DIGITIZING THAT HAMMER: PROCESSES FOR DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE ONSCREEN GEOLOGY LEARNING MATERIALS

Successful computer-based interactive learning materials result from successful collaborations: such materials require an integration of knowledge not only about the 'content' being taught but also about how people learn (and how people learn onscreen), about how to develop, arrange, and present materials visually and interactively to support the learning, and about how to organize and manage the technical production and integration of software, hardware, video, sound, animation, and text. This presentation (made by a multimedia developer with15 years experience) uses the development process of interactive software for an introductory geology class -- based in the geology of Utah's National Parks and Monuments -- to lay out how others who are interested in developing such materials can begin preparing for and developing such a project. The Utah software is being developed (with the support of an NSF grant) by an interdisciplinary team of geologists, learning specialists, interactive and instructional designers and developers, and technical specialists; although this list makes it sound as though the team must be large, the core group is four individuals. This presentation looks both at what the different team members bring to the process and how they collaborate as well as at particular strategies used by the team for translating geologic knowledge and concepts into engaging and effective screen activities for a non-geologic audience. Those who come to this presentation will leave with a sense of how to build teams for such development, how to plan time and budgets, and how to conceptualize specific materials to support the learning of geology.