Filippelli Institute for E-Education and Outreach

In HIST 109, Mary Mendoza wanted to capture Manhattan as a living, growing city. She used 360° videos to give students an immersive experience that would capture aspects of pre-urbanized Manhattan that may be harder for students to connect with, such as wild animals (pigs in particular) running through the streets and eating from trash piles. 

When people hear the term “asylum” related to mental health, they often picture scary, haunted, dirty, rundown places where patients were mistreated. In HIST 103, Greg Eghigian challenged that notion by showing the comparatively clean, bright, posh reality of Kirkbride asylums as they functioned early in the asylum boom. 

The Filippelli Institute enhances faculty teaching with the innovative use of a lightboard, which allows instructors to create engaging multimedia presentations that bring their lessons to life. This interactive tool enables faculty to write and draw in real time while facing their students, fostering a more dynamic learning environment. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to alumna Hellene Runtagh for her generous gift that made the acquisition of the lightboard possible.

For HIST 101, Chris Lawrence wanted to create a virtual learning environment where students could explore the similarities and differences between Penn State’s Beaver Stadium and its architectural ancestor, the Roman Colosseum. Virtual learning environments allow for exploration of the past in ways that text on a page cannot. 

In CAMS 045, Erin Hanses uses animation to help students interpret the story of creation in Greek mythology. Virtual reality shows the size and scale of the Parthenon plus helps students experience the site much like a Greek citizen in that era.  

In Ling 100 Deborah Morton uses animation along with recorded monkey calls to demonstrate non-human primate language. In this different Campbell monkeys sounds convey information to other monkeys in the area. These include warning to descend from trees to warnings to ascend into trees, as well as different calls for possible danger and immediate danger.