Game-changing moments

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 20:27:47 +0000

Game-changing moments Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/01/2018 - 14:27

Before that iconic red circle appears on the stage and speakers deliver punchy TedTalks, hundreds of hours of preparation take place behind the scenes.

“We didn’t know going into this what our theme would be, but through the process the stories revealed themselves,” says Colleen Campbell (Comm’18), volunteer speaker coordinator for “Game Changer: TEDxCU 2018.”

She served with four other CMCI and Leeds School of Business students on the 2018 TedxCU executive committee. Each year, the all-student committee—with the guidance of Department of Communication Instructor Jeff Motter—chooses and coaches speakers, develops a theme, produces the marketing and completes all other duties needed to pull off the event.

TEDx events are organized independently but follow mandatory ground rules and branding guidelines set by TED. The students receive training and then coach speakers through the process of delivering their speeches to match the TedTalk style.

For Campbell, the intense months of planning before the April event were among her best experiences at CU. They also were supported by what she learned from her professors.

“As a communication major, community and bringing people together is central to what we do,” she says. “Whether behind the scenes helping to edit manuscripts or leading a team of students on the speaker committee, I feel confident in the skills my communication classes have given me.”

Before that iconic red circle appears on the stage and speakers deliver punchy TedTalks, hundreds of hours of preparation take place behind the scenes.

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Hello? Shipping container doubles as global phone booth

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 01:33:36 +0000

Hello? Shipping container doubles as global phone booth Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/24/2017 - 19:33

Photos by Glenn Asakawa (Jour'86).

An external view of the portal.

Last April, a golden shipping container appeared on the brick plaza by Folsom Stadium. For a month, students, professors and community members streamed in—some for 15 minutes, others for a class—to face a life-size, technology-enabled screen and talk with strangers on the other side of the world.

More than 500 people from CU ��«��Ƶ and the community struck up conversations with people in similar high-tech shipping containers—or portals—in Erbil, Iraq; Mexico City, Mexico; Kigali, Rwanda; the Gaza Strip; Herat, Afghanistan; and other locations.

Nicoli Bowley (Comm’17), participated in a two-hour talk with three college students in Kigali who formed MyStory, a social organization that uses stories to inspire, connect and enable young people. “Although we come from such different backgrounds, they’re 20-year-olds just like us. It was kind of like talking to friends across the world,” says Bowley, who initially wondered what they would talk about for two hours. “It flew by.”

��«��ƵTalks, a CMCI center, sponsored the project as a way to promote dialogue and connect with communities around the world.

Sara Cooley, a journalism major, talked with three students in a refugee camp in Erbil as part of Assistant Professor Leah Sprain’s communication class, Discourse, Culture and Identities. She appreciated a fuller glimpse of the lives of people in the refugee camps and found it to be “broader than a lot of what is covered in the news.”

Managed by Shared Studios, the portal installations were created in 2014 by artist Amar Bakshi, whose work focuses on how to integrate technology into environments across distance.

Dean Lori Bergen and a group of students participate in a conversation with community members in Mexico City.

When a high-tech shipping container arrives on campus, students, faculty and community members find themselves chatting with strangers around the globe.

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��«����ƵTalks

Game-changing moments

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Hello? Shipping container doubles as global phone booth

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