Katho New Media Course Wrap-Up

Today is the final day of my New Media course that I teach to Erasmus students attending courses at Katho-Hantal. It is a day dedicated to a company visit during which students can see live what they’ve heard about while in class. This was the third semester when I taught the course and due to good prior evaluations (available here and here) it was the first time when I delivered it in its extended form: from one intensive week (3 hours of teaching/day) to two.

I have therefore maintained the number of theoretical lectures and the academic writing assignment. I introduced two practice days, one oriented towards journalism/citizen journalism/blogging and one towards research. For this purpose I have created three similar yet different spaces where students could upload their assignments:

• Posterous
• WordPress
• Wiki

Students also used these spaces to upload the results of their in-class research oriented project when they were given an online entity to study and come up with recommendations for improving their online presence. The course also featured a surprise online live video guest lecture.

There was also a final team project for which students had to come up with a new media product, using new media platforms and applications that could be easily shared online. Two videos they produced are embedded below. The third one can be found here. For more info on each team project, please visit the course media spaces (posterous, wordpress, and wiki linked above).

PR 2.0

A guest lecture to HoWest in Kortrijk, Belgium.

I have joined today a group second year students specializing in PR at HoWest in Kortrijk, Belgium. This lecture was the result of an invitation I have received from Pieter Soete, Lecturer in Communication Management. As with all the presentations I do, this was also a customized one. Pieter wanted me to talk about social media and public relations as a way to integrate a new media perspective in the students’ curricula.

I have enjoyed the students’ interaction, their good examples and witty questions.

The powerpoint is below and can be accessed as usual on slideshare as well.

Introduction to mass communication research

A live video guest lecture to KathoNewMedia students by Dr Mugur Geana.

Photo: Peter Budai

I have started teaching my New Media course at Katho last week. This is the third edition, or better-said, the third semester when I am teaching it. Like with previous semesters, I am trying to continuously update the course and bring projects and speakers that can inspire the students.

Today was the time for me to be the host of a guest lecture. Dr Mugur Geana, whose classes I joined several times before as a guest lecturer, was our guest. While students today had to experiment with online research tools, Dr Geana spoke about traditional research methods and gave students a crash course into qualitative and quantitative research methods of mass communication.

Judging from the students’ reactions, attention and engagement with the content and Dr Geana, the lecture was a succes. After the lecture some even indicated that the presentation managed to clarify questions that their courses at home  weren’t able to do. For this, many thanks to Dr Geana.

Unfortunately, we have encountered many technical difficulties all due to the weak internet connection available in the classroom. Soon after we started we had to abandon TokBox since both the video and audio connection were interrupted. After switching to Skype we encountered similar problems. We started with live synchronous video, then had only our class stream video and finished by relying solely on the audio connection provided by Skype running the powerpoint presentation from the computer’s hard-drive. Even when using a cabled rather than wi-fi the sound quality was fluctuating from poor to fair and only sometimes to good.

The experience from today confirms once more that introducing live video guest lectures into the daily teaching process is a simple and affordable way to enable students to have international contacts and examples. It also emphasizes once more the necessity of investments in internet infrastructure of schools, which could later lead to a change in the teaching process: more fluid, more open, less space confined.

Visualization tools – update 2

Animoto is to me a prettier and more dynamic slideshow. However, unlike a regular slideshow, Animoto offers plenty of integration choices when it comes to obtaining content, musical background or sharing it with other people. As such photos and videos can be uploaded from a computer or imported them other online platforms like Flickr, Picasa or Facebook. Similarly, music can be chosen from Animoto’s list or from your own tunes. The rest is more than easy since once uploaded the photos and chosen the track, Animoto does all the hard work and sends an email once the video is ready. The transitions are dynamic and have a modern vibe.

Here’s what I have created with just a few clicks. At present Animoto doesn’t offer wordpress customized embed links.

For a research/academic environment Animoto could be a good choice for art/media oriented schools as an alternative creative platform. It’s a good visualization tool and provides a pretty results without too much effort. However there are two limitations that I see with Animoto:

1. the basic free account limitation of videos to 30 seconds might make it a bit harder for students to use it for lengthier projects
2. the limitation put on content choice – Animoto’s pool or the user’s own. While this is a laudable move in the direction of supporting copyright, it limits on the other hand the possibility of creating mix or re-mix products.

If you are interested in the other visualization tools I have reviewed check these previous posts.

Job hunting 2.0

An online video guest lecture at Katholieke Hogeschool Mechelen in Belgium.

I had the pleasure to give a lecture yesterday to students taking PR courses at HKM in Mechelen focusing on how students could use web 2.0 in their job hunt. The aim was to offer students tips that they could use when looking for a job and applying for one as well as invite them to have a more critical and niche approach of using web 2.0 applications.

When I first got in contact with the school we agreed to do the video guest lecture since Geert Van den Eijnden, the lecturer hosting the course, showed great interest in “playing” with new media and since at that time I was not aware of my schedule for this month.

However with my coming to Belgium and therefore travel to Mechelen it was tempting to abandon the online idea and opt for the traditional in class delivery. The solution we found offered a balance of both a big surprise for the attending students.

Geert joined his class as usual. We connected using TokBox, which we have tested before, and tried to solve some of the technical glitches on the go. They had to do with school IT protection for downloading new software or cables too short for the laptop to allow it to be turned towards the classroom so that I can see them as much as they saw me. Apart from that everything went well and the bandwidth was broad enough so that I could even embed and play a video from YouTube during the talk. I used Michael Cera’s video resume, a parody of Aleksey Vayner’s infamous “Impossible is Nothing” no longer available online, to show albeit in a funny way how a video resume should not be.

The interaction with the students was good. Some of them, having quickly figured out how to find me, started sending me messages on Twitter. Others sent me LinkedIn requests. They were engaged, well informed and answered my questions in a manner that showed a critical and strategic approach to job hunting. Their questions too were interesting and reflected concern for how their use of new media could impact their work. They were also interested in my personal story, which I was glad to share.

After an hour of online lecture, I joined them in the class. Judging from the amazement of more than half of the students present, they weren’t expecting me to be so close.

Bruno Neuville, the KHM’s Communication Management Director of Studies, also attended the class. He qualified the lecture as both interesting and innovating. I felt honored to have him had in the classroom.

But I was not the only one to have given a lecture at KHM. In fact Geert invites throughout the year a series of speakers, local and international specialists from public relations, media, social media or journalism in attempt to provide students with as much business insight and contacts.

As usual, my presentation is embedded below: