Innovative Media Partnerships: Crossing Borders to Transform Space Exploration Education
- Paper number
IAC-09.A1.8.7
- Author
Dr. Marlene MacLeish, National Space and Biomedical Research Institute, United States
- Year
2009
- Abstract
Twenty-first century multimedia technology has the power to remove impediments of time and distance and to cultivate a collective world view about the nature of the universe and man’s place in the cosmos. Public Broadcasting Atlanta (PBA) has sustained partnerships with Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) Education and Public Outreach Program (EPOP) to employ television, radio, and the Internet to produce documentaries, radio programs, and Internet networks. These products have ignited the imagination of thousands of students in classrooms around the world, informed millions of ordinary citizens about the benefits of space exploration for people on Earth, and promoted public engagement in space exploration. The proposed presentation will share some of the lessons learned from this twelve-year partnership between academia and the US telecommunications industry. Lessons will include strategies for building social networks through multi-media platforms; tools for improving global distribution, and outsourcing; and ways to increase funding resources that expand research and development capabilities. Also, the presentation will use experiences from the NSBRI-NASA-MSM collaboration to discuss challenges associated with: translating complex science into language that ordinary people can understand; collecting usable data on listening/viewing audiences to satisfy the rigors of academic research; sustaining competitive media benchmarks; and responding to the rapidly evolving 21st Century telecommunications world. This discussion will include including copyright regulations and ways to create scientific communities that are ‘smarter, faster and better.’ The presenter will refer to the major elements of this collaboration, which include: a space exploration film archive; the six-nation NASA-Neurolab mission TV-documentary, Exploring Two Frontiers: the Neurolab Space Shuttle; an award–winning six-part public radio documentary, Biomedical Science for Space Travelers, a National Public Radio series about sleep on earth and in space. Also, the presenter will share designs for engaging local audiences in ongoing conversations about space exploration issues through local social networking systems that personalize space information and encourage ongoing conversations about space. In conclusion, the presenter will seek dialogue with interested telecommunication colleagues and extend an invitation to establish collaborations that use 21st century multimedia platforms to build new global audiences and promote themes that enhance peaceful and progressive global communities.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)