MC 101 Wrap Up: Fayette

The final installment of my MC 101 sessions for 2011 took place today at Fayette where the local Media Commons support staff – including two student workers – joined two faculty members to listen to a short version of the MC 101 presentation during common hour.  While much of the presentation was not news to the attendees, there were still lots of questions and everyone was highly excited to learn about things like the One Button Studio, Mobile Media Pilot and new scheduling policies and resources that Carla and I have been working to formalize.  A good session overall – and hopefully one that snags a few more faculty projects in the semester to come.

MCTG – Getting Excited for: Mobile Media Pilot Panel

One of the Media Commons Tailgate 2011 events that I’m most excited for is the faculty panel on the Mobile Media Pilot that we have been offering since Spring of 2011.

Going into its third academic term this Fall, the Pilot has afforded MC consultants at University Park and the Commonwealth campuses many opportunities to work with faculty, staff and students on groundbreaking projects that take advantage of all that the iPod touch affords.  Panelists will present on their classroom experiences with the devices from the consultation and planning stage to student usage and feedback to their plans for mobility going forward.

We’ll be announcing our panelists soon, but you can learn more about all of the pilot projects by visiting our Mobile Media Pilot page today!

Beautiful Data

“[…] data visualization brings a sense of wonder and humanity back to statistical analysis.

Maximum PC has a fun feature on the presentation of data in unexpected – and often arrestingly beautiful – ways.  Above, you see the representation of “Familiar Feelings” by Moloko as a fiery twist of information about the song’s construction as compiled by Matthias Dittrich.  The appeal is immediately apparent, especially to anyone who has lost five minutes by staring into the iTunes Visualizer while a favorite track plays.  While the article is nothing too profound, the gallery is a nice dose of pretty for a Wednesday.

World Wide Narratives

Sometimes you happen upon a project that has the potential to impact far more people than those enrolled in a particular class.  With Harrisburg’s World Wide Narratives – and the connected Mobile Media Pilot – I think I’ve found just that.

Friday afternoon and early evening, I found myself in one of the most diverse classroom settings I’ve ever been in, both as a professional and as a student.  Individuals from differing genders, races, religions, nationalities, sexual orientations, socio-economic backgrounds, ages and more came together as one team in the Olmsted Building for the purpose of documenting the stories of others different from themselves for these categorical reasons – and the same as them in one key respect:  that they are human beings with important experiences to share with the community.

Shivaani Selvaraj, Jo Tyler and Martha Strickland offered a vibrant presentation on the project goals, the critical incidence story listening techniques to be employed and the research campus climate opportunities inherent in World Wide Narratives’ success.  They also invited me along to give an overview of how the iPod touch could be best deployed as a story gathering tool and to give technical advice and guidance to participants.

To say I was honored would be an understatement.

The Excitement Builds

Media Commons has set to work planning out the next installment of Tailgate – and we hope to document the process this year to keep future attendees, presenters and other participants updated.  Each member of our team will be reporting on a different area, with mine being web materials.  Without further ado:

I’ve just updated the Twitter widget and added one for Facebook as well.  You can find these both in the sidebar.  This comes on the heels of last month’s general clean up and reorganization of Tailgate 2010 materials to make way for new content.  Next up:  adding information about the pre-conference workshop (subject to be determined) and names of presenters and panelists as we book them.