Faculty, staff, students at campuses can get started creating multimedia at Media Commons 101

Carla Rapp and Nicholas Smerker, Media Commons campus consultants, will facilitate Media Commons 101 at a variety of campuses this summer, listed here.

“Media Commons 101 will include an overview and an introduction for people who don’t know about the Media Commons and who Carla and I are,”  Smerker said. “ And then we will talk about some of the new technologies and the new pilot programs that we are exploring, to try to give them a sense of where the Media Commons is going and maybe how they can pick up some new tools for multimedia production.”

A unique aspect of Media Commons 101 is that attendees can help shape the agenda. “We ask the attendees when they register what they are interested in,” Rapp said. “We are also working with our campus contact to find out what questions are out there, what questions on technology, etc.”

Smerker and Rapp said there is a standard morning session that introduces the Media Commons and what it offers, and then lunch. But what happens after lunch for an afternoon session of Media Commons 101, Smerker said, is shaped by attendee feedback. “In some cases we won’t do one, some cases there will be a tour of the facilities, some cases formal workshop on a specific technology, or an open Q/A session,” he said. “It depends on what the attendees are after.”

Along with raising awareness of Media Commons and introducing people to multimedia creation, it’s also a way for Rapp and Smerker to build working relationships at the Media Commons locations that are at every Commonwealth campus.  “We’re trying to get out to some of the campuses we haven’t been to yet as both of us are fairly new,” Rapp said. “It’s also a way to keep facilitating those relationships that we have there, and build some new ones, too.”

Smerker added that Media Commons 101 is a different kind of event than the previous open houses that they did. “We would really like to have more of a conversational sort of event,” he said. 

Having such an event, Rapp and Smerker said, is important because they want more people at Penn State to use multimedia for instruction due to trends. This is echoed by Deborah Sillman, biology instructor and instructional design specialist at Penn State New Kensington, and Mary Ann Mengel, instructional design and multimedia specialist with Penn State Berks.

Mengel creates online multimedia-based instructional resources to support courses on the Berks campus. “It’s a common conception that today’s students expect multimedia-based communication,” Mengel said. “It’s not just our students whose lives are surrounded with video, music, television, interactive websites, computer games, social networks, sound-emitting store kiosks, and constant feedback.

“We all live in a fast-paced, visual environment filled with sounds and distractions. Our handheld communication devices continually connect us with the world and allow us to interact at a moment’s notice.” 

Sillman uses multimedia regularly in her courses as a way to enhance and make content more interesting and easier to understand. She believes learning how to create multimedia should be considered part of a well-rounded, modern education.  “I particularly encourage faculty to assign multimedia projects to students, as I feel that a basic level of familiarity with creating this type of media has become part of a well rounded undergraduate education,” she said. 

Mengel added, “By giving students the ability to create and communicate through multimedia, we enable them to become authors of information which is delivered through some of the primary communication channels used in today’s world. Why wouldn’t we want to do that?”

Sillman said that faculty do not have to start from scratch to add multimedia to their courses, as sometimes multimedia can add a new dimension to an old assignment. She gave an example of a faculty member who had a standard assignment for an English 15 class at New Kensington; students would do a written interview of an older relative such as a grandparent. Sillman helped convert this written assignment into a recorded oral interview.

“The students loved this assignment and the inflections and emotions of the actual voices enhanced the rich content,” Sillman said. “An added bonus - the students have an audio file to keep and treasure in the future.”

Sillman and Mengel both praised the resources the Media Commons provides to make this kind of educational multimedia possible, from access to the right tools to guidance. “They have provided hands-on workshops for both the faculty and for the students, and provided follow-up support for all aspects of class projects,” Sillman said. “Even for multimedia novices, the Media Commons makes these types of projects possible. Mengel sees the upcoming Media Commons 101 as a great way for people at Penn State campuses to get started with multimedia. 

“It’s my hope that Media Commons 101 will make more people aware of the opportunities for support and education that are available through the Media Commons,” Mengel said. “I hope that participants will come away feeling as though multimedia projects are manageable and doable. By seeing what others are accomplishing, each participant may be inspired to explore how to incorporate the benefits of multimedia projects into what they do for Penn State.”

To see if a Media Commons 101 session is scheduled at your campus and to register, please go to http://mediacommons.psu.edu/node/28846. If you don’t see your campus listed, you can work with the Media Commons staff to schedule a Media Commons 101 by going to http://mediacommons.psu.edu/commonwealth.