Media Depot Offers Solutions to Faculty, Students

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 9, 2014) — When Ann Christianson wanted to teach her students about using iMovie in her A-E 120 classes, "Pathways to Creativity through the Visual Arts," a UK Core and art education course, they hit a bit of a snag – no Mac labs were available to use during the scheduled class period.

The Media Depot @ the Hub came to the rescue as manager Kirk Laird and staff member Isaac Davidson quickly arrived at a workable solution – tablets. The Media Depot’s iPads were purchased with the iMovie app already installed, so Christianson was able to check out the iPads and use them in a normal classroom setting to provide her students with the iMovie instruction.

The Media Depot also provides tours of their facilities and resources for classes. Anna Stone, a writing, rhetoric and digital studies teaching assistant, has incorporated a documentary or podcast as a final project for her WRD 110 course (as do several other WRD 110 course sections). She scheduled a class tour with the Media Depot’s technician Kevin Reifert, who demonstrated Adobe Premiere Pro to the students before they were paired up to practice on their own.

The students created fun 30-second videos and became visibly more relaxed about their final course project. Many of the students had never made a video before, so the project was intimidating. However, at the end of their Media Depot visit they were smiling and telling Stone, “I think I can do this!”

The following week, Stone’s students returned to the Media Depot and received additional assistance from the Media Depot technicians. Before leaving, the students were asked for feedback regarding the services they received. One student responded that he found the staff helpful stating, “Yes, because I wouldn’t know how to get started on my own!” Another student agreed, “If you don’t know what’s going on, you can ask one of the technicians and they’re always so nice and helpful.”

The Media Depot is a student digital media space located in the Hub at William T. Young Library, which provides access to recording equipment and space, editing stations with specialized multimedia software, and technical support for students’ development of their academic media projects.

As final project deadlines draw near, the Media Depot is available to assist students with documentary, podcast and other media projects. Information about scheduling recording rooms and the software available is available at http://www.uky.edu/ukit/mediadepot.   

Faculty can also find specialized media help in the Faculty Media Depot, which recently opened on the ground floor in the Science Library, located on the south side of the Margaret I. King Library. 

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Harder, 859-323-2396, whitney.harder@uky.edu