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Sabbatical Leave Application

Lisa M. Lane

 

 

2.  Statement of Type of Leave: Non-Traditional Activities

 

I will spend my sabbatical researching and creating web-based multimedia presentations to enhance my history classes. 

 

Ever since I began teaching, I have worked to integrate audio-visual material into my lecture courses.  At first, I adopted the usual techniques of playing videotapes in class and using overhead transparencies.  As the Internet has developed methods of multimedia delivery, I have taken steps to learn about "on-line" audio-visual possibilities.  When I began teaching classes on-line, I tried to go beyond simply posting my syllabus and my lectures.  However, I had no interest in web materials and CD-ROMs created by publishers, because they did not reflect most of the themes and concepts I emphasized in my classes. I wanted my on-line materials to fit seamlessly into my courses, unifying the ideas and concepts I chose to emphasize.

 

My efforts thus far have been partly fruitful, but have been limited by my lack of knowledge and resources.  My first on-line courses featured written lectures illustrated with still pictures, plus occasional links out to appropriate Internet sites.  I then began adding Internet links to my on-site courses, and started using the web to post syllabi and course information for all of my classes, regardless of "mode of delivery".  On campus, I have made good use of the Technology-Enhanced "Smart" Classrooms the past few years, showing film clips and using Internet sites during lecture to enhance the classroom learning experience for my students.

 

Last year, I took a UCLA Extension course in creating multimedia for on-line classes.  As part of that class I created my first "slide show", a presentation of Romantic art works with text and a musical sound track.  It took weeks to create a nine-minute presentation.  When I used it in my Western Civilization class, the student response was positive.  So I began assigning multimedia presentations from history websites as part of the homework in my U.S. History class.  Again, the results were encouraging. Students seemed to spend more time with the material I wanted them to learn, and retained more content from an assignment that included audio and visual material.

 

I have come to the conclusion that researching materials and techniques, then creating my own multimedia units, would benefit my students in several ways.  Such units, if integrated with my overall course objectives, could:

¥    increase students' understanding of history.  Many of my students do not learn well from print, but do respond to presentations which engage several senses at once.  Multimedia units would reach such students.

¥    enable access to non-print primary sources.   My classes depend strongly on primary sources, which enable students to actually practice history rather than just read history.  Such sources include not only print materials such as documents, diaries, speeches, and other writings, but also recorded speeches, music, art works, films, and other media.  The Internet provides an opportunity for sharing many of these resources across long distances, making it possible for students to experience them first-hand and outside the classroom environment.

¥    improve the quality of my instruction.  The rudimentary media presentations I have created thus far have already proven themselves.  My students seem to learn a great deal from them despite the fact that my work is not very professional.  If I could learn more about the process of creating and distributing multimedia, and find engaging materials with which to create units, I could make better presentations which would engage students even more.

 

During my sabbatical, I will be examining available multimedia resources for history and creating original multimedia units for both on-line and on-site classes.  These activities are specifically described in Section 4 (below), and will total at least 576 hours of active work.

 

3.   Stated Objectives

 

During the period of the Sabbatical Leave, I will:

 

a.  Obtain appropriate materials for creating original multimedia units to enhance my history classes,

b.  Improve my skills in creating multimedia for on-line delivery,

c.  Create at least four original multimedia history units of at least five minutes each, and

d. Incorporate each of those units, plus additional public-access multimedia content, into the web pages for my history classes.

 

4.  Description of Activities

 

a. Obtaining Materials(~100 hours)

 

I shall begin with extensive Internet searches of available multimedia content appropriate to college-level history classes.  It is my intention to focus on public-access media (such as that created/published by the Library of Congress or National Public Radio) although I will not exclude commercial sites.  The Library of Congress "American Memory" site, for example, features a collection of thousands of speeches, sheet music, advertisements, photographs, music recordings, and other primary sources.  I want to explore "American Memory" and the NPR site thoroughly.  Many museums have on-line collections that could be used for art works. I have access (through the listserv H-TEACH) to a large number of historians from the H-NET on-line community, which includes history professors from all over the world, many of them at the major universities.  I will be consulting with that group to learn of other collections and resources that might be useful. 

 

b. Improving Technical Skills (~ 100 hours)

 

A variety of resources will be needed to expand my understanding of multimedia creation and delivery technologies.  I will examine available methods for creating multimedia presentations, including both commercial packages (such as QuickTime Pro, iMovie, RealSlideshow, Director, or Flash) and formats where I have to write my own code (such as SMIL).  I shall educate myself in the advantages, disadvantages, and techniques of QuickTime, WindowsMedia, and RealMedia formats for web-based presentation, to discover which format(s) are best for creating easy-to-use units for students.  I will explore Dreamweaver (an HTML editing program) thoroughly; I currently use only about 5% of the features of the program and I know there are ways to create multimedia from inside it.  The books QuickTime for the Web, Photoshop for the Web, and the many materials located at the Developer pages for QuickTime and RealMedia should also prove helpful in improving my skills.  My original units need to feature short download times, easy-to-use media players, clear pictures and sound, and obvious connections to other course materials.  My goal is to know enough to be able to create interesting and provocative multimedia experiences for my students within those parameters. Although I realize I could take classes that could improve my skills, I learn most efficiently by myself using print materials.

 

c. Creating Original Multimedia Units (~ 350 hours)

 

I will create, using whichever formats prove to be appropriate, at least four multimedia units, each running a minimum of five minutes, for use in my history classes.  I do not at this time know exactly what raw materials may be available, but I have the following ideas:

 

1 - Basics of World Societies

This would be part of a larger project: the development of several units to highlight major societies of the world as background for Modern World History.  History 101 begins in the year 1500, but few students who enroll in it have taken History 100.  These units could compensate for that by providing some background in the basics of cultures in India, East Asia, Southwest Asia, Africa, Native America, and Europe (a total of 6 units would ultimately be needed).  First priority would be units on Southwest Asia (especially Islam and Hindu-Muslim relations) and East Asia (Confucianism, the Mandate of Heaven, unification of Japan) since these are encountered early in the course.

 

2 - The Cold War

For my Modern U.S. History class, I could create a Cold War unit that would include video clips or stills from the HUAC testimony of celebrities, scholars or diplomats.  If I had enough time and I knew how, I would like to make it interactive, where students could follow a logical line of argument regarding civil rights, Hollywood, and the Red Scare.  If that weren't feasible, it could be a viewable presentation emphasizing the differing perspectives and interpretations.

 

3 - Origins of Modern U.S. Agriculture

For use in Modern U.S., and possibly Modern West and/or World History, I could create a unit on how changes in food production have created the modern assortment of supermarket fare we eat today.  This agriculture unit would take a lot of time and require the most background research, since I know the least about it.  I would need to know which particular inventions and processes generated changes in hybridizing, for example.  Americans eat tomatoes today that no one would have consider a tomato 100 years ago, putting up with bland taste and poor texture so that machines can pick them and they can be stored for six months to be used in December.  I'd like to know how that happened, and create a multimedia unit that brings history to the dinner table.

 

4 - English Historical Sites

For the History of England course, I could create a presentation or interactive unit that uses extant historical sites in England to support the points I emphasize in my course.  Such a unit would make it possible for students to connect assigned readings and lectures to physical places, such as archaeological sites and historic buildings, which they might later research or visit.  Internet sites from English museums and the National Trust could provide some of the raw materials, although it might take some time to work out permissions.

 

5 - Turn-of-the-Century Film on the Street

Again for Modern U.S. History, I could create a montage of early Edison film footage of Coney Island, skyscrapers under construction, New York street scenes, and other glimpses of turn-of-the-20th-century urban social life.  I would add period music, and create an assignment that would encourage students to connect material from other sources to the Edison films.

 

d.  Incorporating the Units into My Classes (~ 30 hours)

 

I will create the necessary links from my course web pages and develop homework assignments using the units I've created.  As part of the assignments, I will formulate at least one question designed to elicit an interpretive response from students viewing or interacting with each presentation.  I am also aware that in gathering material for these presentations, I will certainly come across other audio-visual materials that might be incorporated directly into an assignment, without being used in one of my original multimedia units.  These will be added, linked, and assigned as appropriate.  My emphasis will be on seamless integration with my course objectives.

 

5.  Contribution to District

 

As a result of these sabbatical activities, I should become more knowledgeable about both the multimedia resources for history classes and techniques for creating multimedia.  Researching each unit will bring me up-to-date on current historical thinking about the issues I will use as guiding topics.  I will also be in a position to help colleagues who want to create similar on-line multimedia for their classes.  Most importantly, I will be generating activities that should enable more students, especially those who have trouble with an over-emphasis on printed media, to come to history through sources that appeal to their varied learning styles. 

 

6. Procedures for Documentation

 

My Sabbatical Report will contain descriptions of my activities and a log of hours spent on those activities. The multimedia units themselves are the products of my sabbatical (of which I claim ownership under the Board Policy on intellectual property).  Since all of my course materials are available on-line, it will be possible for anyone to view these units within the context of each class.  In addition, I will create a sabbatical web page, through which anyone can view/experience the multimedia units separately from the corresponding course web pages.  Although "hard copy" would not be useful (since multimedia can include sound and video and well as text and images) I will include in my report a print-out of the sabbatical web page containing the links to the multimedia units.