By Nate Haas
The merging of technology and education continues at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication as experts deliver high-tech help to instructors at the New Media Center in Macky.
Spearheading the effort are Instructor Bruce Henderson and Tim Neese, co-directors of the New Media Center.
With $65,000 worth of equipment, the center supports faculty and students dedicated to keeping pace with the rapidly developing online world. The high-tech facility was created through the Communication Initiative, a CU program that provided funds to enhance technology and education at the university. Some of the equipment was made available to the School when Knight-Ridder shut down its Boulder lab that had been developing futuristic electronic newspapers.
Also working with the center this fall is Burt Hubbard, an award-winning Rocky Mountain News reporter, on leave from the News to teach students and faculty computer-assisted reporting techniques. His semester at the School is funded by a Freedom Forum Professional-in-Residence grant.
The center's mission is to teach faculty how to incorporate new technology into their teaching, including online assistance for students, CD-ROMs and computer-assisted reporting techniques.
"There are a number of different instructional materials online, from simple syllabi to more interactive instruction," said Henderson, who programmed a CD-ROM used to teach the School's Electronic Journalism course. Such applications effectively extend teaching well beyond office and classroom walls.
"It makes sense to do it," he said. "Lecture classes beg for it."
Henderson recently co-authored an article in Electronic Grapevine with Ph.D. candidate Jan Fernback. The article discusses his experiences with the CU's Campus Press, which was the first newspaper in Colorado to go on the Web. Fernback, also a leader in Web instruction, has taught the Electronic Journalism course in the School.
The New Media Center has helped other faculty in the School put their courses online. The center also assists faculty and students with creating CD-ROMs for the classroom and "streaming," a way to put audio and video on the World Wide Web.
One collaboration resulted in Internet conversations between CU journalism students in Associate Professor Polly McLean's New Media and Development graduate seminar and people as far away as Swaziland and Namibia.
"As part of the class Bruce set up an Inernet 'chat box' for us," McLean explained. "Every other week we are online holding discussions on socioeconomic development and technology with experts both nationally and internationally."
She described the technology provided by the New Media Center as "necessary and a revolutionary teaching aid." The impact on students has been amazing, she said.
"As a result of combined teaching tools, cyberspace and real time, the discussions have been more intense and critical," McLean said.
Another of Henderson's innovations is the Advertising Mall, a place for advertisers to buy a presence on the CU-Boulder home page. A portion of the profits help fund technology in the university. Henderson is adviser for the student-run Campus Press, and he envisions the mall as an extension of the newspaper's advertising practicum class, which he also teaches.
During the fall semester, the New Media Center staff participated in workshops for faculty. Hubbard coordinated the National Institute of Computer Assisted Reporting boot camp in October.
Henderson's sessions are more personal.
"I do things more one-on-one with the faculty to integrate the Web and technology," Henderson said. He has also put the center to work off-campus to inspire future students of mass media.
At the Colorado High School Press Association's one-day seminar at CU in October, Henderson provided a tutorial session on the Internet and encouraged students to begin publishing high school papers online. Instead of having students learn Hyper Text Multi-Language, he created a Web site for the CHSPA that lets any high school in the state automatically publish online for free.
Unencumbered by confusing computer code, students simply click on a link that easily enables them to publish online using computer software authored by Henderson that adds the necessary coding.
"I made an offer to them," Henderson said. "They could publish their high school paper online for free." The response was impressive. About 30 high schools jumped at the chance.
Henderson's agenda remains ambitious.
"I would like more of the same; a larger facility and more people where you could do one-on-one with faculty and students," he said.
He hopes to establish the School's New Media Center as one of the premier programs in the world with a Web site where universities and colleges around the world store information on new media programs.
The center, squeezed into the former associate dean's office in Macky 201, has opened its doors to everyone on campus. Henderson and Neese are always ready to educate or offer suggestions regarding computer technology.
"We have never turned anyone away," Henderson said.
