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Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s popular Portal Resources for Indiana Science and Mathematics (PRISM) project has been named a finalist for the 2008 Education Contribution to Technology Mira Award by TechPoint, the leading advocate for Indiana’s technology sector.
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Popular Educational Resource: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology's PRISM web portal, directed by professor Patricia Carlson, has been recognized as one of Indiana's top higher education contributors to technology. |
Mira Awards are presented to the top performers, innovators and contributors in Indiana’s technology-related industries in nine categories reflecting various high-tech industries and academic fields. Three independent panels of judges, comprising business and community leaders, evaluated award nominees. Mira Award winners will be announced May 16 in Indianapolis.
“The Mira Award is another affirmation that PRISM is a successful technology tool that’s achieving its desired goals and objectives,” stated PRISM Director Patricia Carlson.
Started in 2003 through support from the Lilly Endowment Inc., PRISM has become a valuable educational resource for Indiana middle school and high school teachers. The project offers a digital library of more than 2,300 resources indexed by the Indiana Academic Standards and cross referenced by learning concept for grades 6-8. The digital library's focus has begun to extend to high school with the additions of Algebra I and Algebra II resources.
PRISM, part of Indiana’s I-STEM network, is accessed every day by approximately 1,100 teachers and students across Indiana and hosts over 600 online courses for more than 15,000 users.
PRISM offers free distance education courses to train teachers in the use of the Moodle course management system and the PRISM digital resource library. Moodle is designed to help educators create online courses with opportunities for rich interaction. Certification Renewal Units (CRUs) from the Indiana Department of Education are available from PRISM upon completion of the courses. The distance education courses assist teachers in using an electronic medium to interact with their students. Teachers are instructed on how to create their own online learning environment that allows them to post interactive assignments and design informative web pages that allow their students to submit assignments electronically and critique the work of classmates.
The PRISM website has received over 18 million website hits and seven million website page views thus far in the 2007-2008 school year.
Joining PRISM as Mira Awards finalists in the Education Contribution to Technology – Department/Program/Team category are Ball State University’s Institute for Digital Fabrication, Purdue University’s Serious Gaming Team and Indiana University’s School of Informatics & Pervasive Tech Labs Data Capacitor Team.
“Being a Mira Awards finalist, along with other excellent educational programs, is a great acknowledgment of what PRISM is building,” said Carlson, who is also a professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rose-Hulman. She was a finalist in the Mira Awards’ Education Contribution to Technology – Individual category last year.
For more information about PRISM, please visit www.rose-prism.org. |
