MSU selected to receive higher education collaborative software grant
Murray State University (MSU) was selected as one of 10 postsecondary schools to receive a collaborative software grant from DyKnow. Universities and colleges throughout the United States and Canada submitted proposals outlining strategies for using DyKnow’s collaborative software to enhance teaching and learning at their institution. A team of education advisers selected the winners.
The selected schools detailed a variety of intended uses, from extensive mobile classroom projects to restructuring doctoral programs. Dr. Terry Derting, principal investigator of the DyKnow grant at MSU and professor of biological sciences, and her co-investigators, Dr. Renee Fister in mathematics and statistics, and Greg Gierhart, lecturer in elementary education, will use the collaborative software to facilitate active learning in classrooms where faculty and students use tablet and laptop PCs.
“MSU and other undergraduate institutions across North America are engaged in widespread reform to increase active learning” said Derting. “MSU has received multiple grants to increase student learning through use of use modern technologies. What we lacked was software that allows real-time communication among student computers as the students work on collaborative activities and solutions to problems. We are very excited to finally have this capability. DyKnow will allow our professors and students to fully share work and information via computers in the classroom while simultaneously using computer-based resources such as the web and instructional simulations. In addition, we can gather student feedback and assessment data quickly and easily at any point during a class.”
According to Derting, the project leaders have previously documented increased learning and more efficient use of class time through the use of computer-assisted active learning. The postsecondary grant recipients will receive DyKnow software, server hosting, self-paced Internet training tutorials, deployment strategy consultation, as well as support and product updates.
Postsecondary grants represent just one of the ways DyKnow is providing schools an opportunity to enhance teaching and learning without a financial commitment from recipient institutions. Earlier in 2009, the company awarded a number of K-12 schools a “DyKnow Classroom” that included the DyKnow Software Suite and related services.
