Community-Based Projects

From November 2006 - June 2008, NITLE worked with leaders in the community to promote community-based innovation and collaboration via the NITLE Instructional Innovation Fund. These leaders, serving on advisory councils to NITLE, used the Fund to recognize and award creative, community-driven projects and programs with financial support. 

Institutions that received these competitive awards worked—and in many cases are continuing to work—on behalf of the NITLE Network community to develop and promulgate effective, mission-appropriate uses for digital technology in teaching and learning. NITLE is pleased to present the awarded projects:

• Accelerated Motion: Towards a New Dance Literacy in America. A project designed for teachers of dance studies and history survey courses as well as humanities teachers who wish to incorporate dance into their curricula. Key collaborators: Wesleyan University, Oberlin College, and University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

• accessCeramics at Liberal Arts College. A project to develop accessCeramics, a growing collection of images of contemporary ceramics contributed by established, professional artists. Goal: to provide a resource for instruction in arts education. Key collaborators: Lewis & Clark College, Carleton College, Denison University, Hope College, Juniata College, Kalamazoo College, Lawrence University, Macalester College, University of Puget Sound, Whitman College, and Willamette University.

• An Affordable Approach to Supporting GIS. A program to help small schools without formal GIS programs offer GIS services to their community at modest cost. Key collaborators: Reed College, George Fox University, Lewis & Clark College, University of Puget Sound, and Willamette University.

• The Application of Technology to Chinese Studies. A two-part initiative, beginning with a workshop on technology at Washington and Lee College, October 17 - 18, 2008, and continuing in the form of pilot programs. Key collaborators: the Associated Colleges of the South and Austin College.

• Boot Camp: Training Language Assistants in the Use of Technology in the Liberal Arts Language Classroom. A follow-up workshop to NITLE’s program on “Technology and the Language Curriculum.” Project Flier (.pdf, 153 KB). Key collaborators: Pomona College, Occidental College, Austin College, Lewis and Clark College, Reed College, Scripps College, University of Puget Sound, and Willamette University.

• Brownfield Action Seminar, Barnard College. A project to demonstrate, promote, and disseminate the new Brownfield Action (BA), a network-based, interactive, digital space and simulation in which students explore and solve problems in environmental forensics. Key collaborators: Barnard College, Connecticut College and Lafayette College.

• Building a Model for Sustainable Moodle Development at NITLE Participating Colleges. A project to create a framework for collaboration among NITLE participating schools that allows them to create a method for designing new modules, code enhancements and documentation to Moodle. The goal is to model this process by producing one module from start to finish, and to establish a process for creating new modules that is reproducible and sustainable. Key collaborators: Lafayette College, Earlham College, Kenyon College, Macalester College, Reed College, and Smith College.

• Building Stronger Collaborative Relationships Across NITLE Institutions: An IT and Library Staff Collaboration. Project Update (January 18, 2009). Event will take place April 24 - 26, 2009 (5:00 p.m., Friday – 12:00 p.m., Sunday). Location: Centre College (Danville, KY). Led by: Centre College. Find out more | Sign up | For more information contact: Keeta Martin Holmes, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Centre College, 600 W Walnut St, Danville, KY  40422; keeta.martin@centre.edu; 859-238-6294.

• Characteristics of Quality Collaboration in Information Services in Liberal Arts Colleges. Project Update (September 12, 2008). A short-term planning effort to develop a fuller proposal focused on exploring the nature of high quality collaboration among the staff of information services units regardless of the structure of the organization.  Key Collaborators: Beloit College, Earlham College, and Lawrence University. Go to “Cultivating Quality Collaboration website | For more information contact: Tom Kirk, kirkto@earlham.edu.

• Collaborative Project in Technology, GIS, and Archaeology. A project to provide a model for integrating undergraduate students into the research process by training them in technology related to GIS and archaeology, and designing specific research projects related to the history and occupation of West Tennessee. Key collaborators: Rhodes College, University of Memphis, and University of Tennessee.

• Community of Practice to Support TEI-Based Projects at Small Colleges. Project Update (July 16, 2008). A two-day series of workshops for scholars, technologists, and librarians from the NITLE community interested in new developments in the Text Encoding Initiative’s guidelines and tools for creating and supporting TEI-based archives. Key collaborators: Wheaton College, Rhodes College, Brown University. 

• Data Sharing Systems: Supporting Quantitative Analysis across the Curriculum. A project to document current practices, identify common grounds and outline a framework for the development of a shared infrastructure. Key collaborators: Wesleyan University, Grinnell College, Kenyon College, and Oberlin College. 

• Developing a Computer-Driven Clinical Research Laboratory at an Undergraduate Liberal Arts College and Forging Relationships across Disciplines and Professionals. A project focused on developing laboratory resources to engage students in studying health problems at a biopsychosocial level of analysis. Key collaborators: Davidson College, Wake Forest University, Randolph Macon University, and Noldus Information Technologies.

• Digital Design: Courses and/as Technologies. A series of collaborative learning events designed to promote course redesign by rethinking learning goals through technologies. Key collaborators: faculty, librarians, technologists, and staff at Furman University. Go to www.56to42.com, the project website.

• Digital Objects in the Classroom: Virtual Material Culture Collections at Liberal Arts Institutions. Project Update (December 2, 2008) — Workshop announced. A conference to assist liberal arts institutions in the creation of digital access to material culture collections. This conference will bring together faculty collectors, technologists, librarians, and media specialists. Key collaborators: faculty and staff at Vassar College. Go to http://projects.vassar.edu/digitalobjects, the workshop website.

• Fashioning the Policy and Best Practices Framework for a Successful Shared Institutional Repository. Two programs aimed at developing working policies and practices on the following essential pre-requisites to implementing a successful shared repository: collection focus, site organization, and access controls. Key collaborators: University of Richmond, Carleton College, Trinity University, St. Lawrence University, and Grinnell College.

• Games and Simulations for Situated Learning the Liberal Arts Classroom. Project Update (August 22, 2007). A project to develop a shared and evolving resource that provides practical guidance on the use of games and simulations to promote learning on campus. Led by: Dickinson College.

• Geospatial Technologies in the Liberal Arts – A Pre-Planning Meeting for a Conference for Instructional Technologists. An inter-institutional conference or symposium on the use of geospatial technologies on college campuses. Key collaborators: Vassar College, Smith College, Amherst College, Williams College, Wheaton College, Trinity College, and Skidmore College.

• History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Teaching and Research. A project to use technology to create a platform for building critical thinking skills in the classroom, taking the scholarly experience of intense engagement with original sources and then using technology to make that experience something that can be introduced at the undergraduate level. Key collaborators: University of Richmond, Furman University, Rollins College, Wheaton College, and Juniata College.

• Improving Students’ Information Literacy: Analyzing and Using Results from the Spring 2007 Research Practices Survey Project. Project Update (July 17, 2008). A project to analyze and interpret inter-institutional data gathered during the spring of 2007 about information literacy among students at liberal arts institutions; conduct follow-up focus group interviews and share findings; gather and disseminate information about how survey results are being used; and conduct a feasibility study on future administration of the survey. Key collaborators: St. Olaf College, Carleton College, Cornell College, Knox College, Lewis and Clark College, Swarthmore College, Trinity University, University of Puget Sound, Wellesley College, University of Maryland. 2009 HEDS participation information (.pdf, 23.34 KB) | Sample Survey (57 KB) | For more information, contact Erika Shehata at the HEDS office.

• Instructional Technologists at Liberal Arts Colleges Symposium Planning Meeting. A project focused on planning an Instructional Technologists at Liberal Arts Colleges Symposium. Key collaborators: Macalester College, Carleton College, Colorado College, and DePauw University.

• Integrating Library Resources and Sakai. A workshop for integrating library resources and Sakai, exploring new modes of integration and collaboration that exploit the strengths of the Sakai toolset. Key collaborators: Whitman College, The Claremont Colleges, Willamette University.

• Interactive Timeline Tool for the Sakai Learning Environment. A project aimed at developing an interactive timeline application for the CLEo/Sakai learning environment, making it possible for users to manipulate and contribute information to the timeline. Key collaborators: Whitman College, Pomona College, Claremont-McKenna College.

• Interdisciplinary effort to make GIS concepts, tools, and skills central to teaching and learning at Carleton and at four partner institutions. A project to develop GIS curriculum material based on a real-world human-environment interaction case study through collaborative efforts. Key collaborators: Carleton College, Colorado College, St. Olaf College, Augsburg College, and Grinnell College.

• An Inter-institutional Collaborative: Student Information Technology Exchange 2.0. A planning effort for members from collaborating institutions who are interested in creating a summer student internship exchange. Key collaborators: Lake Forest College, Carleton College, Colorado College, DePauw University, Macalester College, and St. Olaf College.

• The Moving Images Collaborative. A project to explore the potential of moving images to form interdisciplinary connections on liberal arts campuses. Key collaborators: Hamilton College, Colgate University, Juniata College, and St. Lawrence University.

• Project Ionic: Intellectual Online Network of Inorganic Chemists Building VIPEr: Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource. A project to foster communication, collaboration, and networking among inorganic chemistry faculty. Key collaborators: Reed College, Claremont Colleges, DePauw University, Earlham College, Harvey Mudd College, Hope College, and James Madison University.

• Sakai West Coast Symposium. A project to bring together Sakai users and prospective users from the Western Region for the purpose of networking. Key collaborators: Claremont McKenna College, Pitzer College, Pomona College, and Scripps College.

• Teaching with Tablet PCs in Varied Disciplines. Project Update (September 24, 2008). A symposium for faculty members, instructional technologists and others to hear presentations, share experiences, participate in hands-on workshops and engage in dialogue about the effective use of Tablet PCs in teaching and learning at liberal arts colleges. Key collaborators: DePauw University, Albion College, Monmouth College, and Coe College.

• The Outdoor Classroom: Recent Advances in Mobile Computing for the Field Sciences. Project Update (September 24, 2008). A workshop and discussion for faculty members in the field sciences (e.g., archaeology, ecology, geology, environmental science) on how GPS-enabled field computers can enhance their teaching and research. The workshop is open to faculty and staff from ACM campuses and campuses participating with NITLE who are interested in utilizing mobile computing technologies. See the program announcement, which includes a tentative schedule, for details. Applicants will be notified of acceptance by March 2nd. Key collaborators: Lawrence University, Beloit College, and the University of Michigan. For more information, contact the workshop organizers: Jeff Clark (920-832-6733, Jeffrey.J.Clark@Lawrence.edu) | Sue Swanson (608-363-2132, Swansons@beloit.edu)

• Western Regional e-Portfolio Workshop. A workshop focused on learning about and discussing how e-portfolios or their equivalent are used in teaching and learning in the liberal arts environment and also working collaboratively to develop best practices, share expertise, and anticipate future developments in the area of e-portfolios. Key collaborators: Reed College, University of Puget Sound, Claremont McKenna College, and Whitman College.