Annual Faculty Technology Showcase

With film and podcasts being a popular platform for the public to receive information and to be entertained, art therapy faculty decided it would be a valuable way to expand our program’s education and outreach. In September 2023, we received a grant from the Mt Hood Cable Regulatory Commission to purchase equipment for a digital media lab at L&C’s Community Counseling Center and to create a short documentary regarding our Liberatory approach to mental health engagement. We hired two of our students as GAs to organize the new equipment; to interview faculty, students, and art therapy participants; and to create a 20 minute documentary in collaboration with core faculty.
The film has recently been completed and will air on public cable access channels across Multnomah County before the end of the year. It has been exciting to be part of creating this film. It will promote our program, our new studio and treatment space at the counseling center, and public perception of/access to art therapy. In addition, we have digital media tools that will now be a program fixture for ongoing teaching. This will open up many options for students with the art they can create and the digital platforms they can learn to use both creatively and professionally. From photography to videography to studio lighting to podcasting, there is now such a wide array of state of the art materials available for our students.

I will provide an overview of how I created the chatbot and what materials it was trained on. I will also present some results of a survey of my students that will give some information on their usage and perception of utility.

Using the advanced computer ED-Tech provided to the Digital Media Lab, Art 112 (DM I) students worked together to train a neural network model (RAVE) designed for real-time sound synthesis and used it to create a participatory audio installation. The data consisted of audio recordings of each student’s voice, which resulted in a model capable of reproducing the average vocal characteristics of the class. The model was then applied to an audio plugin, which allowed it to interpret and transform an incoming microphone signal, according to the class’ vocal data points. This had the effect of transforming participants’ voices into the “DM I class’ voice” in real-time.

Although advanced, I decided to design this group project to achieve a number of effects. First, this project seeks to demystify generative AI by distinguishing between various buzzwords associated with the technology, e.g., neural networks, models, machine learning, latent space. Second, it engages students to work with AI beyond the surface level, i.e., in an open-source, DIY manner that exceeds the limitations of products and apps, revealing the potential for having agency, as creators, when working with the technology. Third, this project introduces students to concepts related to subjectivity, politics, identity, and ethics that are implicated by generative AI - for example, they discuss AI’s potential for producing new, hybrid subjectivities. In effect, it complicates and challenges student’s assumptions of what effects AI is having culturally and socially.

Although still in progress, students have thus far shown enthusiasm for this project. It is experimental and engages AI technology in a way that empowers students and shows them that we do not need to rely on large corporations to define how this technology can be used in an artistic practice.

I learned that model training is a very exciting point of entry for instructors to teach students about AI. So many of our interactions with AI are defined by companies and the UI’s they design. By designing our own models and demystifying the technology, we can find new creative strategies for employing the technology.

To others who are interested in trying this, I’d recommend researching use cases of AI that relate to your specific field.

I’ll be demonstrating two Gems I’ve created using Google Gemini Advanced. Gemini Gems offer a potentially revolutionary approach to education, providing personalized AI guides that cater to the unique needs of faculty and students alike. These intelligent companions can assist with a wide range of tasks, from lesson planning and research to homework help and exam preparation.

For faculty, I’ve created a prototype “Outcomes Curator” that analyzes syllabi and assessments to match them to the intended learning outcomes, and identifies potential gaps or misalignments. It also offers brainstorming capabilities, providing suggestions for new activities, adjustments to existing assessments, or additional resources to bridge any identified gaps.

For students, I’ve created a prototype “Study Planner” that creates personalized weekly study plans based on syllabi inputs and student learning/studying styles, time commitments, and procrastination tendencies. The weekly plan prioritizes tasks based on due dates, weighting, and the student’s learning profile, and allocates study time slots based on the student’s preferred times and other commitments. It helps break down the larger tasks into smaller, manageable chunks, building in a buffer time to accommodate unexpected delays or challenges.

In this presentation, I’ll share how I transitioned my PSY 230 Infant/Child Development course to an open-source format to reduce textbook costs and make learning more accessible for students. I’ll discuss the process of replacing traditional textbooks with Open Educational Resources (OER), developing new in-class activities, and creating assessments aligned with open-source readings. I’ll highlight how I integrated Hypothes.is to promote collaborative reading and critical engagement, and how I introduced sustainability topics into the curriculum.

I’ll share student feedback on these changes, including how they impacted engagement and participation. I’ll also reflect on lessons learned throughout the process—both successes and challenges—and offer practical recommendations for others interested in adopting open-source materials to enhance student learning and equity.

I recently unearthed some valuable video footage from 1997 that had long been tucked away. The tapes contained interviews with Dr. Violet Oaklander, a highly respected figure in counseling for children and adolescents. These interviews were part of my original dissertation research, yet they had never been shown publicly—until now.
With help from the IT team, I converted the analog tapes into a digital format, allowing me to integrate them into online presentations and in-person classes. The conversion process, however, revealed a few unexpected challenges. Although the video came through clearly, the audio had deteriorated, sounding garbled and distorted. Thankfully, I had a back-up: audio recordings of the same interviews on cassette tapes. After some additional work—digitizing the audio and syncing it with the digital video—I now have high-quality digital files that capture both Dr. Oaklander’s image and her words, ready for a new audience.
I’m excited to present this material at an international conference on Dr. Oaklander’s work next June. This experience taught me the importance of preserving original media formats, even in our digital age. My advice? Don’t toss those old analog tapes or cassettes just yet—you never know what value they might still hold!

Our personalities influence the choices we make. People who are shy may avoid the limelight, while those who are daring seek new experiences. Some of us run marathons, while others prefer the couch. Individual differences in behavior also affect the decisions that wild animals make. Bolder animals might venture further from their burrows than timid ones, which could help them expand their territory but also increases their exposure to predators. Studying these behavioral differences and their consequences is thus essential for understanding how animals live in complex and changing environments.
In this collaboration between EdTech and the Physics and Biology Departments, we leverage emerging technology to explore the behavior and natural history of Pacific jumping mice (Zapus trinotatus), a small mouse endemic to the Pacific Northwest. without intrusive handling or artificial lab settings. Jumping mice are saltatorial, named for their impressive hops, with elongated hindlimbs and tails that are clearly tailored for leaping. They hibernate from fall to spring—and within two weeks after emerging from hibernation, all females become pregnant. Hibernation and reproduction are influenced by environmental conditions and social context. This presents the opportunity to study how body condition, behavior (boldness, aggression, exploration, activity), and phenological events interact to influence life history decisions. For example, not all mice begin hibernation synchronously. How do individual differences in behavior predict the decisions of when to hibernate, and how do these decisions ultimately impact mouse survivorship and reproductive success?

While behavior is frequently studied in wild animals, popular assays for behavior are often conducted in artificial settings, making it unclear how well they translate to real-world contexts or predict ecologically relevant behaviors. Further, population monitoring typically requires intensive trapping efforts, which can be stressful and disruptive. Here, we are complementing traditional field biology methods with tools like 3D-printing, laser etching, and RFID networks to create a suite of apparatuses that can passively and unobtrusively monitor populations while collecting behavioral and demographic data. These innovative data collection tools will provide novel insights into the lives of Pacific jumping mice and set a new standard for ecologically relevant data collection.

The pandemic highlighted Zoom’s versatility as a powerful tool for various purposes. One effective use is recording in-person lectures to support students who need notetaking accommodations. Join OSA to learn more about using Zoom to capture audio, video, and transcripts of lectures and class discussions.

Notebook LM is an AI tool from Google that allows you to upload several documents such as book chapters, article pdfs, etc. It helps you search through them and find relevant bits of information. In a way, it does the mentally taxing part of a literature review that involves reading through lengthy texts to find those nuggets of information that you need to make your argument. Like other AI tools, it could potentially be used to speed up the process of academic inquiry. On the other hand, it could also shortcut the learning process. As a bonus, it has a function that will create a podcast-like audio file about the content that you upload. 

On December 4th, Information Technology and Boley Law Library hosted Legal Education in the AI Era: Bridging Classroom and Practice, a workshop exploring AI’s role in legal education. Sessions covered AI trends, prompt engineering, classroom applications, and its impact on legal practice. 

The following day, Gartner Executive Partner Mike Miller presented Understanding Generative AI: Opportunities and Considerations for Higher Education, a session examining the rapid rise of AI followed by a Q&A session. Topics included AI’s trajectory, educational applications, risks, and challenges, with insights tailored to students, faculty, and staff.

We will share key takeaways, participant feedback, presentation slides, and interactive exercises from the workshop and shared resources from both events, showcasing how AI is transforming teaching, learning, and professional preparation.

This presentation will showcase how Google Classroom and Google Colab may be integrated for active learning for STEM fields and digital humanities. By using Colab to host Jupyter Notebooks in which both plain text and code may be displayed and modified, these Notebooks may be conveniently copied en masse for a full student roster on Google Classroom. This gives students access to their own copies of the lecture materials, such that they can run code themselves, make modifications, add in-line comments, etc., without modifying the original lecture document. This facilitates active learning in so far as the instructor and the students are working with the same material simultaneously and may easily raise questions or compare results. While student reception of this integrated approach to active learning has been generally positive, we will also discuss possible issues, such as the learning curve for uploading datasets and the increasing presence of Google’s AI chatbot Gemini as a built-in assistant.

Accessibility should be approached through comprehensive integration, not just simple accommodation! This year, the Academic Operations team is building an initiative to improve the accessibility of both teaching and learning on the College of Arts and Sciences campus by making some changes to our classroom technology. During this year’s Showcase, we’ll be gathering feedback on potential tech accessibility enhancements and revealing a redesign of our classroom control panel. A faculty perspective will ensure that these updates align with the College’s current needs, so we hope you will stop by to take a look and chat with us!

Explore the stories crafted by students in the Spring 2025 Core course, “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story”. This interdisciplinary course centered on narrative power, examining whose voices shape our understanding of history, identity, and truth. Inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton: An American Musical, students explored foundational texts such as the Declaration of Independence, Frederick Douglass’s What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, and narratives that critique or reframe traditional histories, including Valerie White’s Under Freedom’s North Star.

The course culminated in the production of individual or team podcasts, where students applied critical analysis and storytelling skills to topics of their choosing. These podcasts reflect the diverse perspectives and interests of the class, covering themes such as European football, Hawaiian culture, and the rise of the Alt-Right. By analyzing texts, questioning assumptions, and crafting narratives, students developed a deeper understanding of how stories shape and reflect our world.

Come listen to these student podcasts and discover how they engaged with history, culture, and their own voices to tell stories that matter.

In my 200-level SOAN course, Social Change in Latin America, I turned the final assignment into a podcast, instead of a paper. I decided to do a podcast for multiple reasons. First, like a final paper, it would require students to do their own research into a topic of their choosing and so would fulfill a course goal of teaching students about an instance of social change. Second, it allowed students to work collaboratively. I think that there are many benefits for students in learning how to work on a project together with other people, and a group podcast helped facilitate this learning. Finally, I wanted to give students experience in creating a podcast. In talking with the class, the vast majority listen to podcasts and have thoughts about what makes a good podcast and how best to convey information. Creating their own podcast allowed them to add some creativity to their academic analysis and learn some new skills at the same time.

In general, the assignment worked well, students seemed to like it, and many of them produced good podcasts. Some of the challenges that I noted were: I asked students to create a script of their podcast, and some of them read directly from the script during their podcast. This made for somewhat boring listening and didn’t take advantage of the medium in the way that I had hoped. In the future, I would emphasize the conversational nature of podcasts and the use of other sounds and music as a way to keep things interesting. Also, a couple of student groups had some sound quality issues. I tried to mitigate this by having an Ed Tech workshop before they got started. While this was extremely helpful, there were still some sound issues. Finally, although I thought that this would be fairly straightforward to grade (and I used a clear rubric), it took a long time because I wanted to listen carefully to each podcast. Having students in groups made for a smaller number of podcasts, but the tradeoff was that many of the podcasts ended up being around 45 minutes.