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 * STUDENTS: PLEASE REVIEW YOUR SESSION TITLE, NAME AND ABSTRACT BELOW. CLICK ON "EDIT" TO MAKE YOUR CHANGES, AND BE SURE TO CLICK ON "SAVE" WHEN YOU'RE DONE**

Jennifer Duval, Brittany Stansberry
 * ArguendoClass.com: Communication Transcends the Classroom ||

Arguendoclass.com is an online site that serves as a medium for students and faculty at UMW and across the country to exchange knowledge. For the Spring 2006 semester, this site was created as a pilot for UMW and Wake Forest University students to generate ideas and discussion on a chosen topic. Anyone can register and post blogs on this site, which, in our case, is a tool to be utilized in debating our mutual general debate topic of Iraq: the war on terror.

Students can access links to think tanks, media and news sources, class resources posted by the instructors, and online blogs relating to both sides of the political spectrum as well as a broad variety of different topic areas relating to the general topic.

The great part about this type of communication is that other classes, clubs and organizations can create a website to suite their needs. Arguendoclass.com is just one example of how this sort of media can be used to generate ideas and connect people all over the world. As a classroom tool, Arguendo.com is the wave of the future.

Robert Durrette
 * Portalbility: A Simple Website Called Middlesell ||

The purpose of Middlesell is to serve as a starting point for college web users. The primary concept behind this is the notion of **portalbility**. As we all know, the "web" is a crowded place, and search engines and databases exist to catalogue its vastness. In terms of internet sites, though, all must have a purpose or reason for being visited (in other words, they must draw traffic), and sites which have unique strengths attract users to its pages. Middlesell groups such sites together in an all-encompassing portal which directly targets the average college student. It also contains links which take the user directly to key University logins (i.e. Banner, Blackboard, Webmail), making the site useful and time-saving.

Currently averaging 2,500+ page views per month, the original site is tailored to the interests of UMW students and is designed to be a starting point for their browsers on the web. A simple demonstration of what one student can create on the internet using less than $100, the presentation will include topics such as maximization of traffic with minimal cash investment, the notion of "content is key," portalbility with speed, blogging, and simplicity of creation.

Middlesell are next-generation in that they reach out to the end-user amidst the confusion and disorganization of the internet to provide clear-cut, useful links to top-visited pages. An alternative to a search engine, the site is not afraid to direct traffic to other sites if it means an easier browsing experience for the user. Also, with original blogs and commentary, it is one of a growing number of webpages which act simply as a soapbox.

The end beauty of Middlesell, however, is that it is never complete. Whether it's a new idea, a cool suggestion, or a creative thought, this website will continue to grow leaps and bounds size it's creation less than one year ago.

Matthew Tucker
 * Post-Haste Taste ||

A food blog once originated in a web design course is now a portal for networking in the food community.

Daniel Fovargue
 * 3D Graphics in Game Programming ||

During a Fall 2005 and Spring 2006 independent study I programmed two games incorporating 3D graphics. The games are made from scratch and use C++ for logic and OpenGL for graphics. Some Windows programming is also used for window creation and accessing user input. The first game is a First Person Shooter and allows the player to move and jump through a 3D environment consisting of rolling terrain and stacked blocks. The player can look in all directions using the mouse. A few trigonometric formulas convert the mouse input into changes in the viewing direction. The player, of course, is also able to shoot at enemies that patrol the level. The second game takes place in space and is still a work in progress. The player flies around Mars and tries to shoot down enemy ships. The player is allowed to turn the ship in any direction, in other words change their pitch, roll, or heading at any time. The player must also watch out for Mars’ gravitational pull. In this presentation I will be demonstrating the games and discussing features of OpenGL as well as some of the formulas and algorithms in my code.

Dale Parker
 * Be Like a Slug ||

iMovie 'commercial' on slug lines for the main website www.slug-lines.com, was completed over summer 2006 for the webmaster of www.slug-lines.com

Kati Singel
 * Creating A Website: "The Polygraph: The Modern Lie Detector" ||

The study of technology requires interaction with technology. Last spring, Professor Jeffrey McClurken offered a history class in American Technology and Culture, which required each student to create a website via Netscape Composer to make our individual research for the class accessible to the public, thus demonstrating both our aptitude in historical research, and a knowledge of how to create a website. The website I created covers the evolution of the modern polygraph from its mechanical antecedents to the impact of this invention on American society and culture. When the first polygraph was used in a United States courtroom, the American public was both fascinated and terrified by the possibilities that this new technology entailed. In recent years, the accuracy of the polygraph in detecting lies has been questioned; however, its use has yet to be discontinued. There are three basic categories accessible from the home site, including: (1) the origin of the polygraph, (2) the significance of the polygraph, and (3) its impact on American society and culture. Images used within this site are all relevant to the subject, and required a knowledge of how to input images onto the site. The assignment required that all images and information be properly cited for the academic integrity it would lend to the site. This site is both aesthetically pleasing and academically correct, allowing interested users to access a well-organized resource from which to draw their information.

Amy Jessee, Alicia Sovart, (possibly Casey Pherson)
 * XML Editors: Transforming the Writing Process ||

Most students write their papers in word processors such as Microsoft Word. This presentation introduces another approach to creating documents, one which separates the content from design, and gives writers a different way to think about the writing process. This how-to document, written as a group paper for English 306 – Mulitmedia Communication, offers advice on understanding the separation of content and design, the purpose of semantic tagging, and the process of creating a valid document in DocBook, which can be transformed into PDF or HTML formats. Created in oXygen’s XML editor, the paper exemplifies the usefulness of the technology, which can be beneficial for projects with multiple authors and multiple outputs. In addition, as students who previously relied on word processors, we share our first-hand experiences in facing the challenge of changing the way we think about writing and the joy of realizing there is another way to create documents and share them with others.

Shin Fujiyama, Nick Winborne
 * Helping Orphans in Honduras through digital multimedia ||

I created a 10 minute film using the digital video editing program Final Cut Pro. The movie is about the povery in Honduras, the poorest country in Latin America, and an orphanage there suffering from the lack of funding. I made this movie to show everyone and raise money for the orphans. I won the "Movie of the Festival" during the Annual Student Film Fest and raised $2,500 at the event. Through digital mediums that can provide powerful visual images, we can make great things happen.

Jackie Mancini
 * The possibilities for fine art in the world of growing digital technology ||

Last semester I took "Digital Approaches to Fine Art" with professor Scott Ligon. I purchased a Wacom tablet and in one semester mastered photoshop in a way that opened up an entirely new world of art to me as a senior art major. The growing world of digital art is one of huge possibility, but also is met with skepticism by traditionalists. I would like to discuss the processes possible on a computer, as well as the ethics involved in the medium of digital art.

Robert Charnley, Michael DeMetro, Karen Foote, Mark Hill
 * The Electronic Music Collective ||

The Electronic Music Collective is comprised of students taking Independent Study and who have completed Music Theory 370, Electronic Music. We gather together every few weeks to discuss new techniques (currently pod casting), and share our music compositions. Our presentation will be a brief PowerPoint show with photos of the equipment in the studio and screen captures of the important software with a brief description of its use. This will be followed by playing from cd brief excerpts of recent musical compositions.

Zeke Kassock
 * A Look At Translating Persian Texts Into English ||

Presenting a look on how a program splits and splices words to translate Persian texts into English. Features: A custom made Persian word processor, and logic algorithyms to translate into English.

Merida Marston
 * ORL-WMN LDlo 100mg kg ||

"ORL-WMN LDlo 100mg kg" is a video that uses technology as a vehicle to artistically examine the idea of trust while incorporating tension between the audience, the film, and the artist/chemist. Can you really trust me?

Lydia Humphries, Mary Waldron, Jeanette Schmitt
 * New Multimedia and the Student ||

Recent students of XML will present and discuss a project they have created for the UMW course, "Writing and Multimedia Communications," taught by Dr. Patrick Gosetti-Murrayjohn.

Liz Schmidt
 * Digitizing the Past with the Tools of the Future ||

In professor Pearce's Historic Preservation 463 Museum Lab course we are scanning images from the UMW archives to produce digital posters for a museum exhibit installation in the basement of Combs Hall. Our class is also working towards using this digital collection of archival images to build out an online exhibit that will feature a more expansive examination of the archival photos and a snapshot of their historical context.

Jon Reynolds
 * Thea 435 Research ||

This class was dedicated to research in the business of theatre and spreading the research through the use of wikis and blogs. Audio recording devices, digital video and still cameras were used to gather material and digital media has been archived on the web.