Advice to Baruch College

New Media can improve the college infrastructure and classes in so many ways. Although an initial investment might have to be made to implement the technology, it will pay off in the long run for both the college and more importantly its students and staff. One way in which New Media can be used for classes is to create classes that are done within a "Virtual World" online, such as second life. This way teachers and students can partake from anywhere, and can also record the classes for later reviewing. This is can cut down on costs for the school in needing classrooms and all that goes in to keeping a building running. This is also easier for the students of Baruch that commute long ways to get to school. Professors should also start having all class material on Wikis so that everybody can easily get to it and work on it. Just like our New Media course, it would really make things easier for both professor and student. Text books that are expensive and cumbersome can be replaced by ebooks. Instead of printing assignments out and wasting paper, everything can be electronic. Classes can be recorded as podcasts so that anybody that missed class or didn't get all the notes down can listen later. Class projects can move from powerpoints in front of the class to youtube videos or presentations over VOIP. Updates from teachers about them coming to class and assignments can be made through Twitter or Facebook status updates so everyone will easily get the message. Students should be able to contact their professors over IM so that they can get instant answers to their questions. Much of registering for classes and paying is already online but the systems aren't very refinded. With a move to Web 2.0, the college infrastructure could be more streamlined. Moving everything from registering to advisement online can make things easier, faster, and less costly. It will benefit everyone in the equation.