By M.Q. Thorburn

Some surprising developments are taking place at U-M, thanks to computer technology. A Macintosh PowerBook, smaller and lighter than a briefcase, enables a professor to plug in and project a lecture outline, graphics, still images, sound recordings and even video footage to complement her lecture. It's a big step forward from the days when an overhead projector and some colored markers seemed pretty fancy.

Responsible for this educational revolution is the U-M Office of Instructional Technology (OIT) a resource for faculty interested in bringing computer technology into their lecture halls. OIT's Instructional Technology Lab is the place where this change takes place--where the briefcase is exchanged for the PowerBook.

"Our mission is to help the U-M faculty develop and use instructional technology in their classes," says Rob Pettigrew, an instructional designer at ITL. He and about 10 other software developers are involved in taking professors' ideas and turning them into software that livens up lectures, as well as providing an outside-class resource for students at the Campus Computing Sites.

"We supply the resources and some coaching," Pettigrew says. Faculty interested in actively participating in the development of course software work one-on-one with designers like Pettigrew in the lab. "We talk about design ideas both from the technical side and the pedagogical side," Pettigrew adds, "asking, 'How valuable is this for teaching? Are these sound ideas?'"

Currently, OIT and ITL have created about 75 applications for use in U-M courses. "There's a wide spectrum in the amount of technology used," Pettigrew says, with programs ranging from "Autobiography Tutor," which takes students through a series of steps in writing a paper, to "The Skills Training System," a program developed by the School of Education to teach interaction skills and the appropriate ways to deal with inappropriate behavior in the classroom.

"The Skills Training System" uses video equipment to first show U-M students model examples of teachers interacting with students, and then to record the student practicing those model behaviors. The student can review his recordings to see how he did and retape the exercises if he is not satisfied with his work. When he has finished the exercises, the student turns in a videotape of his responses to the professor.

"Roman Sport," an application created by classical studies Prof. David Potter, includes translated Roman inscriptions and questions that students can use in writing research papers. The program also contains images of Roman emperors, timelines of events in Roman culture, background on the emperors' achievements and maps of the Roman empire that can be manipulated to show the extent of the empire under the rule of each emperor. In addition, there are built-in quizzes on different topics each week that provide not just "yes and no" answers, but detailed background and explanation for each question.

Students can review lectures from throughout the term. No longer limited to just their course notes, they can replay the actual lecture presentations at their convenience. In addition, this computer technology brings a rich array of resources together, both in lecture and in the computing site, that would otherwise require a great deal of research time at the libraries. Most of the applications also have some kind of help mechanism so the students won't get too lost.

Another benefit is that the exercises the students do outside class allow the professor to monitor their progress and understanding of the course material.

"We're available to the entire University community," Pettigrew says. "All the faculty, any department, can make use of us'" Course software designed at ITL ranges to majors all across campus, from English to nursing, music, history and many more.

M.Q. Thorburn '96 of East Lansing, Michigan, is Michigan Today's student intern.