After a year of delays, St. Thomas University has finally launched the STUdio, a media lab that can be accessed by students and staff.
The STUdio is located on the ground floor of Sir James Dunn Hall and classes are already using the available equipment. The G-6 classroom is now a complete “smart” classroom and two podcasting booths are available to all who want to record.
André Loiselle, dean of humanities at STU, said he is pleased about how the project has turned out.
“One thing that would be very nice to have is monitors or televisions on the brick walls so that the work of students can start being showcased,” Loiselle said.
Related: STU will get a digital media lab after a year of delays
He added that it is a benefit to the teaching staff when it comes to research and how they teach their classes. He sees it as a way of modernizing many of the departments at the university.
“In those disciplines that have been traditionally not tech-heavy increasingly require technology and there is a colleague that has now started using the STUdio to record interviews. I think that his plan is also to archive the interviews and make them available to other researchers.”
Some professors are already getting their first-hand teaching experience from the new setup too. Mark Tunney is teaching the radio and podcasting course this semester, which makes use of the podcasting booths as well as equipment from the G-4 equipment room.\
Tunney hopes that the STUdio will make for a smoother process of teaching and learning.
“I think it was frustrating for me, it was frustrating for students. Having that equipment room down there now and having more equipment. Where we’re going with this is, instead of everybody with a station like we had at CBC, the way students seem to work now and the way it’s best to work now is everyone’s doing their laptops and their phones,” Tunney said.
He also believes that it will encourage students from other fields to take the classes associated with the STUdio and still have journalism at the centre of it.
“There’s also a core part of journalism, you know, that I don’t think we want to throw away in the big picture of what we’re doing,” he added.
Related: STU ends lease at CBC, journalism students disappointed
