The Future of Podcasting at IU Kokomo
I attended a fascinating online presentation about the technical aspects of podcasting. This was part of a monthly faculty training series that I try to attend that is entitled, “2nd Wednesdays at Noon.” This was a virtual meeting, which means that those of us physically meeting at IU Kokomo were joined via the Internet with several other institutions and individuals. We formed a virtual network that allowed the virtual attendees to interact with a team of presenters. We had 4 presenters today, one from Ball State and another from the Ivy Tech campus in Ft. Wayne, I think. I had to duck out of this meeting early to attend another one, so I didn’t catch the names and locations of the other two presenters.
The highlight of the presentation for me was to see what Ball State University was doing in terms of having a group of students blog their way through college. Check out http://www.bsu.edu/reallife/ to “follow the lives of 12 Ball State students.” It’s pretty cool. As you move your curser across the main image on the top of this page, the students will walk Beatles-like across a street on campus. You can get to their blogs by clicking on any of the walking students. These students are given free reign in terms of what they want to blog about, and this contributes to a level of authenticity and street cred. I think I heard that this project is in its second year. In the first year, 7 of the 12 students were from the Honors Program, but I think this year’s crop of bloggers is more like the typical BSU student.
I think this is the type of engaging technological experience that would be perfect for giving voice to the creative expressions of our communication majors here at IU Kokomo. In the long run, student bloggers could play a key role in marketing the entire institution, but it might be better to start small. Personally, I would hope that our official bloggers would get some form of monetary compensation, tuition remission, etc. If you help us successfully market the school and our enrollment jumps because of you, then you should share in the increase. Anyway, we have a number of highly creative communication majors who would make great bloggers. One of my colleagues mentioned Mike Glassburn’s name when I mentioned the podcasting possibilities, and I couldn’t agree more. I could see Mike posting not just pictures, but potentially videos from his concerts as well. At BSU, these students are given (I think) a Sanyo camcorder that can record video in MP3 in addition to taking digital pictures (5.1 megapixels). BSU paid around only $400 for these cameras, so it would be cool if we could secure funding to put 3 or 4 of these in the hands of our students and turn them loose to be creative in their blogging.
By the way, there is a growing number of us at IU Kokomo who are catching a vision of what our campus can become, and technology will be a key part of that. Not just technology for the sake of having techy stuff on campus, but technology connected with the academic experience of our students. Instead of a blog, maybe you would like to be part of a TV show that runs on the new K-GOV channel on Insight Cable? That’s a possibility. I am also working with our outstanding staff in Information Technology to develop an electronic portfolio system that will revolutionize how your work is evaluated and assessed. Plus, I’m also working with Catherine Barnes and others to bring the advising process out of the Stone Age. More on this later.
I plan on cranking up the podcasting machine by Fall 07, if not earlier. I’m going to need a ton of storage space, however, as I would like to post downloadable videos instead of just audio files (technically, “vodcasting,” I think). This means that if you miss one of my classes, then you will be able to download and watch one of my lectures on your iPod, computer, etc..
Minda Douglas and I have a number of ideas on how to overhaul the physical campus at IU Kokomo including expanding the space for student lounging and overhauling the concrete courtyard in the Main Building into something student-friendly. A café out there would be a nice addition, just for starters. These physical changes are not likely to take place in the near future without a flood of capital from generous donors. However, we can immediately begin to overhaul the virtual world of IU Kokomo.
If you would like to be highly visible in terms of maintaining a blog or being on K-GOV TV, then please let me know. We are going to do a lot more to make our students visible within our region, and these activities would look great on a resume.
The highlight of the presentation for me was to see what Ball State University was doing in terms of having a group of students blog their way through college. Check out http://www.bsu.edu/reallife/ to “follow the lives of 12 Ball State students.” It’s pretty cool. As you move your curser across the main image on the top of this page, the students will walk Beatles-like across a street on campus. You can get to their blogs by clicking on any of the walking students. These students are given free reign in terms of what they want to blog about, and this contributes to a level of authenticity and street cred. I think I heard that this project is in its second year. In the first year, 7 of the 12 students were from the Honors Program, but I think this year’s crop of bloggers is more like the typical BSU student.
I think this is the type of engaging technological experience that would be perfect for giving voice to the creative expressions of our communication majors here at IU Kokomo. In the long run, student bloggers could play a key role in marketing the entire institution, but it might be better to start small. Personally, I would hope that our official bloggers would get some form of monetary compensation, tuition remission, etc. If you help us successfully market the school and our enrollment jumps because of you, then you should share in the increase. Anyway, we have a number of highly creative communication majors who would make great bloggers. One of my colleagues mentioned Mike Glassburn’s name when I mentioned the podcasting possibilities, and I couldn’t agree more. I could see Mike posting not just pictures, but potentially videos from his concerts as well. At BSU, these students are given (I think) a Sanyo camcorder that can record video in MP3 in addition to taking digital pictures (5.1 megapixels). BSU paid around only $400 for these cameras, so it would be cool if we could secure funding to put 3 or 4 of these in the hands of our students and turn them loose to be creative in their blogging.
By the way, there is a growing number of us at IU Kokomo who are catching a vision of what our campus can become, and technology will be a key part of that. Not just technology for the sake of having techy stuff on campus, but technology connected with the academic experience of our students. Instead of a blog, maybe you would like to be part of a TV show that runs on the new K-GOV channel on Insight Cable? That’s a possibility. I am also working with our outstanding staff in Information Technology to develop an electronic portfolio system that will revolutionize how your work is evaluated and assessed. Plus, I’m also working with Catherine Barnes and others to bring the advising process out of the Stone Age. More on this later.
I plan on cranking up the podcasting machine by Fall 07, if not earlier. I’m going to need a ton of storage space, however, as I would like to post downloadable videos instead of just audio files (technically, “vodcasting,” I think). This means that if you miss one of my classes, then you will be able to download and watch one of my lectures on your iPod, computer, etc..
Minda Douglas and I have a number of ideas on how to overhaul the physical campus at IU Kokomo including expanding the space for student lounging and overhauling the concrete courtyard in the Main Building into something student-friendly. A café out there would be a nice addition, just for starters. These physical changes are not likely to take place in the near future without a flood of capital from generous donors. However, we can immediately begin to overhaul the virtual world of IU Kokomo.
If you would like to be highly visible in terms of maintaining a blog or being on K-GOV TV, then please let me know. We are going to do a lot more to make our students visible within our region, and these activities would look great on a resume.
posted by Raul Mosley at
9:37 PM
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