Penn State’s Digital Ecosystem
I just attended an afternoon talk on the topic of the digital tools that are available to the Penn State community hosted by Cole Camplese (my director) and Bart Pursell (of Schreyer’s.) The presentation focused on Blogs@PSU and Wikispaces, two facets of the entire media publishing ecosystem that is being grown at the University. While there were a whole lot of numbers, facts and figures being shared with us today, the analyses put forth by both presenters were really enlightening. As an example, I was surprised to learn that so much of the activity on the Arts & Architecture blogs has taken the form of commentary – which was attributed to critiques of fellow-students’ work as well as other materials posted for this purpose by faculty.
I was also particularly taken by the example that Bart shared from the Berks campus of a living history of America – Family E-Album. The professor, Julie Gallagher, asks students to add their own family artifacts to this class-wide blog, with each semester’s class expanding the width of the personal stories – and the depth of the overall project. This idea of a truly participatory version of a history text was captivating for me…and left me imagining filling it with video interviews and documentary pieces with the students’ relatives who provide the items posted on the site. With MC support, of course!