A simple statement about the numbers of students studying abroad led Jeff Howarth, a geography professor at Middlebury College, to design an innovative cartography assignment: how to represent that data visually on a map.  This project-based approach to learning lets students put their theoretical learning into practice and explore the creative side of problem solving.

How do you help students visualize the what a landscape looked like over 13,000 years ago? Biology professor Chris Fastie found some help using Google Earth and simple animation tools. With these tools, Fastie's students can better recognize the landforms of the past in the shape of the landscape today.

With SmartChoices, a Web-based map and data sorting application, parents in the metropolitan Hartford, CT region can navigate a myriad of school choices for their children. Developed through collaborative work between Jack Dougherty, a professor at Trinity College, students enrolled Dougherty's course, and a local community partner, the site illustrates the power of community-connected teaching and learning.

To facilitate real time language exchange with native speakers, language technologist Todd Bryant and Japanese instructor Akiko Meguro developed the Mixxer.  What began as a simple project connecting American college students with native Japanese speakers is now a significant conversational network with more than 40,000 users. Bryant explains how his project grew and how tools like Drupal and Skype made it possible.

Does simulated reality help students think more deeply about their work? That's the question at the center of a fascinating experiment by Jack Green Musselman, who teaches philosophy. Working with technologist Jason Rosenblum, he has created Plato's Cave in Second Life. In addition to the classroom discussion of the allegory, some students in his ethics course will also participate in the Second Life experience. Will this virtual experience generate deeper understanding of the text?