The Mobile Global Classroom

Today, a shout out to East Carolina University.

ECU was my first teaching post, as well as the first place I learned about modern distance education. We started the state's (possibly the nation's) first accredited distance-delivered bachelor's degree in communication.

Admittedly, we were pretty lucky. Our accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), didn't have any intrusive rules about distance learning (and still doesn't - SACS doesn't get in the way of DE). So, since our resident program was accredited, and our DE delivery system and profs did their jobs, so was our DE program.

Anyway, the program rocked. It was a great platform for experimenting with DE technologies. Students didn't quite know what to expect, so when the classes actually delivered what we promised - and in a reasonably high-tech way, they went away reasonably satisfied.

That's what brings me to the Mobile Global Classroom.

Once upon a time, one of my colleagues and I won an internal technology grant to build a mobile platform for distance delivery of classroom content - interactive lectures and such. We were able to build it with off-the-shelf parts and available software, so it cost an affordable $20k.

If memory serves, if was a combination of Dell computer parts, a pair of video cameras and Macromedia Breeze - plus some extras to make the big bits work.

I never got to use it. My family moved to Maryland for work in Washington, DC, leaving eastern NC - and the MGC - behind.

So, let me ask - do we have any ECU grads out there - someone who can tell me how the MGC worked out - from a student's perspective?