Faculty Media Lab
From ChaucerWiki
Faculty Media Lab
Where is the Faculty Media Lab located?
The Lab is located in Room 1226 SFSC, on the Adelphi campus of UMUC.
Who “owns” the Faculty Media Lab?
The Faculty Media Lab serves the entire academic community of UMUC. It is part of the Center for Media and New Technology (CMNT) which is the primary multimedia development group in UMUC. CMNT's mission is to develop innovations that enhance the quality of learning at a distance, and to disseminate best practices in online learning. In this regard, the Faculty Media Lab is an important component of CMNT’s work. CMNT is part of the Office of Instructional Services and Support (OISS). .
How does the Faculty Media Lab fit into UMUC? To understand how the Faculty Media Lab fits into UMUC, it is important to have a framework for thinking about how multimedia is incorporated into an online course. All multimedia are not created equal. Some multimedia, by necessity, are costly and time-consuming to produce, such as an interactive Flash animation that illustrates a chemical interaction. But on the other hand, some multimedia are inexpensive and time-efficient to produce, such as the recording of a telephone interview with a scholar in another part of the world. The Faculty Media Lab is designed to support the second type of multimedia—the low cost/low effort media. These media can be thought of as the “low-hanging fruit” for course multimedia enhancement. Both types of media are important to a university like UMUC.
What type of media can be produced in the Lab?
The Faculty Media Lab can produce and capture a variety of multimedia resources. Audio and video conferencing can be easily recorded and turned into either media streaming or higher-quality CD-ROM based resources. In a similar vein, simple audio and video presentations can be recorded and produced, including the incorporation of computer-based slides and graphics. Additionally, an interactive white board can capture all activity at a 3' by 4' white board and save the activity as either a series of jpeg graphic images or as a real-time media stream with graphics and audio. All activities in the room can be Webcast live to a global audience and/or recorded for asynchronous viewing.
The Media Lab has three computer workstations for resource production and a laptop for presentations. Two workstations are PCs with Windows XP. These machines contain a variety of software for graphics, web, and multimedia production. One of these machines is equipped with a scanner with page feeder, and has the capacity for scanning images, text and rendering PDF files. The other station is equipped with robotic CD-ROM recorder for mass-producing CD-ROMs. The third workstation is a Macintosh G4 set up as a video editing station.
As always, the equipment is in a state of flux.
