The Ball State Emerging Media Research Council established the Emerging Media Innovation Grants in spring 2009 to provide money for research, scholarly study, and creative endeavors that will advance the knowledge base in emerging media and create momentum for future work and funding. You will find a description below of each of the projects selected to receive funding.
iInteract: Web 2.0 Real Time Audience Response System
Todd Meister (University Computing Services)
Sharon Van Hove (Nursing)
Linda Sweigart (Nursing) This project will facilitate the further development and full scale deployment of iInteract, a real-time assessment application currently in the pilot stage of development. This Web 2.0 application leverages equipment the students already own (PDAs, laptops, and Internet capable cell phones) rather than requiring the additional purchase of clickers (audience polling devices) for real time assessment.
Digital Chicago Stock Exchange – DiCSX
Michele Chiuini (Architecture)
John Fillwalk (Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts)
The DiCSX (pr. dix) project will create a Web-based digital information system (DIS) for the 1894 Chicago Stock Exchange (CSX) by Adler and Sullivan. This proposed DIS is a limited prototype for a larger project. It will consist of three types of digital resources: 1) digital models of surviving ornamental panels obtained with laser scanner technology; 2) digital archives with historic documentation on the panels; 3) a partial digital reconstruction of the CSX visualizing the assembly of the panels. This project is unique in merging architectural digital modeling with diverse forms of digital documentation.
Mobile Devices as Emerging Educational Tools
Jay Bagga (Computer Science)
Vinayak Tanksale (Computer Science) This team will design and develop native and Web-based iPhone educational applications to be used as learning tools for students from a variety of disciplines. The long-term goal is to develop an array of educational applications for touchscreen based mobile devices. The deliverables for this project are three fully functional iPhone applications.
Development of a Virtual Convening Space for Parenting
Sheron Fraser-Burgess (Teachers College)
Matthew Stuve (Center for Technology in Education)
John Fillwalk (Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts) This project will develop, test, and promote a Web portal to support parental engagement in schools and in the education of their children. The interactions will range from simple discussion boards and podcasts to Second Life modules, all designed to provide a collaborative of local agencies with a platform to coordinate services, share resources, and engage parents and teachers in the process.
Broadband Based Monitoring of Food and Water Related Behaviors of the Elderly
Robert Yadon (Center for Information and Communication Sciences)
Vinayak Tanksale (Computer Science)
Jane Ellery (Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology) The principal investigators proposed to use Ball State’s unique position in the broadband wireless world to design and test a new system that will remotely monitor intake related behaviors of the elderly who live in Delaware County, Indiana. A wireless system will be designed where food and water related behaviors of the elderly living in their own homes will be remotely sensed and these data will be analyzed so as to establish normative profiles.
Kindle for Courses: Emerging Media and the Evolving Conceptions of Text Based Electronic Readers for Teaching and Learning
Jon Clausen (Teachers College) This study will explore how student learners engage course-based texts through the use of the Kindle DX wireless reading device.
LifeWerx: An Immersive Virtual Collaboration Environment
Wayne Zage (Computer Science)
Dolores Zage (Computer Science) Project LifeWerx seeks to create a functional 3-D virtual collaboration environment to enhance the everyday work experience. The emerging media grant will allow the current version of LifeWerx to migrate to the most recent world engine to continue the research on refining the access controls and desktop application sharing.
Text Messaging: Themes, Traits, and Tendencies
Thomas Holtgraves (Psychology) The purpose is to conduct some initial investigations of the psychological and linguistic aspects of text messaging. Two studies will be conducted in which participants (Ball State University students) retrieve their most recent text messages. Participants will also complete several personality and demographic measures. The linguistic structure and content of the text messages, and their relationship to personality and demographic variables, will be analyzed. This research should help lay the groundwork for subsequent studies of the social, psychological, and communicative aspects of text messaging.
DN NewsLink Community-Building Project
Marilyn Weaver (Journalism)
John Strauss (Journalism) The intent is to study Web usage among students to help understand video content selection and develop new video storytelling forms. At the same time, the information will be used to begin a new unified media operation on campus.
Citizen Science, Citizen Sensors: Employing Social Media in Climate Science
Petra Zimmerman (Geography) The main goal is to explore the potential use of Twitter in climate-focused Citizen Science, providing richer and more finely resolved climate data while students learn climatology. Using inexpensive handheld thermometers/hygrometers and GPS devices, undergraduate students act as mobile sensors and collect meteorological information (e.g., temperature, relative humidity), using Twitter to “tweet” the information. Mobile tweeted data will be compared to time comparable data from two fixed weather sensors.