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Steve Acker, Ohio Digital Bookshelf

February 1, 2012

What is the new textbook service from Apple and how does it work?

Apple iAuthor and iBook2 work together to create highly interactive textbooks that combine text, images, video and various study tools (automatic flash cards, for example). The digital texts are distributed in the iBook2 format. The textbooks are sold through iTunes and are read on iPads.

Several large publishers (McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Houghton Mifflin) have committed to a pilot project that creates iBook2s that sell for $15. The pilot texts are aimed at the K-12 market, although I suppose they could be used in intro college courses. Students can more easily highlight and make notes than is typical for eBooks. The major negative is that the iBook2s can’t be read on non-Apple devices (only iPads), so your Kindle or Nook won’t be able to display the interactive iBook2. The other big concern is that the iBook2 format is proprietary to Apple and may delay/inhibit the growth of an eBook standard called EPUB3. This lack of standardization puts schools/students into the unenviable position of needing multiple technologies to read different kinds of eBooks.

What are the benefits of such a service?

More engaging content and use of multimedia. If Apple maintains its best practices in accessibility, iBook2 should serve the needs for students with print disabilities (although the touch interface of the iPad has its limits).

What does a digital textbook service mean for the future of academic education?

The Apple initiative raises awareness of digital textbooks and may therefore speed the transition to a digital learning environment. We will always have print, which is a good thing. However, more and more students ultimately will be able to build an interconnected digital learning web — a personal library with personal connections to the materials. This promise is not unique to the iBook2, but the iBook2 helps people think about these possibilities.

Apple has a deservedly good reputation for designs that serve the individual user. The unknown in the academic environment is whether larger entities (classes, schools, state systems) can benefit in the same way that an individual pursuing individual learning/reading needs can. Costs, technical support and teacher and student training all need to be addressed.

Bottom line, the iBook2 offers an engaging glimpse into the realm of the possible. To deliver on the promise, it will have to evolve toward more open standards and institutions will need to think about technical support, faculty and student training and use policies. I’m glad the Apple announcement has generated such interest; we can expect accelerated improvements from Amazon’s Kindle/Fire, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Kno, Inkling and a host of other competitors. The coming year will be interesting.

Guoqing Li, Chinese Studies Librarian

January 18, 2012

When is the Chinese New Year celebrated?

Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, begins on the first day of the first month in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with
the Lantern Festival, which is on the 15th day. Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the “Lunar New Year.”

For 2012, the festival begins on Jan. 23.

Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and observed in a number of countries and territories where a sizable Chinese population resides. In mainland China, the public holiday is seven days in total, including New Year’s Eve, the first two days and two weekends.

The Chinese communities in Columbus have celebrated this holiday for many years. Chinese Culture Link and Ohio Contemporary Chinese School along with more than 10 other organizations successfully had their fourth Ohio Chinese Festival at Westerville Central High School on Feb. 12. It was a family-friendly event with many forms of high-quality Chinese art performances, cultural exhibitions and demonstrations.

The 2012 Ohio Chinese Festival will be held at the same place on Feb. 4. The Chinese Students and Scholars Society at OSU also will have its 2012 Chinese Spring Festival Celebration Party on Jan. 21.

Why is this an important celebration in Chinese culture?

Chinese New Year is the most important social and economic holiday for the Chinese. Traditionally, the holiday was a time to honor household and heavenly deities as well as ancestors. It also was a time to bring family together for feasting.

Even with the popular adoption in China of the Western calendar in 1912, the Chinese continue to celebrate the traditional Chinese New Year, although in a shorter version with a new name — the Spring Festival.

Younger generations of Chinese now observe the holiday in a very different manner from their ancestors. For some young people, the holiday has evolved from an opportunity to renew family ties to a chance for relaxation from work.

What are some traditional practices of the Chinese New Year?

It is full of rich and colorful activities. Starting from the 23rd day of the previous lunar month, every family does a thorough house cleaning and purchases enough food for the festival period. Also, new clothes must be bought, especially for children.

Red scrolls with complementary poetic couplets are pasted at every gate. The Chinese character “Fu” is pasted on the center of the door and paper-cut pictures adorn windows.

Then there is the Chinese New Year’s Eve, a day when Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner, also known as Chú Xī or “Eve of the Passing Year.” Regarded as the most exciting event, especially to children during the festival, firecrackers are set off to bid farewell to the past year and welcome the New Year.

The indispensable food served during spring festival is the dumplings (Jiaozi).

On the first day of the festival in ancient times, younger people had to salute the elderly by kowtowing; today they salute them by offering good wishes. During the holiday period, people also pay New Year visits to their relatives and friends as a special way to express good wishes.

Michael Brandl, Fisher College of Business

January 4, 2012

What is the payroll tax?

In December 2010, President Obama signed the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act, which extended for one year the reduction in FICA payroll tax that began under the American Reform and Recovery Act of 2009, also known as “the stimulus bill.” Are you confused yet? You are not alone.

Here is the basic idea: The FICA tax (Federal Insurance Contribution Act) is a federal tax imposed on payrolls in order to fund Social Security and Medicare. Up until 2009, employers paid a tax of 6.2 percent of gross income on about the first $100,000 of income, while employees also paid a tax of 6.2 percent subject to the same cap. Funding of Medicare works the same way — employers paid a tax of 1.45 percent on income paid and employees also pay a tax of 1.45 percent, but there is on cap on Medicare earnings.

What is the use of a payroll tax in the economy?

The 2009 act temporarily reduced the employee Social Security tax rate to 4.2 percent down from the 6.2 percent rate. The goal of reducing the payroll tax paid by employees was to give employees more after-tax or tax-home pay. It was hoped that households would use this “extra” income to buy more goods and services and thus help to invigorate a morbid economy. Remember consumer spending makes up roughly 70 percent of the US economy — thus getting consumers to spend more is seen as an important step in getting the economy moving again.

But the temporary payroll tax reduction was set to expire at the end of the year unless it was extended by Congress and signed by the president. After a bitter partisan battle, the reduction has now been extended for another two months, setting up another round of debate in Congress at the end of February.

What are the disagreements over the use of a payroll tax?

The basic disagreement is over how to “pay” for the payroll tax reduction and how long it would last. The Senate wanted to pay for a one-year extension in the payroll tax cut by imposing a 1.9 percent surtax on incomes more than $1 million and increased fees on mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The House GOP members at first also wanted a one-year extension but they wanted it “paid for” with reductions in government spending, including reducing the number of federal government employees.

Due to the deep divisions in how to pay for a year-long extension, Congress finally agreed to the two-month extension that will be paid for by higher fees on government-guaranteed mortgages. So, the idea is during the next two months the Democrat-controlled Senate and GOP-controlled House can work out a longer payroll tax extension. If they cannot, payroll taxes will increase (by about $80 a month for an average family making $50,000 a year) and some fear this will reduce consumer spending and potentially push the economy back into a recession.

Other economists wonder if all of this talk about temporarily boosting consumer spending isn’t a case of focusing on the symptoms of the problems and not the causes of it. For example, economists have long worried about the misaligned incentives in our financial system, tax code and currency markets. It is these misaligned incentives that many economists see as the main cause of the global financial crisis that started in 2008.

But instead of addressing these bigger structural issues, the US Congress cannot seem to come to agreement over a temporary payroll tax reduction. One wonders when, or if, it will ever move on to the bigger issues our economy faces.

Stephen Mangum, Management and Human Resources at Fisher College

November 16, 2011

How is unemployment measured?

Labor force measures such as the unemployment rate are drawn from the Current Population Survey, a monthly, nationally representative survey of some 60,000 US households. To be counted as unemployed, an individual in a sampled household must be 16 years of age or older, without work, willing to work and have actively sought work in the four weeks preceding the survey. That the definition includes a search requirement implies that the reported unemployment figure underestimates joblessness because, for example, it does not include “discouraged workers” who have stopped active search due to frustration over a lack of opportunities.

Why has unemployment been high recently?

There are two primary views of our current high unemployment. One view is that the bursting of the housing bubble and the accompanying financial crisis resulted in a loss of household wealth that led to sharp cutbacks in consumer spending. These cutbacks, along with the rise of uncertainty incumbent in the economic downturn perceived as different from prior recessions, led to a pronounced decline in business investment. That and the decline in consumer spending produced significant job losses.

The second view argues that structural change in the world economy results in significant dislocation of workers and jobs. Among the structural arguments are that globalization and technology have altered the geographical and skill distribution of employment, leading to rising numbers of geographic and skill mismatches. It seems reasonable to believe that elements of both cyclical — jobs that should return as demand for goods and services returns to a normal growth path — and structural unemployment are found in today’s current high unemployment.

What are some potential government strategies to reduce unemployment?

We need to make judicious use of expansionary monetary and fiscal policy tools to build confidence and spur demand. Expansionary fiscal policy financed through deficit spending should be job creation-focused and targeted on infrastructure and other investments that lead to greater long-term growth potential. That the initial stimulus package did not sufficiently adhere to these principles should not dissuade us from doing better.

Where documented structural mismatches exist, targeted efforts to provide appropriate skills training should be actively pursued, with strong participation from employers who will use these human resources once trained.

In addressing the unemployment of today we cannot lose sight of long-term realities. In a world of globalized product markets, the market for productive resources (human and otherwise) that produce goods and services is also global. To competitively produce that which can alternatively be produced in other countries, our workers need to be able to compete against the best of the world. In other words, if we do not want our citizens working at the relatively low wages that workers in other parts of the world are willing to accept, our citizens need to be sufficiently skilled such that US productivity per worker justifies higher hourly wages than elsewhere.

While relative productivity is key to competing effectively in the market for established goods and services, a companion route to expanding employment opportunities is through the creation of new products and services, the creation of ideas and things not yet existing or even envisioned. Here again the key to competitiveness lies in the productive capacity of our workforce, in seeding and nurturing innovation, research and development, and entrepreneurial activity. Public policy can play a positive role in nurturing such activities.

Ozeas Costa, School of Earth Sciences

November 2, 2011

How are nutrients circulated in the ocean?

Nutrients — such as nitrogen, phosphorus, silicon and iron — reach the oceans primarily as a result of runoff from continental regions. For example, in 2010, the Mississippi River contributed more than a million metric tons of nitrogen to the Gulf of Mexico. Some of this nitrogen started its journey right here in Ohio. Atmospheric deposition also is a major pathway for nutrient delivery to marine environments. Once nutrients reach the ocean, they are consumed by phytoplankton (microscopic organisms at the base of the marine food chain). Through photosynthesis, phytoplankton combine these nutrients with carbon dioxide and water to produce the carbohydrates, proteins and fats that sustain the rest of the ocean’s biological community. Once marine organisms die, the organic material from which they are made undergoes bacterial or other decomposition processes that convert organic remains into usable forms of nutrients — which can again be used by phytoplankton to re-start the cycle. However, not all the organic material is recycled back into usable nutrients. About 10 percent of the phytoplankton biomass produced in the euphotic — or sunlit — zone of the ocean sinks into deeper water, where all but about 1 percent is decomposed by other groups of bacteria living in the deep ocean. The organic matter that is not decomposed accumulates in the ocean-floor sediments. This process of removing organic material from the euphotic zone and accumulating it in the ocean floor is called biological pump because it “pumps” nutrients (and CO₂) from the upper ocean and concentrates them in the deep ocean.

What is the importance of these nutrients to ocean life?

Nutrients are essential for the distribution of life in the world’s oceans. Marine populations reach their greatest concentrations in places where physical conditions supply large quantities of nutrients. Since the continents are the major source of nutrients to the oceans, the greatest concentration of marine life is found along continental margins. Conversely, marine life is scarce in the open ocean, which is relatively poor in nutrients. Because increasing the amounts of nutrients in the oceans will result in increased generation of phytoplankton biomass — and,  similarly, an increase in the biological pump transferring CO₂ to the deep ocean — some scientists have proposed artificially adding nutrients to the ocean (the so-called ocean fertilization) as a potential solution to global warming. However, recent discoveries have suggested that increased phytoplankton production from ocean fertilization will also lead to increased decomposition of organic matter (which releases CO₂ back into the ocean and atmosphere).

Are there any potential threats from the circulation of ocean nutrients?

Over the last century, human activities — such as the production and use of nitrogen fertilizers; the burning of fossil fuels in automobiles, power generation plants and industries; soil loss from erosion and weathering intensification — have considerably altered the natural flow of nutrients from land to the oceans. Increased nutrient inputs to coastal areas (also called coastal eutrophication) promote a complex array of symptoms, including the excessive growth of algae — some of which release powerful toxins in the water, killing millions of fish every year as well as causing intoxication of humans — and the development of hypoxia, which occurs when oxygen concentrations fall below the level necessary to sustain most animal life. And this problem is not limited to US coastal waters. In recent decades, eutrophication symptoms have been reported globally.

Ray Cashman, Center for Folklore Studies

October 19, 2011

How did the holiday of Halloween develop?

Halloween in its contemporary American form is the result of several influences - English, Scottish, German and (surprising to some) Mexican - but it derives primarily from Celtic and, more specifically, Irish belief and custom. Irish immigration to the US spiked during and after the Potato Famine of the 1840s, and these immigrants brought with them several practices that are familiar today - masking, ghost stories, trick-or-treating, lighting bonfires and carving Jack-o-lanterns (though in the Old World, lacking pumpkins, they used large turnips).

The first thing to appreciate is where Halloween falls in the yearly cycle of an agrarian society. The end of October is also the end of the harvest and, in northern latitudes, the beginning of the considerably darker half of the year. In pre-Christian Ireland, Halloween was known as Samhain (pronounced “sow-in,” meaning “end of summer”) and was known as a time when the thresholds between this world and the Otherworld were open wide. From the Otherworld poured forth the souls of departed loved ones, fairies, the dallachán (the precursor of our headless horseman) and the púca (a phantom in the form of a pig or horse who urinated on fruits and grains not yet harvested). Everyone traveling at night, especially women and those considered to be the best and brightest in the community, were believed to be fair game for abduction or “sweeping” by the fairies. At the same time, it was possible to recover anyone who had been swept in the previous year. The bean sí (banshee) wandered the night, and anyone sitting on a graveyard wall, especially at midnight, could hear her call out the names of those destined to die in the new year.

Contact with the Otherworld was not always frightening or dangerous, however, and the visitation by the souls of departed relatives was quite welcome. The living prepared their homes for the return of their ancestral dead by leaving doors unbolted, lighting a candle for each soul departed from the family, sweeping the hearth clean and leaving food and water out.

Are there any traditional practices that arose from the development of Halloween?

Perhaps the most widespread practice at Samain, in pre-Christian and Christian times, was divination. Most divination games predicted future fortune, vocations and marital status. Marriage divination was the most popular. In one custom, two grains of wheat representing a certain couple were placed over a fire in pan or shovel. If the grains burned to ash without bursting, the couple would live happily together, and if otherwise, the couple would constantly bicker and fight. There were numerous methods for divining the identity of one’s future spouse. A woman who combed her hair or skinned an apple in front of a mirror could catch a glimpse of her future husband behind her. However light-hearted these marriage divinations were, death was always around the corner at Samain, itself the death of summer, and there was always the possibility of seeing through a divination not the future spouse but a coffin or some other image of death.

Where do we get the saying ‘Trick-or-Treat?’

Trick-or-treating has its origins in the practice of roving bands of disguised youths impersonating ghosts and frightening passers by. These bands also demanded contributions for their Halloween feast, and if no contribution was made, the rovers resorted to pranks such as taking the wheels off carts, uprooting gardens, blocking chimneys and blowing smoke through keyholes. In addition to the blurring of boundaries between past, present and future and between this world and the next, Samain was a time to let loose and venture beyond the pale of ordered, social behavior, a theme that continues today.

Christopher Hill, Physics

October 5, 2011

What is the OPERA experiment and what is all the excitement about superluminal neutrinos?

Neutrinos are nearly massless, nearly non-interacting, fundamental particles. OPERA stands for Oscillation Project with Emulsion tRacking Apparatus. It is a collaboration of physicists who are performing an experiment designed to measure the appearance of one type of neutrino (tau) by oscillation from another type of neutrino (muon). This can only occur if neutrinos have mass (which other experiments have shown to be true), and if they are given a long enough distance over which to oscillate. In this case their creation as muon neutrinos comes from proton collisions at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. They then pass through the earth to an underground lab in Italy called Gran Sasso that is far enough away (730 km) for this oscillation to have occurred. A side product of the experiment was to measure the time it took to get from one place to the other. This was expected to confirm that they were going infinitesimally slower than the speed of light. But what they actually measured was the other way around: The neutrinos arrived 60 billionths of a second early! They were apparently traveling 0.025 percent faster than the nominal speed of light, i.e., superluminal.

What does a potential discovery of a faster-than-light particle mean for the physics community?

Ever since 1905, when Einstein published his seminal paper on the special theory of relativity, an enormous amount of experimental evidence has been accumulated that corroborates his notion that nature has a speed limit, namely that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum. Moreover, the only things that can, even in principle, travel at the speed of light are massless particles (like the photons that comprise light itself). So the observation that the OPERA experiment is reporting, that particles with a non-zero mass (neutrinos) are apparently breaking nature’s speed limit, is potentially revolutionary. In order to explain the phenomena, our basic notions of matter, space and time would likely have to change — from a modification to special relativity or modification of space-time. In any case, if confirmed (and it is appropriate to stress that this is a big “if”) this would almost certainly be the most significant discovery in fundamental physics in the last 100 years.

How would the OPERA result change how physics is currently viewed/approached? Why is there so much disbelief that this could be viable?

The OPERA measurement will affect current research because of the need for confirmation (or refutation) as soon as possible. Fortunately, there are other laboratories around the world that can produce similar neutrino beams to those originating from CERN. In the US, Fermilab in Batavia, Ill., has such a beam and several existing neutrino experiments. Some of this research effort will undoubtedly be redirected towards neutrino velocity measurements.

Both the distance and time-of-flight determinations that were used in the OPERA result are very precise measurements, so the techniques are adequate to establish a statistically significant deviation from the nominal speed of light. Most disbelief in the result does not concern its precision but rather its accuracy, i.e., is there perhaps a systematic uncertainty (e.g., a bias) in their experimental method that is causing the 60 nanosecond difference rather than it being due to superluminal transit. In this regard I think the physics community is being appropriately skeptical. As Carl Sagan said, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Eugene Braig, Ohio Sea Grant

September 21, 2011

What are harmful algal blooms and why are they harmful?

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are so named because many produce toxins that can cause illness or irritation — sometimes even death — in pets, livestock and humans. An algal bloom is an abundant or excessive growth of algae. Most HABs are caused by planktonic bacteria, which suspend in the water and rely on currents to move them. The term “algal” is a little misleading in this context because the organisms that normally make up HABs are actually cyanobacteria, which are commonly referred to as “blue-green algae” but are not true algae.

Like plants and true algae, cyanobacteria contain chlorophyll, which captures sunlight to photosynthesize sugars for energy. Aquatic plant and algae growth requires nutrients, especially phosphorus and nitrogen, from the water or sediment. Unlike most plants and true algae, many cyanobacteria are able to pull and use (or fix) nitrogen from the atmosphere.

Cyanobacteria can be distributed throughout the water, or they can float to form scums on or near the surface. The cells of many cyanobacteria species grow together in colonies. Blooms can look like slicks of opaque, bright green paint, but closer inspection often reveals the grainy appearance of individual colonies. While most HABs in Ohio will appear greenish or sometimes black, cyanobacterial blooms can have a wide variety of appearances and colors.

How do they affect humans, and what are the risks?

Harmful algal blooms can cause taste and odor problems in drinking water, pollute beaches with scum, reduce oxygen levels for fish and other animals, cause treatment problems for public water supplies and generate toxic chemicals. HABs cause a range of problems for recreation and the environment, but at their worst they cause health problems because they produce toxins.

Human illnesses — sometimes even acute, severe illnesses — are often attributed to HABs, and several deaths in Brazil were associated with a contaminated water supply being used for dialysis in 1996, but there has never been a modern documented case of human death from the ingestion of cyanotoxins.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency monitors our surface waters for potential HABs, and they have implemented a new response strategy to protect public health. In general, people should avoid contact with waters that have HAB advisories posted or anywhere the water is green, has a floating algal scum or is generally discolored. When in doubt, stay out! Rinse yourself, family and pets after swimming in natural waters, and do not drink or cook with lake or pond water. Boiling will not eliminate cyanotoxins. If anyone becomes ill after swimming, seek medical attention immediately.

What can be done to eliminate the blooms from local lakes and water sources?

Total elimination is not practical. Many HAB-forming organisms are native to Ohio and actually should occur in our waters in low abundances. Many only come to cause problems when environmental conditions — often human-induced conditions — favor them. Reducing runoff and the input of nutrients, especially phosphorus, to surface waters can minimize problem blooms. Use lawn and plant fertilizers sparingly; do not over-fertilize or over-water after applying fertilizer. If possible, use phosphorus-free fertilizers. Prevent surface runoff from agricultural and livestock areas. Maintain septic systems; improperly working systems can cause nutrient loading to nearby waters. Maintain native plants along shorelines and in as much of the watershed as possible; plants are excellent filters of nutrients and are essentially maintenance-free.

Michael Stamatikos, Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics

August 10, 2011

Why has the Space Shuttle program ended?

After a record of 30 years and 135 missions, the Space Shuttle program ended when the wheels of the Atlantis orbiter rolled to a stop at  5:57 AM EDT on July 21 — six hours after the 42nd anniversary of Armstrong’s “giant leap” on the moon. This decision was a consequence of the Bush Administration’s aspiration to return humans to the moon in 2020. The resulting Constellation Program was conditionally funded on retiring the Space Shuttle in 2010 and decommissioning the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015.

In 2010, Obama cancelled Constellation, postponed Space Shuttle retirement until 2011 and extended the ISS until 2020.

What is the Space Shuttle’s legacy?

As humanity’s first reusable spacecraft, the Space Shuttle’s legacy will endure through the synergy of human and robotic exploration, as demonstrated by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the recent completion of ISS construction. Five crucial astronaut repair missions enabled HST to expand our knowledge of the cosmos, while the unique microgravity and radiation environment aboard the ISS affords an interdisciplinary scientific research laboratory with both terrestrial and space-based applications.

What is the future of human space exploration?

NASA has delegated low Earth orbit transport of crew and cargo to the private sector via the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to pursue human exploration of deep space for the first time since 1972.

COTS will ferry ISS cargo using companies such as SpaceX by next year. Given the inherent risk, which has historically resulted in tragedy every generation, the timeline for commercial crew transport remains uncertain; in 2012, ISS crew transport will rely on Russia’s Soyuz at the cost of about $50 million per astronaut.

Although the “Orion” multi-purpose crew vehicle has been salvaged from Constellation, we currently have no official heavy-lift space launch system design; no launch date, though it is speculated to be close to the end of this decade; or destination, with flexible options including nearby asteroids (by about 2025), the moon and Mars (about 2035).

Mars could be the next frontier given its paramount scientific value and cost sharing potential amongst international partners, using the ISS paradigm. Intermediate missions to the moon and ISS studies throughout the next decade would help test the logistics and physiological effects of extended human space travel. It also provides a response to a rising Chinese geopolitical presence, which includes plans for a lunar rover (2013), space station (2020) and manned lunar mission (2025).

Ultimately, our future as a space-faring nation depends upon a compelling narrative with sustained bipartisan support — an archaic relic extant only within the nostalgia of the Apollo era.

For a panel discussion regarding the future of space exploration, see streamwww.classroom.ohio-state.edu/flash/baird/13208-1.

Megan Troyer, manager of the Digital Union’s Learning Collaboration Studio

July 13, 2011

What is a SMART Podium Interactive Pen Display?

SMART is a brand name for a line of Interactive White Board products, one of which is a replacement screen for the podium computer in a classroom. Each device has a stylus attached that allows you to interact with the computer. The pen can completely replace the mouse as a means of launching programs and navigating PowerPoint, websites or any other application on the computer.

The Podium also has a series of buttons that allow the user to change the functionality of the stylus from a mouse to a red, black or blue pen or an eraser. In most applications, SMART software will add a “Digital Ink Layer” to the screen. Think of this like a transparency on an overhead projector that allows you to annotate right on top of whatever content is being displayed on the computer screen.

More advanced software comes with the SMART Podium.  SMART has a plug-in for many common applications such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat that allows the annotations to be embedded directly into the application.

Additionally, SMART Notebook software is a PowerPoint replacement that allows the presenter the use of some sophisticated tools including handwriting recognition or the use of a “Magic Pen” that can spotlight a section of a slide or zoom in on a piece of an image.

What are the benefits to faculty and students?

If a student in class asks a particularly apt question that is not covered in the prepared lecture materials, the presenter can quickly add the topic to that day’s lecture notes. Faculty can benefit by saving the notes they take on their slides each class for iterative improvement of the presentation materials from quarter to quarter. Instructors can solve out problems without need for a chalkboard, whiteboard or overhead projector; take notes on a lively discussion; or draw attention to details on a piece of artwork — all of which can be preserved for future use.

Students don’t suffer from eyestrain reading chalkboards.  Additionally, students can benefit if the instructor saves the notes and provides them to students after class, allowing the students to concentrate on the message of the lecture versus verbatim note taking, and they can participate in more active discussion.

Where are they located and how do I learn more?

There are currently six pool classrooms equipped with SMART Podium devices: CC 311, EA 160, EA 170, IH 100 and HI 131, plus one centrally managed innovative learning space, called the Learning Collaboration Studio in SEL 060. Many other departments including Chemistry and the University Libraries have SMART Podium devices available to their instructors. Training is available on demand or in small groups through the Digital Union, digitalunion@osu.edu or 292-2793.

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