The Arts, Media and Engineering (AME) program, a collaborative initiative between the ASU Herberger College of the Arts and the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering is featured in the January 2009 edition of the T.H.E. Journal. 

The “STEM picks up speed,” article includes extensive commentary from David Birchfield, assistant AME professor and brainchild behind the SMALLab (Situated Multimedia Art Learning Lab) project, which helps K-12 students learn in an immersive way in an interactive environment. 

SMALLab’s physical interaction space is a cube that is 12-feet tall and 15-feet wide on all four sides. Groups of students learn together through complex problem solving. A computer tracks students’ movements and gestures as they interact with digital graphics projected beneath their feet, while dynamic surround sound envelops the space – their bodies become part of the computer interface.

According to theT.H.E. Journal  Web site, the publication is “dedicated to informing and educating K-12 senior-level district and school administrators, technologists, and tech-savvy educators within districts, schools, and classrooms to improve and advance the learning process through the use of technology. Launched in 1972, T.H.E. Journal was the first magazine to cover education technology.”

Editor's Note: Watch a KAET ASU Research Review segment that features SMALLab. Read a Herberger College of the Arts press release about SMALLab’s nearly $600,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

Editor's Note: Links are included for informational purposes only. Due to varying editorial policies, news publications may remove or change a link for archival purposes at any time without notice.