Thursday, May 30, 2002

Ball State U. Will Use Online Videoconferencing for International Seminars By MICHAEL ARNONE By next fall, Ball State University intends to link its students and those at 10 other universities worldwide through an Internet-based videoconferencing network. The Global Media Network that Ball State is building will allow students at distant institutions to take seminar courses together and to gain an international perspective on their studies, says Scott R. Olson, dean of Ball State's College of Communication, Information, and Media. "We will try to have every undergraduate experience this," he says. Graduate courses using the technology might come later, he says. The network will enable two-way transmission of video and audio signals among the member universities, Mr. Olson says. Each institution is building classrooms equipped with cameras, microphones, and projectors. Each room also has a semicircular table facing a projection screen. When a class starts, the instructors will establish a connection between a pair of rooms over the commercial Internet. Students and instructors in one room will see the image and hear the voices of their peers in the other room. The images will be projected onto the screens of each room, creating the illusion that all the participants are sitting at one circular table, Mr. Olson says. The technology allows users at all of the institutions to communicate with one another, not just with Ball State, Mr. Olson says. It also allows more than two parties to communicate at one time, he says: Although it has yet to be tried, the technology could allow a third party to be seen in a small frame in one corner of the screen, like the picture-in-picture function on some television sets, he says. So far, Mr. Olson says, Ball State has made partnerships with 10 institutions in other countries. It has done extensive technological testing with Kyunghee University in Seoul, South Korea; the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil; the University of Hong Kong; and the University of Queensland, in Australia. Among the others working with Ball State are Shanghai Teachers University in China, King Mongkut University in Thailand, and the University of Mainz in Germany. ZDF Television, a German television company, is also involved. Mr. Olson says he hopes to have partners on six continents by year's end. More universities have approached Ball State about joining but will have to wait until 2003 for the second phase of the project to start, he says. In the next phase, Ball State will aim for partnerships with institutions in Africa, Japan, and additional European countries. He says he hopes that the current partners will bring in other institutions as well. In the fall, students in existing courses might use the videoconference rooms for individual classes on particular topics, Mr. Olson says. On this coming September 11, for instance, Ball State students could discuss with German students the anniversary of the terrorist attacks. In the spring, courses specifically designed to use the rooms will start. Mr. Olson says he will know in July whether any of the partner institutions will be ready for full-fledged courses in the fall. The courses that Ball State intends to teach through the system include English literature, landscape architecture, and nanotechnology. Most courses will be taught in English, but some could be taught in Chinese, German, and other languages, Mr. Olson says. The university is paying for the Global Media Network with money from a $20.1-million grant it received last September from Lilly Endowment Inc. The grant is financing a three-pronged project to enhance the use and study of digital media at Ball State. Mr. Olson says the Global Media Network shouldn't cost more than $1.1-million. The cost might be higher if Ball State has to build infrastructure overseas, he says, but it could drop dramatically if Ball State can reduce its Internet-connection costs between the United States and other countries. Most of the money -- $17.6-million -- is going to create the Center for Media Design, a program linking eight majors in various fields and specializing in the use of digital media across disciplines. The project also creates a new academic program in media studies. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Justice Department defends Title IX, seeks dismissal of wrestling coaches' suit Supreme Court ruling in patent case expected to benefit universities U. of Michigan chooses Mary Sue Coleman, now at U. of Iowa, as system's new president 12 new chief executives announced Canadian colleges exchange student transcripts online Ball State U. will use online videoconferencing for international seminars