Disseminating Mesolore: An Interdisciplinary and Interactive Change Agent for College Pedagogy

这项工作正在开发Mesolore项目的第二阶段，这是一个两阶段的教育软件工作。 第一阶段于2001年完成，结果是《Mesolore：探索中美洲文化》，这是一个为本科生提供的跨学科课程材料的示范性多媒体资源。 第二阶段是一个为期三年的传播工作，以促进创造性的课堂采用，并促进Mesolore作为大学教学法的变革推动者。该项目解决的问题是围绕教师的专业发展。 这包括缩小社会科学教学法中多媒体技术的潜力与课堂采用之间的差距，并扩大跨学科教学的实践。 第二阶段包括三个部分：（1）编写和课堂实施用户指南，用于使用Mesolore进行教学;（2）举办一系列专业发展研讨会和海报会议;（3）建立教师社区。 总的来说，这些介绍教师本科教学新的科学内容，促进有效的教育实践，并改善课堂教学。 该项目的目标是鼓励广泛采用Mesolore，提高大学教育质量，并鼓励更多的拉丁美洲人，美洲原住民和妇女看到科学和人文的相互联系。

This work is developing Phase II of the Mesolore Project, a two-phase educational-software effort. Phase I, completed in 2001, resulted in Mesolore: Exploring Mesoamerican Cultures, an exemplary, multimedia resource of interdisciplinary course materials for undergraduates. Phase II is a three-year, dissemination effort to facilitate creative classroom adoption and to promote Mesolore as a change agent for college pedagogy. The problems the project addresses are centered on faculty professional development. This includes closing the gap in social science pedagogy between the potential of multimedia technology and its classroom adoption, and expanding the practice of interdisciplinary teaching. Phase II consists of three parts: (1) writing and classroom implementation of a user's guide for teaching with Mesolore; (2) holding a series of professional development workshops and poster sessions; and (3) building a faculty community. Collectively, these introduce faculty to new scientific content for undergraduate teaching, promote effective educational practices, and improve classroom teaching. The goals of this project are to encourage the wide adoption of Mesolore, to improve the quality of college education, and to encourage more Latinos, Native Americans, and women to see the interconnectedness of science and humanities.