May – 2019 – St. Thomas E-Learning And Research
Monthly Archives

May 2019

STELAR Partnerships with Faculty

Dean Yohuru Williams Visits Media Production Students in OEC Multimedia Production Studio

Dean Yohuru Williams of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences visited the OEC Multimedia Production Studio on May 2 to observe TommieMedia staff producing two segments of their Locker Room sports report program.

TommieMedia production team with Dean Yohuru Williams

TommieMedia production team with CAS dean Yohuru Williams

 

During his visit, Dean Williams offered words of praise and encouragement to the students, saying how impressed he was with their level of commitment to their work and that their commitment shows in the quality of their recordings.

 

Mark Neuzil, Communication Journalism professor noted, “The student journalists were very appreciative of the visit by the dean. Many of them were in new roles for the broadcast, and they did their jobs well. And they didn’t seem too nervous with a celebrity in the control room.”

 

Inside the control room during production

“My favorite memory of his visit was when he joined me during my debriefing after the show.”, said Studio Producer MacKenzie Bailey.  “He shared his thoughts on how well our show ran in comparison with his prior experience in other high-level media productions. I’m glad we had the chance to show him part of what student media is capable of at the University of St. Thomas.”

 

Dean Williams is no stranger to high-level media production.

Chatting with students and staff after the day’s recording

 

Dan Lamatsch, STELAR video engineer and OEC studio manager noted, “It’s pretty neat to know that the dean of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences knows exactly what it takes to make high-quality media.  He’s been interviewed by many media outlets and has recorded several segments for CNN docuseries on broadcast television and on Netflix.”

 

STELAR supports the OEC Multimedia Production Studio in OEC.  TommieMedia is the university’s student-run multimedia news production organization.  It is an immersive on-campus employment option for students enrolled in a Communication Journalism (COJO) degree track including journalism, reporting, graphic design, public relations, media production, videography, photography, or advertising.

 

Watch “TommieMedia’s The Locker Room”

 

This post was written by Dan Lamatsch, Senior Engineer for AV Technologies for the St. Thomas E-Learning and Research (STELAR) Center at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. To learn more about this topic, please visit our website at www.stthomas.edu/stelar or email us at stelar@stthomas.edu.

Technology Tools

Art History in 3D

Virtual reality has been around for about two years now, and new educational applications are emerging every day. In the first image below, Dr. Heather Shirey’s art history class use the ClassVR system to view a 360-degree image of the Temple of Palmyra, in Syria (bottom image), giving students the illusion of standing in the middle of the temple. These detailed, 3-dimensional images become particularly precious as this historical site has been significantly and intentionally damaged by warfare in recent years. The ClassVR system is a group of connected virtual reality goggles that can be controlled from a central location, allowing a professor to send images to all headsets at once, create playlists of related subjects, upload their own 360-degree photos or allow students to explore on their own. When it’s time to leave virtual reality, they can all be shut down at once, too! If you are interested in exploring ClassVR for your own project, come talk to us in STELAR!

ClassVR in Art History

Temple of Bel, Palmyra

Temple of Bel, Palmyra 15.jpg” by Bernard Gagnon (Own work) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

This post was written by Eric Tornoe, Associate Director of Research Computing for the St. Thomas E-Learning and Research (STELAR) Center at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. To learn more about this topic, please visit our website at www.stthomas.edu/stelar or email us at stelar@stthomas.edu.