Crestron presentation controls in 75 UO classrooms are now integrated into the UO’s emergency notification program. In an emergency situation, the Department of Public Safety will activate the Smart Classroom Alert System at the same time as UO Alert! text notifications. The system then sends a message to the Crestron panel stating that an emergency is declared, with instructions to check phones or the campus web page for further information. The emergency message can be targeted to specific buildings or zones, or sent campuswide.

Developed by Chris Lundberg (CMET Classroom Technologies) and implemented with the UO’s Department of Public Safety and Office of Emergency Management, the system provides a simultaneous early warning for a potentially large number of students and faculty, including occupants of campus classrooms that lack good cellular reception for text alerts.

See http://em.uoregon.edu//info/notification/ for more details about the Smart Classroom Alert system and emergency notification in general. While you’re there, take a moment to register your mobile phone for text alerts.

The UO Libraries’ Interactive Media group is currently collaborating with a team from Admissions, Student Orientation Programs and Web Communications to design and develop a new UO Virtual Tour. The new tour will be developed in phases with the first release utilizing video clips and images to introduce prospective students to campus life. Ideas for future phases include an interactive map, student blogs, student produced content and the ability to IM current students about their experience at the UO. The first release of the UO Virtual Tour is expected to launch at the beginning of summer term 2009.

In collaboration with Dr. Susan Verscheure (Instructor, UO Department of Human Physiology and Director, UO Graduate Athletic Training Program) CMET:Interactive Media has recently completed an online learning object to assist human anatomy students in the diagnosis of injuries to muscles, ligaments and nerves. The result is a virtual sports medicine clinic where students accompany a certified athletic trainer on rounds as she demonstrates the use of range of motion tests to diagnose injuries. Utilizing detailed graphics, interactive animations, audio and quizzing, this self-paced learning object allows students to get an internal view of how these injured tissues react to range of motion tests while practicing the underlying clinical logic with virtual patients. To learn more, check out this brief interview with Dr Verscheure as she talks about the project and her experience working with CMET:Interactive Media.

CMET:Interactive Media is currently collaborating with Dr. Esther Jacobson-Tepfer, UO Department of Art History, and the UO Infographics Lab on an NEH funded website to document ancient archaeological monuments in the Altai Mountains in Mongolia. This website supports Dr Jacobson-Tepfer’s understanding that “archaeological monuments reflect the movement of ancient hunters and herders through time and space; and that the orientation of monuments and their placement within the landscape were deliberate and meaninful.” The website features an inventory of monument classes, an interactive photographic archive, an interactive map and background on the geography and landscape of the Altai Region. The website will be accompanied by a print atlas documenting the project and region, published by ESRI Press. The site is expected to launch in Spring 2009.

During the month of October, CMET’s Video Production recorded several radio and TV interviews with UO faculty as well as an interview with Rep. Peter Defazio for the Fox Business Channel. Video Production regularly records remote interviews for both radio and television which are broadcast by news organizations around the world.

Video Production recorded the following two radio interviews for NPR’s “All Things Considered”:

• “After Hand Transplant, Patient’s Brain Adapts” spoke with UO Associate Professor Psychology, Scott Frey, who is using magnetic resonance scanning to study the brain of David Savage who received a hand transplant in 2006.
• “Chocolate Milkshakes on the Brain” interviewed Eric Stice from the Oregon Research Institute and Cara Bohon, clinical psychology doctoral student in the UO Psychology Department, about how the brains of overweight people respond to the anticipation and consumption of something which stimulates the “reward system” of the brain.

On October 13th, CMET Video Production recorded an radio interview for OPB’s “Think Out Loud” with the Dean of the UO School of Journalism and Communication, Tim Gleason. The topic was how the profession of journalism is defined today in a world of bloggers and online videographers.

Cara Bohon, UO doctoral student in clinical psychology was interviewed again by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporations, “Quirks and Quarks”, regarding her research with Eric Stice on the response of the brain’s dorsal stratium to “pleasurable” food and how this may impact the eating habits of overweight people.

Video Production also recorded two interviews for television broadcast — the first an interview with Dr. Eric Stice for ‘Good Morning America” and the second with Rep. Peter Defazio for the Fox Business Channel’s “Cavuto”.

In less than a decade, this campus and its classrooms have been outfitted with wireless networking and presentation projectors and other media devices. The Center for Media and Educational Technologies, Classroom Support has been offering group tutorials at the beginning of each term for instructors to get comfortable with the classroom systems. Faculty can find the tutorial schedule at our main web page, http://libweb.uoregon.edu/cmet/classrooms/, or call, 346-3091, or email, mediasvc@uoregon.edu, to arrange for an appointment.

Classroom Technologies and Educational Video are now joined by Interactive Media Development to form the Center for Media and Educational Technologies (CMET). Other services formerly associated with the Center for Educational Technologies (consulting and training for instructors, Workshops on Demand, and Blackboard support) are now provided by a new department, Scholarly Communications and Instructional Support.