New Media class goes interactive

The concept of interactivity in New Media was clearly observed during a media class for a course coded MES 414 and titled ‘New Media’, when a student made a wonderful distant presentation from as far as Nairobi to a class in Moi University, Eldoret.

Irene Chemtai coordinating the phone presentation

Jalang’o John Njoga is a fourth year media student whose good luck seems to surpass the rest of his classmates. As an undergraduate student, Jalang’o has already established ‘nationwide’ connections in the media industry. He has worked for such organizations as The Nairobian and The Standard Media Group, where he is currently attached.

Despite being already entitled to a reasonable salary, the Luo boy is still looking for marks from Moi University’s main campus. He skips 100% of lectures but when it comes to assignments, CATs and exams, he is always under pressure to score 100% in each. His fellow group members are always keen to alert him whenever his contribution is required in any of his group assignments. They do so at a little fee, I suspect.

However, Dr. Omanga, the course lecturer has a different style. He awards marks to students according to one’s performance in oral presentations. This came as a blow to the student-practitioner, whose group members made their presentation in his absence and therefore missed a single individual mark despite his commendable contribution in the write-up. He therefore held negotiations with Omanga and was finally given a topic for a solo presentation.

Due to job commitments, Jalang’o chose a distant presentation over travelling to Moi. He was allowed to use Skype platform to make his presentation on Thursday 7^th August 2014. Skype is a video calling service that enables two distant parties to actively interact with each other over the internet. In addition to the traditional textual chats and voice calls, the service adds the visual concept, making the conversation appear more real than mediated.

Jalang’o had liaised with one Irene Chemtai, a classmate, to coordinate the exercise and see that it succeeds. To the best of her knowledge, the lady made every effort required of her but finally the system failed her. A quick solution was therefore found – a switch from Skype to a normal telephone call.

With enough airtime in the lecturer’s smart phone, the class was connected to the presenter, who explained to them his findings of the topic he had been assigned to research on. A sound-boosting system was assembled in front of the class to ensure that everyone hears loudly and clearly. Still, Chemtai had to supervise the electronics despite her little knowledge of their operations.

The presentation commenced, went on and ended successfully and when it was time for questions, comments and reactions, most of the class members logged onto their phone WhatsApp group and posted their reactions on it. Jalang’o was therefore able to receive numerous comments from which he selected a few to react to. However, some members were simply posting jokes but they, too, contributed to the concept of interactivity though through out-of-topic participation.