HOUSEMAN, J. G. *: Incorporating digital media and new technologies into an Introductory Zoology course: Experiences and Reflections.

This paper reports on seven years of personal experience on using digital media and new technologies for teaching Introductory Zoology, and looks back on some of the things that worked along with some that didn’t. University of Ottawa is Canada’s largest bilingual institution and teaching materials for our francophone students are non-existent. As a result, our initial, and na�ve objective for using new technologies was to create the required materials in both languages. Complications, not the least of which was copyright, required that we create new materials and these are available in the media bank BIODIDAC that currently contains over 4,000 items optimized for digital, rather than print use (a http://biodidac.bio.uottawa.ca”). Media from BIODIDAC is used in lectures as PowerPoint slides, a variety of web based self evaluation tools, and a multimedia application designed to enhance understanding of classification and biology of the various specimens that students encounter in the lab. Collectively referred to as Digital Zoology (� McGraw-Hill Higher Education, http://www.mmhe.com/zoology), the material is not intended to replace lab specimens, dissection, nor traditional instruction. Instead, Digital Zoology gives students an opportunity to see the dissected version of a specimen before the lab and a tool for review, reference and exam preparation. For teachers, it provides the resources required to effectively use new technologies in either lectures or labs and at their own pace. Strategies for incorporating new technologies into teaching, student reactions to Digital Zoology, and some of the tricks and traps that were encountered along the way will be discussed.