Presenting the Podacast Toolkit at the 2017 Teaching Festival

It was a privilege to present to the highly engaged faculty and staff colleagues in attendance on Friday morning for our talk on Promoting Agency and Inclusion through an International Podcast Project. We received lots of great questions and enjoyed the conversation on how this project can be adapted to many different disciplines and courses.  It was also a good opportunity to discuss how the use of short-form audio recordings can be a valuable instructional tool that has high impact with low cost to produce.  I enjoyed the opportunity to play a sample form our pilot episode of the International Podcast Project as well.

For details on the presentation and other talks featured at the 2017 Teaching Festival see the entire Teaching Festival Lineup.

Pilot Episode: International Podcast Project

Following the successful inaugural International Podcast Project, my fellow colleagues and I have compiled the top-voted student podcasts from the project into the pilot episode (ep.0) .  This pilot podcast contains the peer-voted top two podcasts for each course that participated in the project.  There were a total of six courses participating including two from the main campus in St. Louis, and one course from the Leiden campus. Geneva campus, Vienna campus, and Thailand campus. 

Project Background

I will share much more in the near future on the entire project details including an resources kit for anyone who would like to take this project and adapt it.  In short this was an international cross-campus project in which the international campuses of Webster University Media Communications departments collaborated on a student podcast project. 

• Project Themes: Media Technology, Media Convergence, Food & Culture in the Media, Interpersonal Communication
• Deliverable: Original audio recording containing the background, research and information on the chosen subject and theme
• Length: 3:00 minutes

Once all podcasts were created, they were uploaded to SoundCloud accounts and shared with a paired class from a different international campus.  Students then voted and provided peer feedback on the other classes podcasts.  Once the final voted list was completed, I compiled the podcasts into a single finished podcast episode for the International Podcast Project. 

Summer Photography Workshop 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY SUMMER WORKSHOP
Travel & Street Photography

This summer I am teaching a fun and exciting photography workshop focused on the contemporary methods and techniques for shooting and post-processing travel and street photography. 

During the course students will be putting their knowledge of photography into action through a series of small photographic assignments in cityscapes and street photography to prepare them for a final production assignment to capture a "City Portrait" of a city/town of their choosing. 

Creating a City Portrait

To accomplish the goal of the final project, students will be asked to create a final image series that encompasses several aspects of the city to help create a complete "portrait" of that location.  In addition to the visual elements of this assignment, students will also write short exposes on each of the main segments of their series to provide a rich context to the images. 

The City Portrait includes:

1. A cityscape that captures the essence of the city through its architecture, or city planning, and or the the atmosphere of the city.
2. The people that make that city.  Who are they? What do they think of their city? Is there any interesting characteristics of the people that stand out from other cities near or far?
3. Food and culture: Looking even closer at our city, what is behind the people, what do they do, where and what do they eat?  Where do they shop or go for entertainment? The final segment will focus on the culture of the city.  Get close, observe and capture the food, the coffee, the shopping etc. that fuels the city.  Are there specific places that "everyone" goes to enjoy a meal, what about the shopping, do people shop in large department stores or small locally owned shops.  Is there a "must eat" or "must try" local delicacy or traditional drink? Find out, and photograph it, capture the "essence" of what makes it unique.

Interactive Leiden Photohunt

Another feature of the class designed to give students a task that would get them out and about in the city, as well as give them locations to practice the photographic techniques discussed and learned in class was a city-wide photohunt.  Similar to a scavenger hunt, there are several (10) locations marked throughout the old city that students need to "capture" with their camera.

If you would like to use the Photohunt please feel free, this map was created using Google Maps custom map feature and has been made publicly available.  Whether you want to join in the fun of photographing the city of Leiden, or just want a map to share with visitors of "must see" please feel free to share the map. Alternatively you can make your own for your city, or one you will (or have) traveled and photographed.

I'll end this with a few words I often say in closing of my photo classes. Good luck on your photo walks, don't forget to look up, and if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong. 

New Promo Video for BA in Media Comm

To help increase the exposure of the BA program in Media Communications at Webster University the Netherlands, I created a short promotional video to serve as an attention-grabber, and a visual interest tool.  This short video was developed and rendered through Adobe AfterEffects CS6 last spring.  The visual intent was to showcase the four production tracks in the program offered at our campus.  To this end the video rolls through Media Communications, Interactive Digital Media, Photography, and Video Production.

The visual assets in the video are all videos, images, and graphics that are currently in use by the department in some form.  Part of the mission of this video is to showcase not only what students can study, but to show them this by example of using images, and other assets that are actually from the department. 

Presentation - Webster University Leiden

Below is the presentation that I gave at Webster University in Leiden Netherlands on January 31st, 2012 to the search committee for the Department Head of Media Communications & Fine Art.

Webster University - a Sean M Leahy Presentation on Prezi

I want to thank everyone from Webster University for the opportunity to come out and give this presentation.  It was a wonderful experience and a great chance to meet many new people.