Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC)

Metalloman Benefits IMSC Partnership with McKinley Technology High School

During the 2005-2006 academic year, McKinley Technology High School in Washington, D.C., served as a living laboratory for the deployment of IMSC's educational technologies into their classrooms and curriculum. Working with McKinley teachers and administrators, IMSC has used a "serious game" called Metalloman to teach complex science concepts.

Metalloman explores how learning can be conveyed through games without diminishing content, while also focusing on how students can play with ideas and concepts central to the curriculum. Generally in a game, players are presented not only with information, but also with experiences from which information can be extracted as students are put into the picture of what they are studying. While that is more complex, it is often more engaging for players and students. The game was carefully designed to simultaneously challenge users with tasks and activities that are tightly coupled to learning outcomes, while providing an engaging environment supporting curious exploration and an innovative learning experience for students.

To support 9th and 10th grade students preparing for the school's biotechnology academy, McKinley teachers and students have used the BioSIGHTTM Interactive Streaming Storyboard (ISS) tool developed by IMSC. ISS is a web-based software platform to deliver customized streaming content. It supports users in telling "stories or lessons" by integrating from a digital library archive, a URL of streaming media source, or even a person, video, or web camera, without the need for any web programming experience. In addition, the ISS's digital library archive has initially been populated with over 100 IMSC original content animations in support of Cell Biology and Immunology modules.

The partnership with McKinley is proving mutually beneficial, as IMSC researchers are able to gather usability data to inform future designs as well as findings to support students' learning outcomes, while McKinley students and teachers are able to benefit from innovative educational applications and materials.

To learn more about this topic:
Visit the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) website at http://imsc.usc.edu/research/project/storyboard/

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McKinley Technology teachers and administrators
flank Prof. Wee Ling Wong (IMSC) and Amy
Friedlander (Shinkuro consultant).

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Last modified: April 14, 2007