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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1995)
Oregon Daily EjITlCrftld Students In Allen Hall watch as Mass Media and Society Is broadcast from the IMC Students from three other Oregon state colleges also participate In the class FROM A DISTANCE Story by Lori Bettineski Photos by Gary Grass The days of overcrowded classrooms, limited enrollment and little to no exposure to tech nological equipment beyond those clunky overhead protectors may be numbered, thanks to the latest technology wave that's sweeping across campuses everywhere, including the University. With the help of satellites, computers and a lew inquisitive professors, Ore gon students can take class es from other campuses through ED-NET, a telecom munications network that extends the benefits of live, interactive video, voice and computer data communica tions to the state as a whole Through an Oregon State System ol Higher Education grant, the University's School ol Journalism is exploring ED-NET this term by offering Guest lecturer Tom Wheeler dltcunet photographic Illustrations with the class. two required core classes, J201 Mass Media and Society and J?02 Information Gathering, via this new network system. How it all works is that students taking the class a! the University are on a cable hook up with the IMC and Allen Hall. Professor Al Stavitsky. who is teaching J201, and Professor Tim Gleason, who is teaching Information Gathering, give their lectures in a studio in the IMC while students watch them on tug-screen monitors in Allen There are micro phones set up in Allen for students who have ques tions With the help of two-way audio transmission, the professors can respond to them directly. As for the students taking these two classes at other colleges, the whole process gets a little more complicated Currently, there are about 12 students from Port land Community College, Eastern and Central Ore — -jag;——--a— THE FUTURE CLASSROOM Journalism 201 and 202 are participating in a new distance education program The program ts designed so students can attend dassea that may not be currently ottered at th«r schools Spaconat 3 J Oregon Heaetend tMC ( Library □ 221 Allen OPB U campus PCC Js sosc OThe lecture that students at Portland Community College, Southern Oregon State and the students in Room 221 Allen see is taped at the University tn Studio A Besides the lecture, students will see video tape, othef class discussions and information put on a video overhead. ©The HeacJend controls aW input and output during the class Room 251 Allen is connected directly to the IMC All audio hnks between the classrooms here and at PCC and SO SC are two-way. However. PCC and SOSC can t send video ot their classrooms They can only receive video from IMC OThe class is than broadcast to a receiver on Blanton Heights and wired to Oregon Public Broadcasting, which then relays it to Vtnyard Hill. OVinyard Hill then acts as a relay amt passes the signal on to OPB in Portland OPB in Portland is the central point lor the ED-NET ©When the signal reaches OP8, it is then sent to a satellite 77 km above Earth OThe satellite Spacenet 3 then transmits the signal to PCC and SOSC where the sudents can watch the class and participate [ MATT GAHTOAEffxwaW yon State Colleges who are enrolled in these class es and "attend1" them by going to special class rooms at their colleges where satellites bring them the lectures via television. Although these students can see and hear Stavitsky and Gleason, the two professors cant see them, but they can hear them and answer their questions with the two-way audio transmission capability. To further aid communication between the stu dents and professors, all students have E-mail accounts and on-line discussion groups that they are expected to take advantage of. Gleason said more students are interacting with him through these methods than ever before 1 think this type of classroom setting puts more emphasis on outside communication." Gleason said. "So far. I've answered several hundred E-mail messages and there seems to be more response from students than ever." Although University students who enrolled in the two classes this term didn't know the classes was being ottered on-line when they enrolled, both Gleason and Stavitsky believe students have come around to the idea and are more comfortable with it than they were lour weeks ago. “Initially, there were a lot ol people unhappy, but my sense is that people seem to be giving it a chance and are finding it satisfactory." Gleason said. “There's been a large number of students that haven't had any experience with using the Internet and other computer functions so they've had to overcome some pretty high hurdles. I expect it will become less of a problem though as we continue to work with it." Despite fears over how all of this works, there are benefits to be ginned from both campus perspectives Turn to DISTANCE. Page 2B
