Making the most of technology at new student multimedia center
Senior Sara Stringfellow had been using Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace to showcase her acting experience and announce upcoming shows. Creating her own Web page seemed too difficult until she visited the new student multimedia center, part of the Norwick Center for Digital Services at Fondren Libary.
“I created a Web page for my playwriting class at the center with the help of their staff,” says the senior theatre major from Tampa, Florida. “I never knew how easy it could be. Having this Web page has definitely made it easier to get my name out professionally.”
For Rob Walker, manager of the Norwick Center for Digital Services, Stringfellow’s example is one of many success stories since the center’s opening. Formerly known as the Norwick Center for Media and Instructional Technology (CMIT), the center’s new name corresponds with its new digital services for students.
“We realized that students needed variety – a place to work that went beyond having a room filled with computers,” says Bill Dworaczyk, director of the Norwick Center.
The center features 12 creation stations with 24-inch iMacs, two group project rooms with 23-inch MacPro computers for editing and two group practice rooms with 20-inch iMac computers, video projectors and installed cameras so students can practice and record classroom presentations. The computers also include video editing, music, graphic design and Web software.
“The reactions from faculty and students have been positive,” Walker says. “Faculty members are beginning to assign their students 10-minute videos instead of 30-page papers.”
Stringfellow agrees. “There was a time when knowing Microsoft Word and PowerPoint was enough, but not any more.”
For more information, visit smu.edu/cul/ncds/
