Selected Software and Information Systems
Selected software and systems I have created are listed below, organized into cybermeditation; learning and cognitive games; other technology-enhanced learning experiences; interactive learning systems; and technology-enhanced patient empowerment.
Deep Experience meditations was a collection of yoga-based meditations connecting with interesting, informative, and empowering meditation objects.
Winter Solstice meditation, designed to compliment the “Seeing Solstice” poem.
Childhood Play meditation
VR Cybermeditation Experiences
10 VR Meditation Experiences for the Guided Meditation VR platform, July 2016
You choose a natural environment. Then you choose a meditation. You are guided through steps involving breath, gentle movement, and attention to relax the body and calm the mind. Each Mindtoon™ VR meditation supports experiencing and cultivating a particular quality: Calming, Stability, Nourishing, Releasing, Comfort, Spaciousness, Energizing, Focus, Clearing, Clarity
Beach VR Meditation for Embodied Presence, 2015
Marcel Allbritton, Carrie Heeter, Josh Farkas. Feeling deeply connected to yourself and your body creates a richer experience of presence in a virtual world, even when your body is sitting in a chair wearing VR googles. We call this embodied presence. Connection to the self and body (paying attention to present-moment sensations and feelings) enhances the sense of self and the sense of presence, regardless of whether you are in the natural world or a VR world. Our Beach VR Meditation, created in collaboration with Cubicle Ninjas, demonstrates how meditation can be designed to increase the experience of embodied presence in a virtual world.
Cybermeditation Apps
Space Meditation app, 2015
Nourishing Meditation app, 2015
Calming Meditation app, 2014
Place in Nature Meditation app, 2014
Releasing Meditation app, 2014
Marcel Allbritton, Carrie Heeter. All five outcome-based meditation apps are (or are about to be) available through the iTunes Store and Google Play. The Calming Meditation experience by Mindtoon Lab helps you relax your body, calm your mind, and change how you feel. The Place in Nature Meditation experience by Mindtoon Lab helps you connect with the feeling of being in one of your favorite places in nature. The Releasing Meditation experience by Mindtoon Lab helps you release what you are holding onto that you no longer need. Mind-Body Therapist Dr, Marcel Allbritton guides you through steps involving breath and gentle motion while you sit comfortably with eyes closed. The meditation designs are grounded in principles of mind-body therapy and delivered via the Mindtoon™ framework.
Purring Cat Meditation app, 2014
Marcel Allbritton, Carrie Heeter. Purring Cats are an unusual object of meditation. The core of every Mindtoon™ experience involves steps designed to help relax the body and calm the mind through attention to breath and gentle movement. These benefits are as likely to happen when connecting with a fun object of meditation (like purring cats) as with a more traditional meditation. And you might be more motivated to do it if you think of meditating as fun.
Learning and Cognitive Games
DNA Roulette, 2010-2012
Carrie Heeter, J.D. Yaske, Barry Starr. Adapted roulette game mechanics convey an intuitive sense of what can be known about personal risk for disease conditions, traits, or drug response based on genetic testing, and how much chance and the environment play a role. Awarded Most Innovative Game at the international Meaningful Play conference, East Lansing, October, 2012. Presented at Games for Health, 2012. Added as permanent online exhibit to the San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation’s Understanding Genetics web site.
Green League, 2012
Jennifer Battle, Lauren Olson, Derek and Daniel Demaiolo, Kristine Cunningham, Carrie Heeter, and Brian Winn. Green League: Gamifying energy conservation for campus unit reps. Funded by FIPSE.
Move & Match, 2010
Rosalie Blank, Carrie Heeter. Game using video motion recognition technology for 4th graders to raise awareness of USDA food groups, created with and distributed by Kidscom.com to 2,00,000 subscribers. Funded and produced by Kidscom.com.
Headline Clues, 2006-2009
Carrie Heeter, John Fisher, Lei Bao. Headline Clues exercises advanced verbal and semantic thinking. The games challenge players to solve missing words in a headline. Games are automatically generated, drawing headlines and summaries from any combination of RSS feed URLs.
Brain Powered Games, 2006-2008
Brian Winn, Carrie Heeter, and Jillian Winn (funded by the Michigan University Consortium Initiative for commercializable IP) Games to maintain and improve cognitive functioning. From attention and memory to logic and language skills, our games empower each player to play at their ideal level of challenge – just hard enough to grow, but easy enough to be fun. These “good for you” games can be played in as little as 10 minutes.
Life Preservers: A learning game for girls, about evolution and the history of life on earth, 2005-2006
Brian Winn, Carrie Heeter, Patrick Shaw, Darcy Greene (funded by the National Science Foundation) The game is designed to teach middle and high school science standards on adaptation and evolution, to appeal to girls, and to accommodate competitive and exploration play styles. BrainPop, a curated gateway to animated, curriculum-based online content accessed by students as well as 165,000 teacher-membersworldwide, selected Life Preservers in 2011 to be one of the first six educational games they featured in their new collection, GameUp
TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING EXPERIENCES
4H Children’s Garden Time Travel Wondercast
Norm Lownds, Carrie Heeter, Pete Maziak, for the Michigan 4H Children’s Garden. Kids explore the wonders of the garden that can’t be experienced in everyday life by navigating through time to watch plants sprout, grow, flower, fruit, and die and to examine trees over four seasons. Images are combined with temperature and humidity data for each captured moment.
CD-ROM and kiosk. Norm Lownds, Carrie Heeter, Pete Maziak, for the Michigan 4H Children’s Garden.
High School Curriculum on the Death Penalty
Student and teacher edition web sites funded by the Soros Foundation and Columbia Foundation.
Discovering Our Environment: A Case Study in the Virgin Islands
CD-ROM using virtual travel, hypertext, and guided discovery learning to explore global ecological issues across the diverse biomes of a single island. Funded by McGraw-Hill Publishers.
Personal Communicator
CD-ROM brings American Sign Language (ASL) communication capabilities to the desktop and notebook computer. The Web Site provides an online ASL browser offering video of thousands of ASL signs. Funded by the National Department of Education. Awarded Discover Magazine’s Software Innovation of the Year, 1995
American Identity Explorer
CD-ROM includes an innovative learning environment wrapped around a collection of more than 1500 historical artifacts about migration and immigration at the turn of the century. Funded by McGraw-Hill Publishers and MSU.
LETSNet
Web Site developed in collaborative with the College of Education to showcase teacher-friendly powerful approaches to using the Internet in K-12 education.
Microbe Zoo
CD-ROM and Web Site allow learners to explore the hidden world of microbes through a unique, engaging interface. Funded by the National Science Foundation.
Hands On Hawaii
Variation on second-person virtual reality learning experience of an ecology hike lead by a naturalist on the island of Hawaii. You see your real hands in the virtual world and interact with objects to explore.
Martian LifeScience Time Machine
Martian LifeScience Time Machine used an interactive-drama approach to presenting scientific deliberation about whether there was life on Mars, from the perspective of scientists in 1900 and in1980, showing science as dynamic rather than a permanent set of known facts.
Mission to Mars
One of the first educational CD-ROMs ever created, this project included facts and perspectives and mission simulations.
MicroExploratorium Project
A “science museum on your desktop” including the Sound Room, Space Room, Fractal Trees, Geometry Room and Human Body exhibit.
INTERACTIVE LEARNING SYSTEMS
email eCoach, 2015
Michael Ezzo, Carrie Heeter. We adapted University of Michigan’s MTS (Michigan Tailoring System) adaptive messaging tool to be able to send and track readership of customized, adaptive eCoach messages to Math 101 students.
GradeView, 2011
Carrie Heeter, Nathan Lounds (development supported by Virtual University Design and Technology). Creation of a tool for instructors to upload an Excel spreadsheet into any course management system, enabling students to see only their own grade data from the spreadsheet.
Longitudinal Survey Engine (LSE), 2005-2006
Co-developed with the MSU Department of Epidemiology, LSE is an anonymous online survey engine optimized to deliver health-related interventions and longitudinal surveys.
Class Contributed Knowledgebases (CCK)
Internal tool for MSU Virtual University to allow faculty to easily add simple databases to their online courses, populated either by entries the faculty member posts or by student entries. Students and faculty can add comments to any record.
InClass for Online Learning
Chat software in conjunction with online learning – always open on the course home page for peer to peer communication and for live guest visitors to class.
Wonder Walls, 2005-2006
Carrie Heeter, Norm Lownds, Ben Rhodes. Wonderwalls are a mixed synchronous-asynchronous communication environment designed to encourage a child’s sense of wonder. Like a physical bulletin board, users can post colorful text and graphical notes located anywhere on a giant “wall.” Live chat and one-directional audio are enabled. The moderator can respond to any post. Funded by the Dow Foundation.
StoryTeller
Hypermedia package to stimulate creative writing for children.
PATIENT EMPOWERMENT SOFTWARE
Easing Cancer Pain
Darcy Drew Greene, Carrie Heeter
CD-ROM and Web Site the next program in our series of patient information projects based on personal stories and medical information. Funded by the American Cancer Society.
Breast Cancer Lighthouse
DarcyDrew Greene, Carrie Heeter
CD-ROM and Web Site serve as a “virtual support group” for women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, sharing personal stories of survivors. Funded by the American Cancer Society.
Telewindows: Changing the Social Fabric of Life for Homebound Elderly
Continuously connected 2-way video enables homebound elderly to attend and participate in the adult day care center they used to visit, funded by the National Council on Aging.