Harry E. Pence

Smartphones, Smart Objects, and Augmented Reality

Two major types of augmented reality seem most likely to see academic use in the coming five years, markerless and marked. Markerless augmented reality uses the location determined by a cell phone to serve as a basis for adding local information to the camera view. Marked augmented reality uses a two-dimensional barcode to connect a cell phone or personal computer to information, usually on a web site. Both approaches are already being used in museums and college libraries. Marked augmented reality is especially powerful because it makes physical objects clickable, such as a web page. Augmented reality creates some exciting new opportunities for libraries.

Preparing for the Real Web Generation

Some have called the current generation of college students the Web generation. They are wrong! The pace of technology change continues to quicken. The effects of globalization and social networking have not yet had their full impact. At best, the present students represent a transitional group. The tools we use define us, and the media revolution is changing so fast that in a decade we will be dealing with college-age students as different from todays college students as current college students are different from their teachers. How can faculty prepare themselves to teach the current transitional generation and also begin to understand the true Web generation that will arrive on campus in another decade?

The Homeless Professor in Second Life.

The virtual online world called Second Life can be deceptive. It looks like a game, but the participants are not assigned goals. Indeed, it may be said that the goal of Second Life is to create ones own goals. As a result, the residents of Second Life choose to work in many different directions. Some choose to develop land; some try to earn money; some try to learn how to create objects; and, frankly, some pursue a life of total hedonism. This article describes the experiences of one faculty member who decided to work toward two goals, learning more about teaching in a virtual space and having interesting conversations with the many talented and fascinating people who inhabit Second Life. In the absence of campus support, the author chose to accept the image of the homeless professor. These experiences provide a background for discussing teaching in a virtual world. Finally, this article will attempt a more general review of the advantages and disadvantages of education in Second Life.

When Will College Truly Leave the Building: If MOOCs are the Answer, What is the Question?:

The Internet has disrupted or threatened to disrupt the traditional business models in many different areas, including publishing, record companies, retail sales, motion pictures, and advertising. One potential source of disruption for higher education is online learning, especially the recent focus on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Can MOOCs provide a less expensive substitute for face-to-face instruction, and will MOOCs represent such a major change in the learning process that they will be disruptive, eventually replacing traditional education methods? How should colleges and universities respond to online learning in general and MOOCs in particular?

What Is the Role of Lecture in High-Tech Education?

Despite many criticisms, lectures continue to be a major method of higher education instruction. What is the explanation for this continued popularity? Can the lecture adapt to new educational demands? What is the most effective way to use lecture? And, most important of all, what is the future of lecture as educational technology plays a more important role in higher education? This article will attempt to provide at least tentative answers to these questions.

Teaching with Transmedia

The media environment is currently being dramatically changed by social networking, mobile computing, augmented reality, and transmedia. Of these four, transmedia is probably the least familiar to most educators. Transmedia enhances a central story idea with a variety of media components that provide additional information, give increased importance to minor characters in the main narrative, or even add new characters that were not in the original story. These techniques are already being widely used for movies, television, and advertising. They also offer significant advantages for education, although it will require some major adjustments in order for them to become accepted in higher education.

What Is Big Data and Why Is It Important

Big Data Analytics is a topic fraught with both positive and negative potential. Big Data is defined not just by the amount of information involved but also its variety and complexity, as well as the speed with which it must be analyzed or delivered. The amount of data being produced is already incredibly great, and current developments suggest that this rate will only increase in the near future. Improved service should result as companies better understand their customers, but it is also possible that this data will create privacy problems. Thus, Big Data is important not only to students who hope to gain employment using these techniques and those who plan to use it for legitimate research, but also for everyone who will be living and working in the 21st Century.

Refocusing the Vision: The Future of Instructional Technology

Two decades ago, many campuses mobilized a major effort to deal with a clear problem; faculty and students needed access to desktop computing technologies. Now the situation is much more complex. Responding to the current challenges, like mobile computing and social networking, will be more difficult but equally important. There is a clear need for colleges to develop pilot projects and appropriate educational plans to prepare for these new learning environments.

Using computers to teach biochemistry

This paper describes a symposium entitled “Using Computers to Teach Biochemistry,” which was presented at the fall, 2001 National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago, IL. The use of computers has increased in all areas of chemical education; however, the visualization capabilities needed to convey some aspects of biochemistry are quite complex, so the upward trend in the use of computers for this purpose has been especially significant. The various speakers in this symposium discussed the use of a wide range of instructional technologies, including presentation software, Chime, online data exercises, interactive visualization tools, self‐designed tutorial programs, and bioinformatics.

A Report from the Barricades of the Multimedia Revolution.

Often those on the front lines of the revolution see things differently from those who are in charge. This article reports on the experiences of one individual, who has been working for four years to include multimedia in a general chemistry lecture course involving 60–100 students. From this perspective, it is clear that there are some very positive outcomes, as well as some concerns. The new technology not only offers exciting educational possibilities but also poses serious challenges for both faculty and students. This article represents a personal viewpoint, but it is hoped that the comments may be generally helpful for those who are planning to use multimedia in their classes.