If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a video worth?
Recognizing the increasing popularity of video as a mode of communication, the Communication and Public Relations department in the College of Business Administration has launched ITV and Business Pulse, two vehicles that take advantage of people’s appetite for video.
“ITV ((http://itv.fiu.edu/) serves as a resource for communication and provides a sense of community as people share ideas in a highly popular format,” said Kunle Ekunkonye, web development manager, who is managing the site under the direction of Sally Gallion, assistant dean, communication and public relations.
[flv:http://business.fiu.edu/newsletters/BusinessNetworks/2008/09/videos/itv.flv 500 334]
Within the college, Ekunkonye notes a useful role for ITV in extending the learning environment.
“We envision many ways professors can employ ITV to communicate with and engage their classes,” he said. “We also foresee roundtables between faculty and students during which the students can ask questions about timely subjects, and we hope that students will conduct peer tutoring using the site.”
ITV will reach beyond the academic sphere and beyond the business school.
One student organization officer already sees the potential of ITV.
“ITV is another way of providing information about upcoming events, seminars, and workshops; enables students to view events they might have missed; and acts as a networking tool,” said Daniel Sanchez, president, MIS Club.
Though Ekunkonye has just begun to alert the Florida International University community to ITV, he’s getting an enthusiastic response.
“A video-sharing community is really valuable because it gives people another way to get information,” said Charlie Grau, editor-in-chief of The Beacon, the university’s student newspaper. “People like to see things.”
“We’re on South Beach and ITV is a good form of mass communication to people who want to know what’s at the museum now and what type of programming we have on a regular basis,” said Cathy Leff, director, The Wolfsonian-FIU.
The site is easy to use: users simply create an account, upload the video (most formats will work), and write a description and tags to make it searchable.
Business Pulse brings faculty experts to wider attention.
The department now also offers Business Pulse, a twice-monthly video presentation featuring some of the college’s many experts speaking on current business issues with international implications. Programs have covered energy, real estate, and human resources, with topics related to entrepreneurship in the current economy, money laundering and terrorist financing, the economic outlook for countries in South America, privacy issues, and Internet security on the docket.
