Computerized education has loomed large in science fiction and movies as long as computers have existed. Whether it's an old Apple giving children multiplication drills or Keanu Reeves taking a battery of five-second martial arts crash courses in \The Matrix,"" the hope that computers can help people learn has driven people to develop new instructional technology for years.
While one can't download knowledge into one's brain yet, technology is taking on a prominent role in UW classrooms. Aside from using presentation software like PowerPoint to create lecture materials, some professors are creating Web sites for their courses and putting their lecture notes online. Some of these Web sites use WebCT, a program that allows students to discuss the class and take quizzes online.
Food Science 120, however, goes considerably farther. Taught by UW-Madison Professor Martha Bingham, video of the course is broadcast via cable and Wisconsin Public Television. The course has a Web site with everything from extra credit quizzes and notes to streaming video of the lectures.
According to Bingham, the class has been taught via television for 15 years, but the increased use of technology has only appeared in the last four. In that time, the class's enrollment has swelled from 300 to over 500 per semester, most of whom use the broadcasts or recordings of the course to keep up.
Jesse Winters of the Instructional Media Development Center is the producer of the course. He manages the course's technology needs and has started working with the course's staff and graphics department on Flash animations to help explain concepts to students.
Susie Knoblauch, an outreach specialist with the Department of Food Science, also works with the course. She said that while she spends a lot of time working on the Web site and keeping up with student email, she finds that the technology makes dealing with the course easier for the instructors and students alike.
""The use of the Web page and WebCT along with the content delivery gives the student a choice how to learn, given that there are different learning styles, and each student can find the opportunities or best ways for him/her to succeed,"" Knoublauch said.
Students in the course agreed that technology makes taking the class much more convenient. Sophomore Megan Abel remarked that the use of video technology helps her retain knowledge.
""By viewing the course on TV, not only am I watching from the comfort of my own room, but I am able to tape the lecture for additional reference and note-taking convenience,"" Abel said.
""The boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state,"" as the Wisconsin Idea says, and while Food Science 120 might be ahead of the curve, it's also a sort of laboratory for testing new instructional technologies. In the future, digital and telecommunications technologies will make learning accessible to even more people in Wisconsin and beyond.
