Curriculum Enhancement
Faculty will use digital technologies to further the University's curricular goals of interdisciplinary study, internationalization, increased undergraduate research and service learning.
Duke Digital Initiative technology explorations have contributed to a number of innovations in curricular areas that are key to the University's strategic planning goals. Many students in service learning courses now routinely use digital audio recording technologies to document their experience in their community placement and to stay in touch with their off-campus partners.
In the "Rebuilding from Ruins" interdisciplinary service learning course, students participating in the Spring Break Katrina relief project used portable media recorders narrate written journals and to make a final group oral report. Students in select engineering courses have used Tablet PCs to exchange class notes and run interactive simulations, bridging the gap between lectures and laboratory activities, both physically and intellectually.
Language, literature and culture courses are taking advantage of easy to use tools to expand access to a variety of multimedia materials as well as contacts with experts in other institutions and countries, enhancing classroom discussion and increasing student contact with authentic language and culture. In French 76, a fourth semester language course, students have taken advantage of the DDI video pilot program to use digital video cameras and laptops equipped with multimedia editing software to produce movies on course topics.
In these ways and many others, digital technologies help to further the University's goals of interdisciplinary study, international perspectives, undergraduate engagement in research, and learning in the service of society.
