Solo Project: Stephen Lynch

Resources Requested

Stipend 1 AY: $1400.00
Stipend Summer: $400.00
Graphic Image Software : $300.00

Total: $2,100.00

Project Info

Start Date: July 1, 2003
End Date: June 30, 2004

Milestones: I plan to prepare powerpoint presentations for two of my Honors DWC courses in the Fall and Spring semesters, so I expect to finish half my presentations during the Fall 2003, and the other half during the Spring 2004.

How would you use the equipment/software after the Project?

I would continue to use the art CDs for future PowerPoint presentations, but more importantly the CDs would be available for other faculty members, especially for DWC and Honors DWC.

Deliverables

Angel/Course-Related: I will post all my PowerPoint presentations on Angel so that students will have unlimited access to these presentations when preparing to write papers and when studying for exams. I also plan to use Angel to post all additional course readings (both required and optional). No more handouts.

Primary Objective

My plan is to prepare all of my art lectures as well as several of my literature and social history lectures as powerpoint presentations for use in my Honors DWC classes next Fall and Spring semesters. I plan to prepare 12-15 powerpoint presentations during the summer and next academic year. I will use these presentation in my classes for years to come (modified and updated each year); and of course I plan to expand my use of PowerPoint and other instructional technologies throughout my career.

Moreover, I plan to make these presentations accessible to students outside of class by means of the Angel software program. This accessibility on Angel will be especially valuable for art lectures since students will be able to view and review my powerpoint presentation at any time in preparation for writing papers and taking exams.

Assessment

I am sure that students will benefit by having unlimited access to my PowerPoint presentations via Angel software. In addition to their class notes, students will be able to review and study digital art slides on their own time -- with their fingers (instead of mine) on the "next slide" or "previous slide" key, learning at their own pace, and emphasizing whatever they find most interesting. I know from my experience with PowerPoint that art lectures can be delivered more effectively (with a mix of art images, selected and enlarged details, and relevant text). I can incorporate an unlimited wealth of images available on the web (and continue to add or replace images over time). Moreover, I can share these presentations with other DWC faculty, so they can use my presentations in class (or download my presentations and them customize them according to their own interests). The only drawback that I see is that the quality of digital images from the web is not always of the best quality (and rarely as good as a conventional slide). I hope to remedy this shortfall by carefully selecting only the better-quality web images and by purchasing and using art history CDs that contain top-quality digital images.

How will I know leaning has been enhanced? I will include a question on my end-of-the-semester course evaluations about the effectiveness of the PowerPoints and Angel, and (less concretely but as importantly) I will be attentive to the frequency and quality of references to these presentations in class discussions, student papers, and exams.