Resources

Information Technology in Education

Information Technology is pervasive in today’s society and effects all that we do (research, education, administration). The Computer and Information Technology Institute and Rice University have initiated five projects using advance information technology to enhance our students’ education experience.

Symonds Digital Teaching Center

In the Gardiner Symonds Digital Teaching Center the traditional role of the classroom is cast into an alternative light, defining new dynamics for research, teaching, and learning. The Center is an environment in which collaboration and teamwork are as much an organizational strategy, as they are a defining characteristic of the media and information age. In the Center, information is configured by collaborative events and shaped by the events’ unique circumstances. Learning becomes a shared and distributed experience. The Center is built upon a concept of flexibility. It is a poised learning environment designed to accommodate diverse teaching styles. In the Center, flexibility is induced by the conditions of use and facilitated by the visual lines of connection between users, computer screens, large-format displays, audience cameras, and the modes of communication that are consistent with each of these features.

The Symonds Digital Teaching Center is a 3,500 square foot interactive, multi-media learning center located in the Duncan Hall annex. It is comprised of two adjoining spaces, referred to as Classrooms 1 and 2. Both classrooms contain a series of segmented serpentine worktables and ten fixed workstations, designed for two students each. Additional plug-in positions enable each student to use a separate computer when required by the instructor. The classroom design incorporates flat-panel displays so that group information is viewable from each student position. Video overhead cameras are located in the ceiling above instructor positions to capture an image or object and deliver its image to various destinations, both in the classroom and beyond. Incorporated into Classroom 2 is a video teleconference and distance-learning feature. Audience cameras and microphones allow the instructor and students to become active participants in distance-learning events.

Connexions Project

Educational publishing has reached a crossroads as the print and electronic media merge to enhance the ability of authors to communicate ideas and the ability of readers to understand the concepts they present. Today, traditional print is a far too restrictive and inefficient means of providing educational material. The electronic tools available today--the Internet as a universal communication medium, the World Wide Web as a way to offer and obtain information, hypertext markup languages (html and xml) as a vehicle for moving and accessing information, and browser technology for explaining and presenting information--present us with a remarkable opportunity to change the foundations of education. Electronic media, however, still cannot satisfy all educational needs and have not yet served as a replacement for printed text. Electronic and print media must be integrated to produce a unified medium that preserves the best of both forms.

Connexions is a system that caters to electronic and to print publishing needs, breaking down the barriers of both as educational tools are reinvented. Traditionally, the lynchpin of undergraduate university teaching is the textbook, which provides students with relevant information for a course. The author, the teacher, and the student all find the textbook instrumental, yet their needs are very different. Connexions offers a new publishing and educational paradigm that weaves together the roles of these three groups by breaking away from the traditional role definitions. Connexions uses established web tools and standards and develops new applications that enable improvements for the author, customization for the teacher, and personalization for the student. The Connexions Project is a clear departure from most other web-based education projects, which are merely migrating standard textbook material to the web with no adaptation to its unique structure.

RENÉ Project--Rice Everywhere Network

Mobile and wireless communication technologies and services are advancing at a dramatic pace and significantly changing the way we communicate. However, to remain continually connected, voice and particularly data users face the frustrating task of manually coordinating a vast disarray of services, devices, and wireless technologies.

The goal of the RENÉ project (Rice Everywhere NEtwork) is to develop a multitier hardware and software system that will provide seamless, ubiquitous, and high-quality wireless voice and data communications. The outdoor cellular radio system, coupled with a prototype 100 Mbps indoor wireless LAN and Bluetooth-based home/office area network, will provide a unique multitier infrastructure for the following multifaceted research program:

Seamless Multitier Services. We will develop the software, hardware, and control algorithms to enable high-quality seamless communications. A multitier Network Interface Card for mobile devices will transparently adapt to the available communication services. A proxy system will provide consistent access to a user’s home working environment, independent of location and available network resources. Scalable, observation-based resource allocation algorithms will maintain the best possible service at each tier.
Learning Collaboratories. We will design and deploy a collaborative environment called DESKS--Digital Educational Studio for Knowledge Sharing. DESKS will invigorate traditional learning experiences by enabling students to form spontaneous working groups with other students and faculty anywhere on the campus network. Groups will also congregate around large flat-panel displays distributed throughout the campus. By integrating the displays with student PDAs and laptops, DESKS will greatly enhance the interactivity and information sharing capabilities of these devices.

RENÉ will break down the physical barriers to collaboration and teaming and stimulate the development of dynamic, effective, and fun learning environments. By exploring the frontiers of wireless technology and applying it to education, the RENÉ project will lay a viable foundation for a wireless society.

Engineering Design Tutor (EDT)--an Automated Lab Assistant

The EDT project moves much of the rote training in engineering design courses out of the classroom and on to computers. The EDT’s function is two-fold:

• to lower the cost of teaching engineering design by better focusing the time spent by the instructor and the teaching assistants, and
• to allow self-paced instruction, tuned to the needs of individual students.

Developing a student’s intuition for a particular aspect of engineering design requires exposing the student to numerous sample problems. Instructors in engineering design courses spend a vast amount of class time trying to develop this intuition by working through selected problem instances. Recitation sessions and homework problems reinforce the intuition developed in the classroom. This classical approach to teaching engineering design is very costly in terms of instructor and teaching assistant time. In addition, the pace of instruction has to be aimed at an average student, making individualized attention to a student’s needs difficult or impossible.

With the implementation of the Engineering Design Tutor, all student interactions with the design problem sets are electronic via computer. Students using a World Wide Web (WWW) browser are able to access the problem sets and the associated software residing on an Internet-based server. By adopting standard Internet technology, the Tutor can be used at other institutions or to support distance learning. The attendant increase in the size of the target audience creates vastly improved potential for cost reduction. In addition, an Internet-based tutor provides 24-hour access from a large variety of locations that support Internet access. This flexibility allows the students to explore design problems at their own pace.

Our EDT directs students through the design problems and monitors their performance. With completion of the initial development phase, the server offers a number of fixed problem instances. It monitors the student’s ability to follow the correct design procedure, checks for errors committed, and redirects the student after an error. In the second phase, we will log the student’s interactions with the server, providing the instructor with feedback about the student’s performance. Finally, we will dynamically generate new problem sets, according to the success or failure of the individual student in solving earlier problems.

The EDT project is funded by a Mellon Foundation grant.

Virtual Laboratory in Statistics

The Rice Virtual Laboratory in Statistics is an integrated combination of simulations/demonstrations, case studies, statistical analysis capabilities, and an electronic textbook. The simulations and demonstrations help make abstract concepts concrete and allow students to investigate various aspects of statistical tests and distributions. Case studies demonstrate the real-world applicability of statistical methods. The electronic textbook covers basic concepts in statistics and data analysis and contains links to data analysis tools, instructional simulations/demonstrations, and other on-line texts. An experiment with undergraduate students found that learning by simulation led to better transfer of statistical principles to everyday problems. See http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lane/rvls.html.

Partial support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education.