2007-2008 IF Engagement Grant Recipients
Grant Recipient(s): Rudy McDaniel, Erik Vick, Steve Fiore, Nancy Stanlick
Title: Enhancing Information Fluency through the Development of Virtual Worlds and the Use of Simulated Scenarios in Synthetic Environments and Video Games
Description of Grant:
In this proposal we describe an exciting multidisciplinary approach to developing the future of ethics education as it relates to critical thinking and information fluency. We propose an innovative program of research to resolve a specific set of fundamental questions associated with the development of virtual environments designed to support targeted information fluency derived learning objectives. As such, this funding will support the development of an important collaboration between scientists and scholars within UCF and cutting across Digital Media, Cognitive Science, and Philosophy. Further, this funding will augment and support UCF’s recent grant, awarded to Co-PI, Dr. Nancy Stanlick, as part of the AAC&U’s Core Commitments Leadership Consortium. That funding supports a variety of targeted programs ranging from educational leadership to campus change to enable today’s students to develop both integrity and responsibility. The funding we are seeking through the IF initiative will not only leverage that effort, it will allow us to develop a unique educational capability that would significantly contribute to UCF’s reputation as a leader in the Information Fluency movement. Specifically, we will investigate how emerging technologies can support information fluency skills related to ethics education and the development of critical thinking skills. We will pursue innovative ways to immerse students in challenging decision making situations and diagnose learning across multiple levels. By using advanced game-based technologies to present scenarios devised to elicit critical thinking and measure responses at the attitudinal, behavioral, and cognitive level, funding from the IF initiative will allow us to develop a richer understanding of the learning process when students are faced with complex ethical problems.
Grant Recipient(s): Lauren Miller, Barb Kyle, Allison King, Andrew Todd, Barbara Alderman, Charles Viggiano, Jerry Sublette, Jeanne Miller
Title: Integrating Writing and Research: A Collaborative Project to Promote Information Fluency on a Regional Campus
Description of Grant:
The purpose of this project is to investigate the quantitative and qualitative value of a partnership among the writing center, the library, and select faculty on a regional campus (UCF Cocoa). Using the UCF definition of information fluency, the project team members developed a project designed to improve a regional campus student's ability to gather, evaluate and use information. The three most important information fluency skills - information literacy, technology literacy, and critical thinking - will be integrated into the project using a variety of interventions designed to address each of these skills.