New Media Centers (NMC) is a non‐profit organization helping institutions of higher education enhance teaching and learning through the use of new media. Combining academia and industry pioneers in the new media field, NMC creates a collaborative network of institutions and corporations serving as a catalyst to integrate new media into education.
The New Media Centers web site provides the following resources and links:
At a Glance
Following is a quote from this page that elaborates on the role of New Media Centers: “New Media Centers identifies institutions of higher education around the world best suited to serve as models for innovation, both on campus and in their communities. By coordinating special relationships between these institutions and industry leaders, the program helps them acquire and use state‐of‐the‐art new media technology to create hands‐on laboratories. These laboratories offer an ideal setting for beta‐testing, software development and the training of tomorrow’s workforce.”
Links at the bottom of this page include:
Current News about NMC
Board of Directors
Educational and Relationship Building Activities
New Media Centers Personnel Roster
Membership Information
This page gives a brief outline for those interested in becoming members. Accredited institutions of higher education may become members of New Media Centers as well as companies who want to become corporate members. New Media Centers does not allow individual memberships.
What’s Hot
This page offers announcements and news about New Media Centers. Some older items from this page have been archived on their online tepidarium, the “What Was Hot” page (http://www.csulb.edu/gc/nmc/WasHot.htm).
Academic Members
New Media Centers has chosen 85 academic sites to create new media centers serving as models for other institutions. This page is searchable, using the search engine provided at the bottom of the page. Each academic site listed includes a link to their respective institution, and often the link goes directly to their technology center.
Corporate Members
This page lists twelve participating corporations and provides links to their sites.
NMC Contact Information
The personal nature of this page presents a nice impression and provides direct contact with personnel. There are specific names with email and telephone numbers, as well as more general contact information.
Online Information Request
This page offers an online form to register your contact information with New Media Centers. At the bottom of the form, applicants can indicate special areas of interest such as:
Information about Academic Membership.
Information about Corporate Membership.
Information about New Media Centers seminars and events.
NMC tools and shareware
This is a disappointing page because it only provides five select items of shareware and freeware. There are so many educational applications available that are not listed on this page.
NMC Resource Center
This page lists six sources for information regarding educational technology. It could be
uch more comprehensive. The fifth link, Educational interface to the Internet (http://www.cis.uab.edu/info/grads/mmf/EdPage/EdPage2.html) as well as several others, do not work. The last resource listed is Prentice Hall for more information regarding
publishing guidelines. There is no link available for Prentice Hall nor does this publishing company seem to fit the topic at hand.
New Media Clips
New Media Clips is a publication of New Media Centers. Clips introduces the pioneers in higher education and corporate America and covers some of the following:
Find out why new media is important to them.
Find out what they’ve created.
Find out how they created it.
Find out what they’re up to now.
Discover brand new tools.
Both the first and second issues are available for download as .pdf files.
Summary
The premise of New Media Centers is one rooted in collaboration between academia and industry pioneers. Considering this strong collaboration, a viewer might expect to find a large source of resources and tools for teaching with technology. However, of the links on the main page, the best and only resource that provides valuable material is the academic list of institutions. The academic links provide a link to each institution and thereby information on the different approaches and offerings of New Media Centers around the world. These academic sites provide excellent models for institutions planning and/or developing a new media center.
The web site’s design is consistent and bandwidth friendly. A routine navigational feature directs the viewer back to the main page which keeps the site simple and consistent.
Considering the working structure and collaboration of New Media Centers, more resources should be made available. The site lacks the depth of information and resources found in other similar sites. If the goal was to explain New Media Centers and offer a few other links, the goal has been met. Nevertheless, I found myself continually wishing for more information and resources on teaching and learning through the use of media.
