Spotlight on Research
Two New Developments in Technology Transfer
In recent weeks, the Office of Technology Transfer has seen two successes worth noting for the George Mason community. The first involved the issuance of the university's sixth patent; the second, the licensure of a workshop management system.
The patent, which is the university's first in the area of educational technology, was issued for "A System for Instructional Thinking Skills," invented by Lynn Fontana and Ward Cates, both former Graduate School of Education faculty members. Covering methods and systems for teaching thinking skills, it is often referred to as Multimedia Thinking Skills (MMTS) software. Fontana and Cates began developing it in 1995.
"MMTS covers a range of thinking and problem-solving activities performed in
an electronic or web-based environment. It provides a scaffold for learners as
they learn to solve complex problems that require them to look at a lot of data
in different formats," Fontana explains. MMTS has applications in both K-12 and
adult learning environments, she says. The system provides shell software; a content
expert then supplies the content.
MMTS can work in a closed environment, in which the resources are supplied, or an open environment, in which learners search the Web to find information. In either case, Fontana says, the software scaffold helps learners analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information themselves. At completion, the information can be linked to a presentation platform, such as PowerPoint. Fontana terms MMTS "a new kind of electronic curriculum engine."
The second recent technology transfer success is the first license of a management system originally developed in-house for workshops offered through the Instructional Resource Center (IRC), the Student Technology Assistance and Resource Center, and other units at George Mason. The license was issued to George Washington University (GW).
The program grew out of multiple needs centered on the workshop registration process. Two and one-half years in the making, the system not only registers workshop participants online, but also generates e-mail confirmations and is used for managing workshops and events, reserving equipment, tracking walk-in lab use, evaluating programs and surveying users, and generating data reports. Dubbed WEMS (short for Workshops/Walkins/Events/Equipment/Evaluation Management System), the system was recently revamped in a generic format for use by other institutions.
WEMS was developed by former IRC employee Cynthia McCourt and programmed by senior Steve Richardson, a physics major, with help from his brother Glenn, who both worked in the IRC lab. "A lot of processes had to come together to develop this system," says McCourt, who is now a consultant. "It's not just a database. It's a system that supports business methods and processes."
Jennifer Murphy, director of Technology Transfer, explains that GW became interested in the system when another former IRC employee joined the staff there and found the registration system lacking. "There are a number of institutions that need this kind of organization," Murphy says, and she expects interest to grow as the system's features become known. For more information, see wems.doit.gmu.edu.
"We expect that educational technology will emerge as one of the strengths of our total technology transfer program, and we are very excited about the Fontana-Ward patent issuance," Murphy says. "We are also very pleased with the license to GW for WEMS because it represents a major springboard for continued opportunities to license this software."
- By Robin Herron
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