international students. More than 25 students participated virtually and discussed academic integrity, intercultural communication, teamwork, grading system differences and strategies for class participation. Chia-Ying observed that attendance was high in Second Life and questions were frank and clear. February 2009

The students in Louise Krasniewicz' Anthropology and the Cinema course in Spring 2008 created mix-and-match film trailers that highlight, compare and contrast iconic moments in well-known movies. Their Video Showcase includes five of the twenty-six videos created. February 2009

The students in Mara Mills' Science, Technology and Society course studied electronic literature using the multimedia facilities at the Information Commons. They also received instruction in the philosophy and design of Wikis, after which they constructed their own pages related to the history of technology. Student Eileen Mckeown commented, "Our seminar at Weigle Information Commons helped us take our classroom learnings and turn them into our own project. After our training, making the wiki was fun and simple, even for those of us without any experience." January 2009

Undergraduates regularly use the Vitale Digital Media Lab to create posters and videos to document course and research activities. Four School of Arts and Sciences undergraduates describe their research projects in video segments from Family Weekend in the SAS Frontiers email newsletter. Their posters are showcased online. December 2008

Several faculty members have begun exploring assignments based on Comic Life software - an easy way for students to storyboard, plan out their thoughts and create vibrant graphic novels and comic books. Louise Krasniewicz assigned a new media project to her spring 2008 Anthropology and the Cinema class. She has selected six student comic books for our Comic Life Showcase. Click on each book to see the student creations in PDF format. October 2008

This series of video clips brings together five faculty - Regina Austin, Peter Decherney, Louise Krasniewicz, Andrew Lamas and Jacqui Sadashige - whose students have created movies as class assignments. The discussion is informal, with comments on assignment design, setting expectations, assessing student work and project planning.September 2008

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