Professor Thomas Hale addresses a student during his PicTel class.
Photo: Greg Grieco
Professor Thomas Hale addresses a student during his PicTel class.
Photo: Greg Grieco
By Vicki Fong
Public Information
As students stroll into his University Park classroom, Professor Thomas Hale gets ready in a slightly unusual way. Armed with a laptop, control board and document camera, Hale faces a TV camera and looks at a 27-inch TV screen for signs of his other students.
"Good morning, McKeesport," Hale says.
A signal chirps as the picture of a McKeesport campus classroom pops up on the monitor. "Good morning," say the students as they settle into their seats.
"Good morning, Berks."
There is silence.
"Hello, Berks?" Hale pauses. Then, a classroom flashes across the screen with the technician peering into the camera. "Sorry, there was a little glitch," he says.
Welcome to the "Masterpieces of Literature from Africa" course, taught by Hale through a PictureTel videoconferencing system to a total of 86 students from University Park, McKeesport, Berks, Lehigh Valley and Wilkes-Barre campuses.
This course is one of two African studies courses currently offered this semester as part of a two-year project to strengthen and expand African studies at Penn State by using communications technology. Funded by the University and a $98,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, this project appears to be the first to serve four campuses simultaneously from University Park.
"The University has supported a nucleus of African studies courses since the late 1960s, but any plans to expand the program significantly have faced obstacles of diminishing resources, modest enrollments and a small number of full-time faculty who teach courses on Africa regularly," says Hale, professor of African, French and comparative literature, and director of the project. "In addition, freshmen and sophomore students at most campuses, who were a potential audience, were not able to take any courses until they came to University Park.
In response to the stumbling blocks, Hale developed a comprehensive proposal to redesign the African studies curriculum. Working with a team of liberal arts faculty members, he modified three courses to link to the campuses and created seven new in-depth courses for University Park students, all using communications technology.
Teaching the PicTel classes to the campuses goes well beyond just lecturing on television. The PicTel videoconferencing system provides an economical way for students to ask questions of the professors and of each other. By using a laptop computer connected to an interactive video control board, the instructors can pop in a CD loaded with slides and show photographic images, maps and other visuals to students at all sites.
The project also requires the instructors to visit each campus during the semester and teach the class from that site so all students get to meet them in person.
Students can log into a Web site and check a list of current assignments, study questions and e-mail addresses of classmates. Through e-mail, students submit brief essays on assigned readings. For team reports, students who are paired with a partner at another campus must talk with each other via e-mail or the telephone in order to prepare their presentations.
On this particular day, for example, the class listened to several team reports. One student illustrated her talk by sliding photos of Islamic mosques under the video document camera, which transmitted the images to all the TV monitors at five campuses. Another student designed computerized graphic charts which lit up the monitor with facts and figures as she spoke.
"The interactive nature of PicTel requires a lot more preparation for visuals, as well as planning for communication by e-mail and training on the use of the equipment," Hale says. "But the messages of the course are taking center stage and the technology is fading in the minds of both the faculty and the students. We are seeing students developing bonds with each other and with the instructor that bridge the distance between the campuses."
A second course, "Introduction to Contemporary Africa," is team taught by Christine Ahmed and Clemente Abrokwaa, faculty members in the Department of African and African American Studies. The class comprises more than 80 students from University Park, McKeesport, Berks, Lehigh Valley and Worthington Scranton campuses.
Enrollment in each PicTel course has jumped from 40 to more than 80 students, exceeding expectations. The goal is to provide an early introduction to African studies, with the hope that more Penn State students might continue to take in-depth courses at University Park.
The response from students has been positive.
Richard Rosenthal, from McKeesport, noted, "The first week took some time to get used to the slight time delay in the videoconferencing, but now, I feel like I'm right in the classroom with the professor and all the students."
Faculty members are now evaluating each course and preparing to make a variety of changes for next year. In addition, at University Park this semester, the three in-depth courses covering gender dynamics, early African history and modern African history also reached predicted enrollments.
"The initial reviews have been very promising," says Hale. "Some Big Ten universities, particularly those with major African studies programs, are interested in collaborating on similar courses with us. While the number of African studies programs and scholars nationwide in the U.S. is small compared with western European studies programs, this entire project enables us to take some major steps to reach more students and better nurture the interest in Africa sparked by our changing society and global economy."