Special Annual Awards
2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Interactive, Remote Learning
FURMAN'S VIRTUAL TOUR development team (left to right): Academic Computing
Specialists Wade Shepherd and Cort Haldaman, and Instructional Development
Consultants Diane Boyd and Mike Winiski.
TECHNOLOGY AREA: INTERACTIVE, REMOTE LEARNING
Innovator: Furman University
One history professor experiments with technology
to transport his students through space and time,
and interact with them as he guides them through
remarkable field trips they may never have been able
to experience otherwise.
So much to see, so little time. From a logistical perspective, field
trips for departments with limited resources can be challenging.
Such was the driving force behind Tripping Virtually (Interactive
Field Experiences in Urban History), a new IT effort at Furman
University (SC) involving technologists from a number of
departments, to enable student field trips that are transporting
interactive experiences-- without ever leaving campus.
The results of the project are inspiring. This April, from their
classrooms in Greenville, SC, Furman students participated in
virtual walking tours of historical sites in cities such as Boston
and New York. As their professor wandered the streets of
these cities hundreds of miles away, students followed along
in real time via images, audio, and geocoded displays courtesy
of Google Maps. Later, with the
help of Camtasia Studio from TechSmith, the students were able to access the archived tours for
study purposes.
Professor T. Lloyd Benson (the Walter Kenneth Mattison
Professor of History) needed only a few months to develop
his unique curriculum. Eager to create a fully interactive virtual
field trip complete with integrated mapping from a remote location, Benson set out in early 2007 to find technologies
that could do the job.
With the help of colleagues in the school's Computing and
Information Services department and the Center for Teaching &
Engaged Learning, Benson selected a nucleus of off-the-shelf
technologies such as the HP iPAQ hw6940
Mobile Messenger with built-in GPS, as well as technologies,
products, and services from NEC, Verizon, Vonage, AT&T Wireless, Apache, IBM, Shure, Da-Lite,
and JBL. Total price tag: $1,000.