Media Commons kicks off Mobile Media Pilot

Penn State’s Media Commons has caught on quickly to the emerging importance of mobile and social media in today’s society and is acting accordingly with the “Mobile Media Pilot.”

The initiative is spearheaded by Chris Millet, manager of advanced learning projects for Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) and manager of the Media Commons; Ryan Wetzel, multimedia specialist with the Media Commons; and others on the Media Commons team. It uses mobile media devices like the iPod Touch and iPad in a classroom setting in an effort to integrate these important tools early on in an expert fashion.

"Mobile learning is important because it is essentially a technology that will allow students to learn wherever they are,” Millet said. “Students can learn in the context that is most conducive to learning. Wherever they go they can integrate learning into all facets of their life.”

It is an exciting concept, and with the Media Commons doing so much work with educational gaming already, mobile media is a logical next step for Penn State’s technological ingenuity. The first step is selecting classes where mobile media can make the most immediate and profound impact.

“We’re targeting courses where mobile media has a particular benefit,” says Millet. “Communication classes that involve field reporting where there’s a reason for their media assignments to be mobile.”

Millet and Wetzel tested out the mobile media pilot on a CAS 083 summer class, introducing incoming freshmen to the many possibilities of social media. “What was required of the students and what fit really well into our mobile pilot was a weekly media assignment,” Wetzel said. “Every week they would discuss one topic, say Facebook, and by the end of that week they would have to create a video about it using various elements of the media assignment, including on the fly interviews. So the class really lent itself because it had a high media component and it was so segmented with the various topics.”

These are just the kind of courses that mobile media thrives in. Their capabilities lend themselves to more “casual projects where students can pull these devices out of their pocket and spend ten minutes creating something without a lot of advanced post-production,” according to Chris Millet.

Projects like these were rarities no more than a decade ago, but with the rise of hard hitting and fast-paced journalism on the Internet, it is crucial for people to be well-versed and skilled in mobile media techniques and technology.

“The idea is to get a device that does many things, in their hands, at all times,” says Wetzel. “So while specific apps may be used or not used depending on the class, the actual device is the most important part.”

The potential for mobile media inside and outside the classroom is exciting in that so much can be accomplished without ever sitting at an actual computer. “Students will be able to record an interview with somebody, post it to YouTube and then Tweet about it to their class, all within the device,” says Millet. “So that’s our hope, that these devices are capable of end-to-end media production.”

The most exciting part about all of this is the enthusiasm that students have exhibited for using these technologies. “The students we’ve all worked with really enjoy this,” says Wetzel. “They draw connections to writing a paper and how much they prefer completing the assignment using the device, using video and various media skills. They’re more comfortable doing it and they find it fun.”

Through the course of the pilot, Millet and Wetzel found that students gravitated towards certain uses of the device more than others. Standard camera apps were the most popular.

Professors interested in utilizing the mobile media pilot should get in touch with Media Commons. Once contact has been made, Media Commons works with the faculty involved to design assignments before the class begins. Once class is underway, workshops are scheduled with the students where the devices are handed out and all of the apps necessary for the class are downloaded. The Media Commons consultant then goes through each of the media apps the class will be using so that students have time to use them in class and ask questions. “Most of the students already know IOS devices. iPod Touch is not a strange device to students, so there’s a level of comfort we’re encountering which makes orientation of the device that much easier,” says Millet.

However, these projects are by no means a cakewalk. “Students still need to complete the research as well as think about what it is they’re discussing and the point they’re trying to argue in the project, but they’re much more engaged in the actual project as it’s happening,” says Wetzel.

As rousing as mobile media is, it is not always a wise teaching tool in all situations. Intensive research for something like a documentary for instance is too much for mobile media to handle. Thorough computer work and traditional work flow still has a firm place in completing a vast project. According to Wetzel, “As long as the assignment requires students to capture the media themselves it actually works very well, but going outside of that can be difficult.”

Despite mobile media’s limitations, both Millet and Wetzel already see plenty of room to build upon what they’ve already started. “We’ve talked quite a bit about educational gaming,” says Millet. “Every single iPod Touch has GPS capability so we could do location based gaming, as well as clicker type activities.”

The possibilities for mobile media seem to be growing by the day. The Media Commons is already doing all it can to harness the potential of this exciting, ever-changing technology.