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October 2, 2009, 02:48 PM ET
Bringing Alumni Back to the Classroom, Virtually
In an effort to engage former students with events on campus, Colgate University is using Webcast technology to allow even the most remote alumni to watch and participate when prominent writers visit the school.
The program -- called Living Writers -- is hosted by the streaming Internet television platform Livestream.
So far there have been two lectures, one by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz and another by the husband and wife writers John and Carrie Brown. Tim Mansfield, the director of alumni affairs, said 75 people watched the entire lecture virtually.
While anyone can watch the broadcast, and even pose questions for the authors in a chat room, Mr. Mansfield says the real goal is to connect with former students.
“There’s a real appetite for intellectual engagement among our alumni,” he says. “They miss the classroom and the Colgate liberal-arts experience, and now we have the means to give it to them again.”
Mr. Mansfield says that while the class might be costly for the English department -- authors don’t come cheap -- the decision to pay for the universal broadcast was a “no brainer” since the school already had the technology and had to pay only a “negligible” monthly fee to run the site on Livestream.
Comments
1. jasonpontius - October 02, 2009 at 05:27 pm
When I opened this article to read it, I thought, "Please don't let it be about Second Life." I was pleasantly surprised! This is a great idea that I hope finds wider acceptance.
2. umbahli - October 05, 2009 at 12:29 am
Great idea! Sure beats all those Homecoming get togethers I keep geting invitations to.
3. garay - October 05, 2009 at 08:20 am
I like when technology is used effectively. Using streaming Flash video to give the alumni the option to watch interesting events on campus, either live or on-demand is a great idea. I would also make the on-demand archives available as download-and-play audio-only and video/audio Podcasts to give the alumni even more options to stay connected with our schools.
Quite frankly, I am surprised I have not seen more good uses of technology to keep in touch with the alumni.
Quality iPhone apps, like the NPR, New York Times and Wall Street Journal, for example, could be developed for our institutions and made available for free to past and existing students, faculty and staff.
It's all about convenience and giving people options of engagement.
One of the colleges at UIC has a very good idea to bring value to its alumni. They are planning to put all their class materials on WebDisks
4. garay - October 05, 2009 at 08:27 am
One of the colleges at UIC has a very good idea to bring value to its alumni. They are planning to put all their class materials on class WebDisks (a feature of the Blackboard Content System) and selectively share them with their alumni that contributes to their college. These are the same up-to-date educational materials linked from Blackboard course sites and used by the current faculty and students. Brilliant.
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