The 2003 ~FAST Tex projects
College of Education

Title:
Elementary Science Methods Course

Faculty Client:
Lowell Bethel, lbethel@mail.utexas.edu

Student Developer:
Terence Tang

Project Description:
The team set out to integrate the use of the College of Education Macintosh iBook laptops into the course. They wanted to increase the students’ ability to use the Internet to create lesson plans, solve Web-based problems and collaborate in virtual teams to solve Web-based problems. They developed a basic Web course site to include a syllabus and Web-based problems, and to integrate the college’s TeachNet into the site for group projects.

The outcomes expected are a) students will begin to use the Internet and their laptops to create lesson plans and coordinate the setup of their experiments as well as the classroom setup and b) students will learn to collaborate virtually to solve Web-based problems. The course enhancements will be evaluated using a short survey and through e-mail responses to the instructor.

Title:
Adapted Physical Education National Standards (APENS) Preparation

Faculty Client:
Pamela Buchanan, buchanan@mail.utexas.edu

Student Developer:
Suman Alagappan

Project Description:
The goal of this project is to provide online training for students preparing to take the Adapted Physical Education National Standards (APENS) Exam, a national examination of the knowledge of fifteen competency areas in the field of Adapted Physical Education for children with disabilities. Since there is no certification in the state of Texas for teaching Adapted Physical Education, this tool serves as a proficiency measure for ensuring adequate training, preparation and skills necessary when teaching children with disabilities.

The intensive information involved in this training is best distributed through a self-paced learning module. Due to the quantity of information, students will be able to continue to work on this preparation beyond one semester. The tool allows learners to:

• access the information as a study guide for the APENS exam
• watch videos that portray actual teaching situations that are in need of solutions
• offer possible solutions that will be reviewed by the instructor via online submission
• take quizzes at the end of each study segment
• view responses to their answers through a virtual professor video clip

Title:
Computer Tools for Educators

Faculty Client:
Jenny Burson, jenny_burson@teachnet.edb.utexas.edu

Student Developer:
Hye-Yeon Lim

Project Description:
This project will create problem-based tutorials designed using video screen capture, animation, text/graphics using a courseware tool to support a learning environment for students using various computer applications in the classrooms. The tutorials will supplement EDC371, Computer Tools for Educators. The addition of screen-capture movies and animations boosts the interactivity of these tutorials and the ability of courseware tools to track students progress through these tutorials make it a very appealing combination.

Title:
CD-ROM and Web Tutorials on Children's Development and Motor Skill Acquisition––Continuation

Faculty Client:
Jody Jensen, jlj@mail.utexas.edu

Student Developers:
Cristina Dilly, Ryan Hause

Project Description:
The goal of this project is to create an educationally challenging and engaging experience in learning about children's motor development. The CD-ROM presentation of images of age-related changes in children's motor development provides an important educational tool to give authenticity to textbook learning. Acquisition of knowledge about typical and atypical motor development requires repeated observation and experience with developmental change. This project creates a medium through which a large population of children can be reliably observed and assessed.

Faculty Client:
Liu Min, MLiu@mail.utexas.edu

Student Developer:
Yangjoo Park

Project Description:
In this project, the team updated and created Web-based database applications using ColdFusion. The completed applications will be used in the courses "Interactive Multimedia Design & Production," "Designs & Strategies for New Media," and "Interactive Multimedia Research."

Faculty Client:
Chris McCarthy, chris.mccarthy@mail.utexas.edu

Student Developer:
Naoko Kato

Project Description:
This ~FAST Tex project served two purposes: first, to help graduate students capitalize on their familiarity with the Internet to develop a career resource class Web page, and secondly to facilitate the use of the Internet with volunteer undergraduate and K-12 clients. The team developed a class Web page divided into a “counselor” section and a “client” section. The first part is divided into sections according to the age and needs of the clients the counselors would be working with, and the graduate students in the class help find Web sites for that use. The second part of the Web page is designed for client use and can be accessed by the clients with whom the students work.

The second goal of the project is accomplished by having counseling students use a structured interview with the client volunteers to assess which of their needs could be met through the Internet, and then post these resources on the "client" section of the Web page. The graduate students then follow up with each client in face-to-face meetings after they had time to explore the suggested Web sites. Quantitative surveys will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of this project by both the graduate counseling students delivering the intervention and the undergraduate and K–12 students they worked with.
http://student.edb.utexas.edu/ (No ID needed, type "Webcareer" as password)

Faculty Client:
Anthony Petrosino, ajpetrosino@mail.utexas.edu

Student Developers:
Thu Duong, Raul Montes

The course for which this project was developed has three essential components. The first is a participant-driven perspective accounting for what we know of how people learn and how project-based instruction may be our best choice for bridging the gap between theory and practice. The second is a technological component to assist the enrolled students in developing their own project-based unit. The third is a field component consisting of observation of well-implemented project-based instruction in local schools. This ~FAST Tex project concentrated on building an effective user interface for delivery of the project-based unit “Mission to Mars.”
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/missiontomars/index.html

Faculty Client:
Susan Williams, susan.williams@mail.utexas.edu

Student Developer:
Madeline Lavrentjev

This ~FAST Tex team developed video cases showing examples of best practice in foreign language instruction. The cases contain footage of actual classrooms and interviews with the teachers involved explaining their decision-making processes. In addition, they gathered expert commentary about the video cases for the Website so that students can contrast what they notice with the discussions by experts. Tools developed for this Web site will allow students to analyze the cases in detail and annotate the video with their comments. These multimedia, case-based materials make visible the richness and complexity of best practice instruction to teacher educators, pre-service teachers, and classroom teachers. They also permit students to discuss a specific shared experience rather than having each student bring their memories of different personal and practicum experiences to the classroom to be shared.