Multimedia Fair Stresses Interdisciplinary Benefits

By Betsy Carpenter

Special to the Gazette

Earlier this month the Harvard digital and multimedia community gathered for the 5th Annual MultiMedia Fair to exchange information, discuss new frontiers, and unveil the fruits of this year's efforts. It has been a busy and exciting year for multimedia and, if this year's fair, "Digital Libraries on the Internet," was any indication, dependence on and interaction with multimedia will only increase in the near future.

Making Knowledge Less "Linear"

Extension School faculty member Bijoy Misra opened the program, discussing the human desire to collect wisdom into books and books into libraries. He went on to talk about the move to digital/multimedia libraries which will take us from "linear knowledge," encased in a book, for example, to other, more comprehensive, levels of communication. Multimedia provides the user with the opportunity to have many more senses participate with the media than one uses with a book, and this increased participation can communicate richer meaning and can stimulate better understanding.

Misra was joined by J. Anthony Parker, associate professor of radiology at the Medical School, who discussed early grassroots efforts in digital methods at Harvard as well as digital applications in nuclear medicine that are helping to save lives.

It is clear from the projects presented at the fair that Harvard is preparing for the coming digital decade by embracing the kind of new frontiers and solutions that multimedia can provide. Multimedia here has already helped stimulate a cross-fertilization of ideas - among departments, scholars, and artists. They are asking - and are letting technology help answer - how we can best teach something, describe or show something, help learners learn, and enrich the life of our culture.

Music and Other Foreign Languages

The keynote speaker for the event was John Howard, director of the Digital Initiatives Program for the Harvard College Library, who presented "Digital Libraries on the Internet." Howard reviewed Harvard's new initiatives, such as electronic course reserves (managed by Lawrence Markus at Lamont Library), and was most eloquent when discussing web-posted multimedia efforts created to enhance the appreciation and comprehension of music. He showed a Web site which included the presentation of written music, material from a composer's journal, and the performed music itself. This illustrated the profound added value that multimedia can lend to an art form.

Other presenters included Judith Frommer, professor of the practice of Romance Languages, who has been a leader in bringing multimedia to the aid of students of foreign languages. Her multimedia program enables students to hear themselves speak, compare their pronunciation to a standard, and to communicate with native speakers of their own age via the Internet.

George Brackett, lecturer on education at the Graduate School of Education (GSE), and his colleague Stone Wiske, coordinator of the Technology in Education Committee, have been working at the Jeremiah Burke High School for two years on a privately funded technology integration project. As part of that project (and Brackett's class, Educational Software Project Design), GSE student Shannon Beltz has developed an Internet Glossary of Teen Slang. This project is being used as an interactive teaching tool in a number of classrooms throughout the country.

Preserving Language, Saving Lives

Students add new slang words and definitions to the site through their e-mail accounts. They are able to see definitions that their classmates prepare and can compare usage and definitions with teens from other regions of the country. The Website, which Beltz helped design, has the feel of a safe haven where kids can express themselves. Some of Beltz's favorite words in the glossary are: home skillet (n) "very close friend or partner" - He's my home skillet; politic (v) "to be deep or serious about something" - All of a sudden, she got very politic on us; dome piece (v) "face; head" - I'll get in your dome piece, so you better come correct.

Daniel D. Moriarty, adjunct lecturer on management in the Faculty of Public Health, and James B. McGee, clinical fellow in medicine at the Medical School, discussed "The Digital Patient." Multimedia, they explained, has made a contribution to improve critical health applications at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital, where patient information is available to doctors digitally. Thus, busy physicians can receive vital information in a timely fashion with improved patient confidentiality. Moriarty and McGee also talked about a series of medical training videos they are developing.

H.T. Kung, the William H. Gates Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, discussed international conferencing and the advantages of being able to bring people together in virtual environment, and the Law School Education Technology Department demonstrated a series of interactive video lessons on a variety of legal topics. The "evidence" video simulates a trial environment where the judge rules on objections and the user is given tailored feedback.

Multimedia has come of age. As an enhancement to teaching, a way to help save lives, a route to critical information, and as a means of exploration, multimedia is a welcome addition to our world. And these days, one hears less about its expense. In fact, multimedia is, in many ways, the inexpensive alternative when applied to communication, conferencing, information storage, and the creation of art. Multimedia engages, stimulates, and provides new experience to its users as we seek to know more about the world and its collected wisdom.