Students often are asked to put their thoughts on paper. In an Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies course, they also were asked to put their thoughts on MP3 audio files.
The end result of this collaborative project was 31 episodes of the Marginalized Conflict Podcast Series, which are available or on .
In their audio essays, the students analyze past and present conflicts in places such as East Timor, Darfur, Northern Ireland, and West Papua.
The term marginalized refers to conflicts that have been left unaddressed, either through classroom examination or in a broader historical sense, according to Tyrell Haberkorn, who taught the course last semester.
The students were very careful in selecting topics, said Haberkorn, because they knew the podcasts would be made available to a wide audience.
 |
| Two students in the Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies course edit the podcasts they created in the Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology. |
They said, Ive been thinking about this topic or that topic, but I feel theyre not important enough for the podcast. They were able to engage passionately with something, and its an amazing thing to convey that passion to someone else, she said.
Haberkorn, a postdoctoral fellow in the Peace and Conflict Studies Program, worked closely with Clarence Maybee, information literacy librarian, and Ray Nardelli, manager of digital media.
Maybee helped students evaluate available information on their topics and assemble it in the best way for audio. Nardelli instructed Haberkorn and the students on how to record and edit their podcasts, all of which took place in special computer labs and the audio studio in Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology.
Through reviewing other podcasts, the students got the sense of what they could do and could think about what they wanted their own podcasts to do, said Maybee.
Having librarians and IT staff members working in the same building was one of the benefits of the recent renovation and expansion of Case-Geyer.
University librarian Joanne Schneider praised the collaboration between faculty and library and IT staff members on the podcast project.
Its also an important demonstration of the ability of new technologies to engage students and faculty in ways that promote advances in learning and teaching, she said.