Clark is among six universities chosen to work with Boston College’s proprietary MediaKron digital instruction platform and will participate in the most extensive educational technology initiative in BC history.
Following a nationwide request for proposals, BC’s Office of Academic Technology invited faculty from six universities to use MediaKron technology to explore and create dynamic multi-media course content. Other institutions selected to participate in the project are Boston University, Bucknell University, Darmouth College, Providence College, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
A web-based application developed by a team of faculty and designers in BC’s Instructional Design and eTeaching Services Department, MediaKron lets faculty build customized sites, such as maps and timelines, to organize and present images, video, audio and text in a secure space.
Two Fall 2012 undergraduate courses will serve as the initial users of MediaKron at Clark: Campaigns and Elections, a comparative politics course taught by associate professor of political science Robert Boatright; and National Imagination, a comparative cultures course offered our of through the Foreign Languages and Literatures department and taught by Professors Robert Tobin and Marvin D’Lugo, and lecturer Alice Valentine.
“Embedded in the outcomes established in Clark’s LEEP (Liberal Education and Effective Practice) initiative is the notion that technology fluency and the ability to critically consume and produce media are skills liberally educated students must have upon graduation,” said Cheryl Turner Elwell, Director of Academic Technology Services in Clark’s IT office. “We see MediaKron as an innovative tool to add to our inventory of academic/instructional technology.”
MediaKron’s development, begun in 2006, has been supported by approximately $500,000 in funding from the Davis Educational Foundation, which was established by Stanton Davis, the former chairman of Shaw’s Supermarkets Inc., and his wife, Elisabeth Davis.
“Just as MediaKron brings together Boston College faculty and students to create dynamic digital instructional content, we’re excited to announce we’re now using MediaKron to connect with faculty at other institutions to expand the impact of this exciting technology,” said Rita Owens, executive director of Academic Technology at BC. “We’re looking forward to partnering with these great colleges and universities as we develop new ways of teaching in the digital era.”
Founded in 1887 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Clark University is a small, liberal arts-based research university addressing social and human imperatives on a global scale. Nationally renowned as a college that changes lives, Clark is emerging as a transformative force in higher education today. LEEP (Liberal Education and Effective Practice) is Clark’s pioneering model of education that combines a robust liberal arts curriculum with life-changing world and workplace experiences. Clark’s faculty and students work across boundaries to develop solutions to contemporary challenges in the areas of psychology, geography, management, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies, and international development and social change. The Clark educational experience embodies the University’s motto: Challenge convention. Change our world. www.clarku.edu