MUNCIE, Ind.—Ball State University is one of the top university leaders in the innovative use of technology to enhance international education with its Global Media Network, according to a national research group.

Ball State was awarded the recognition along with a $7,500 cash prize from The American Council on Education (ACE), the preeminent research body studying the nation’s higher education system. Funding for the national competition comes from the AT&T Foundation. More than 70 academic institutions entered the competition.

“At Ball State, students are working collaboratively on real issues with students from other cultures,” said Barbara Turlington, the council’s director of international education. “The knowledge and skills they acquire will be needed in the work force of the 21st century.  We hope Ball State’s example will help other institutions develop their own programs.”

Currently, less than 1 percent of American students now study abroad, according to the council.

Soon, however, all students on the Ball State campus will have the opportunity to travel the world virtually via the Global Media Network, which connects Ball State with other academic partners. The classroom-studio experience allows for live, real-time discussions in a team-based model of learning that allows for vital interaction.

Ball State’s Global Media Network testing partners have included the University of Calgary (Canada), University of Monterrey-Cuernavaca (Mexico), Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), University of Mainz and ZDF-TV (Germany), University of Istanbul (Turkey), Kyunghee University

(South Korea), The University of Hong Kong (China), Shanghai Teachers University (China), King Mongkut’s University (Thailand), and University of Queensland (Australia).

“Ball State students now have a true academic window on the world,” said Ball State University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Beverley Pitts. “Students can use the Ball State campus as a starting point for global networking that will allow them to build friendships, create learning partnerships, and gain global insight from their colleagues around the world.”

ACE and the AT&T Foundation awarded each of six winning schools this week a cash prize in Washington, D.C. Other winners include The University System of Georgia, The Pennsylvania State University, the University of Maryland College Park, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of South Carolina-Columbia.

“They found our Global Media Network to be really interesting and innovative,” said Scott Olson, dean of the College of Communication, Information, and Media. “What impressed them was how easy we made it and how inexpensive, so that the decision to use the system is always a teaching decision, not a financial or technical one.”

The Global Media Network cost less than $400,000. Funding comes from iCommunication, a major digital media initiative made possible by a $20 million grant to Ball State from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The Global Media Network’s innovations include:

• Technological advances which reduce telecommunications charges to zero, making the network accessible to classes of all sizes.
• Specialized learning environments that make technology as invisible and natural as possible.
• Collaboration, teamwork, and communication that create the framework for learning rather than the traditional model of listening, note taking, and testing.

Ball State plans to provide an active link in every campus building to every continent on the planet via the Global Media Network. as a starting point

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information or to obtain high-resolution digital pictures of classroom initiatives using the Global Media Network, contact Rob Higley at 317-432-3236.)