Image project/tools
From AcademicCommons
Contents |
Tools
Recommended, Created and Needed
This section lists tools mentioned by faculty as ones they have used, developed or need in the creation, manipulation or display of digital images. We invite you to add your comments and the names of tools you have used or have developed.
1. GENERAL
Used
3-D Construction
Autodesk Maya http://www.autodesk.com/maya 3D modeling, animation, effects and rendering solutions. “A student (working with ITS) is building 3-D image from 2-D data—fabulous and greatly needed but extremely hard to learn and operate—need something simpler.” Ann Burke, Wesleyan University
Geowall http://geowall.geo.lsa.umich.edu/ “We are working with a ‘geowall’ to make 3-D images out of 2-D material. We’re digitizing old stereo-images and projecting them onto a polarizing screen and using polarizing glasses to get the 3-D effect.” Bob Newton, Smith College
Animation
Flash http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/flashpro/ “I’ve used Macromedia Director, but it seems less suitable for the Web.” Douglas Kankel, Yale University
Needed
"A sharing/organizing tool"
"Something like E-snips—something where faculty creating their own digital library could access others’ digital libraries at will so we wouldn’t have to have one huge repository. Use RSS and other community-building tools, like Flickr, that can enable the discovery of peers’ material.” - Colby College Library/IT discussion
Note: See Raymond Yee’s development at Berkeley of a “Scholar’s Box” which will do something quite similar, pulling material in from many sources, annotating and otherwise adding and then sharing it for teaching and research. See Yee’s ongoing account of this: http://www.raymondyee.net/wiki/ScholarsBox_2fEssaySeries_2fCurrentState.
"I would like to have a tool to manage my entire personal digital image collection, and I don’t have such a tool.” - Alison Murray Levine, Colby College
2. ART HISTORY
Needed
“My dream: a single tool to acquire (from Web, proprietary databases, etc.) manipulate (i.e., crop, color correct), catalog, and present images.” - Sandy Isenstadt, Yale University
“Ways to project with a sense of size and scale beyond the slide experience.” - Anne Dunlop, Yale University
“I’m now thinking about what to do with NASA World Wind (http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov)!” - Mimi Yiengpruksawan, Yale University
3. ASTRONOMY
Used
Starry Night http://store.starrynightstore.com/ Astronomy animation tool. “It makes it fairly easy to make animations. In astronomy it’s probably the most instructive.” - William Herbst, Wesleyan University
4. CHEMISTRY
Used
ChemDraw http://www.cambridgesoft.com/software/ChemDraw/ "I use ChemDraw among other programs for making chemical structures.” - J. McBride, Yale University'
Spartan http://www.wavefun.com/products/spartan.html "Computer software package for doing molecular modeling...can draw a molecule on screen, copy it into a document, calculate orbitals and you can use images to predict where reactions will occur. Typically students build structures and examine images and reach conclusions, don’t often copy them into documents; but the program generates the images.” - David Henderson, Trinity College'
Orbital Viewer http://www.orbitals.com/orb/ov.htm "Downloadable program that can create very effective images.” - Matthew Cote, Bates College'
5. EARTH SCIENCES
Used
ESRI software for ARCview http://www.esri.com GIS and mapping software.
ENVI http://www.ittvis.com/envi/ Remote Sensing Exploitation platform.
Leica Erdas Imagine http://gi.leica-geosystems.com Geospatial image processing.
6. MATHEMATICS
Used
Maple http://www.maplesoft.com/ "You can make 3-D graphs - and it’s very cool. It makes it very easy to present graphs in exams. You can also animate and show complex calculations very quickly. Students use it to do their own calculations and make their own graphs.” - Janice Sklensky, Wheaton College
Mathematica http://www.wolfram.com/ "You get equations and pictures—you can visualize them while you’re doing them” - Flip Phillips, Skidmore College; "It enables you to do computation and graphs and even animations where there’s a variable parameter. Can generate 2-D or even 3-D graphs” - Mark Huibregtse, Skidmore College; "Gives you another level of understanding;” - Jay Thoman, Williams College
WeBWorK http://webwork.rochester.edu/ "Helps in the analysis of functional responses (enter a function and have it evaluated as correct or not). It’s ideal for assignments with quantitative responses. It has an image language and can present several graphs and ask students which is the right one. Can’t yet allow students to present a graph themselves online.” - Mark Huibregtse, Skidmore College
SAGE http://www.sagemath.org/ "General purpose open source mathematics software. Under active development; currently (August 2007) can plot functions and curves in 2D, and has some primitive 3D plotting capabilities." - Alex Ghitza, Colby College
