Contemporary Considerations
Implementing a University Center for Innovation in Technology and Digital Media: Strategies to Consider, Pitfalls to Avoid
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Chad Clark
This qualitative case study explores strategies for implementing a technology and digital media center on a traditional Midwestern university campus. The researcher was part of a team that attempted to create a permanent collaboration between colleges of arts and sciences and technology. The collaboration effort was designed to unite digital-based extracurricular opportunities and classroom learning in order to enhance the reputation of the university by adding to the institution mandate to educate through hands-on experiences. Addressing the issue that there was no link between digital media and communication curriculum and various technology groups on campus, the creators of the center desired to make technology-focused students better professional communicators and to make communication-focused students more adept at using digital technology. As a digital literacy effort the center focused on media technology use via the development of digital media and technology policy which would provide campus-wide guidelines for the use of digital media as well as the creation of digital media products. These products and policies were envisioned to be jointly created by faculty and staff, students, and citizens from the community. The center plan called for phased implementation commencing with the development of a digital workplace styled after makerspaces and moving next to the development of curriculum to support students who did not fall into traditional majors. Finally the center was to have affiliated faculty to ensure longevity. Via case study the researcher outlines the implementation process whereby the center was supported on almost every level yet remains unratified.
Managing Workplace Relations at a Distance
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Derek Wallace
This paper considers how it might be possible to enhance the relational quality of communication in online work contexts. My starting point is to agree that relational possibilities are more restrictive and frequently more contrived in computer mediated communication (CMC) compared with face-to-face situations, but to disagree that this means CMC is an impoverished mode of communication. What CMC lacks in relational immediacy can be compensated for, and this compensatory behaviour can become second nature once the need for it is recognised and measures are practiced. The paper draws on sociolinguistic research (particularly that of politeness theory and the "rapport management" framework of Helen Spencer-Oatey) to explore the comparative potentials of a range of online communication tools and develop a framework for their complementary deployment. The discussion is based in the experiences of an international network of researchers established with the purpose of exploring the affordances of a range of tools in the course of building their online association.
Five Months in Nantes: An Interactive Documentary Experience for Language Teaching and Learning
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Isabel Rivero Vilá
Interactive documentaries (idocs) are projects that document the "real" and combine digital interactive technology (images, text, audio, animation, graphic design, etc.), web technologies, and documentary practice. An interactive documentary allows the audience members, in this case, our foreign language learners, to make the work unfold through their interactions, moving the story forward and giving it meaning by exploring the components that interest them most. I believe interactive documentary films offer endless possibilities in language teaching and are an ideal medium for integrating the target culture and for promoting engaging discussions. Thus, language learning is based on real cultural contexts so that the students become more engaged with the world. In order to integrate this world into my class, I became a documentary filmmaker myself. My goal was to offer an opportunity to discover everyday life in Nantes as I experienced it during my stay in France. The result was my idoc : « 5 months in Nantes », where the viewers choose the side of the city they would like to explore in their stay in Nantes (touristy, green, historic, university, political, etc.) in order to become familiar with different French-speaking contexts and make connections with their own experiences. Furthermore, I propose a series of activities, that I have done with my students, to prepare them for the filmmaking process and allow practice of the target language with the idoc. Finally, participants will have the necessary tools and resources to carry out this type of project with their students.
