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Faculty at Boise State continue to find innovative, effective, and creative ways to use technology to deliver course content, engage students, and facilitate active learning. Academic Technologies has collected a few examples of such uses of technology, and we've provided them here to inspire other faculty members, to generate discussion, and to demonstrate how technology can enhance and enrich instruction, both in and out of the classroom.

NOTE: Each of the media demos open in a new browser window. To return to this page, close the new window.

Interested in learning more about these tools? Academic Technologies offers workshops, one-on-one consultations, and hands-on assistance through the Student Technology Assistant program.

Questions? Contact Natalie Salvatore, Instructional Designer, at x-61844 or nataliesalvatore@boisestate.edu.

Size: 62 Kb (initial)

Creating a Slide Show from Scanned Images

What to do with a few hundred photos of animals? That was the question facing Professor James Munger, Biology. Professor Munger asked for assistance from a Student Technology Assistant, who used PhotoThumb to create an easy-to-use slide show that students can view on the Internet or on CD-ROM, complete with thumbnails and captions.

Viewing requirements: Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator (free download)

Size: 1.10 Mb

Create a Narrated, Animated Lecture/Tutorial

How can you be in two places at one time? When Professor Ed Metjeka, Chemistry, had to attend an out-of-town conference, he provided students with this narrated, animated lecture/tutorial, available on the Web and on CD-ROM.

Viewing requirements: Apple Quicktime (free download)

Size: 1.35 Mb

Adding Narration and Annotation to Lecture Slides

Professor Larry Reynolds, Economics, used Quicktime to narrate and annotate a series of lecture slides, then distributed them to students on the Web.

Viewing requirements: Apple Quicktime (free download)

Size: 223 Kb

Narrate A Song With Text In Quicktime

Professor Mike Samball, Music, worked with Student Technology Assistant Eric Carlson to combine high-quality audio with video to provide a timed narration consisting of description of the action and commentary on the music.

Viewing requirements: Apple Quicktime (free download)

Size: 212 Kb

Playing Music on the Internet: Quicktime's Streaming Audio

Professor Joe Baldassarre, Music, asked Academic Technologies to create Quicktime audio files. This examples is used to acquaint students with an excerpt from Claudio Monteverdi's 1607 opera L'Orfeo. Downloaded from the Internet, the audio file provides high-quality sound with a minimum of download time.

Viewing requirements: Apple Quicktime (free download)

   Size: 74 Kb

Converting A PowerPoint Presentation to a .PDF Document

Professor Cindy Clark, Nursing, creates PDF files from her PowerPoint Presentations making it easy for students to print a 6 slide/page hardcopy they can use for note-taking and studying.

Viewing requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader (free download)

Size: 295 Kb

Using Macromedia Flash To Enliven A Lesson

Professor Larry Reynolds, Economics, has been experimenting with the audio, video, and animation capabilities of Macromedia Flash, using it to enliven lectures and to create mini-lessons and tutorials.

Viewing requirements: Macromedia Flash (free download)

Size: 120 Kb

Using Macros to Make An Interactive Excel Spreadsheet

Macros in Microsoft Excel allow students to manipulate data and see the effects immediately in this exercise developed by Professor Larry Reynolds, Economics.

Viewing requirements: Microsoft Excel

Something to keep in mind . . . 

If you plan to distribute course content over the Internet, remember that most students connect to the Boise State network through relatively slow dial-up accounts. They'll appreciate it if you keep file sizes small, resulting in faster download times. The following table shows estimated download times for various file sizes at various connection speeds. Please note, however, that times in this table are most likely faster than students would actually experience, owing to limitations of the phone system and other technical limitations.