The Journey
A newsletter for chapter advisors, chapter officers, and regional officers.
May 2000 Issue
Michigan Chapter Uses Technology to Boost Membership
Lots of great ideas come in an instant – some people call them a stroke of genius. That is what happened to Marsha Kipp, chapter president at St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron, Michigan. As Kipp sat in an instructional television class (ITV) at St. Clair, it hit her like a bolt of lightening … Why can't the students who attend St. Clair's Bad Axe Campus participate in Phi Theta Kappa's orientation and induction via ITV? Why can't those students be included even though they live far away from the main campus?
ITV is most commonly used for classroom teaching, with two or more classes uplinked using video and a satellite to transmit information back and forth on the television screen, much like a real-time movie in which participants may hear, talk and see one another using video cameras and microphones. Kipp and her group of chapter officers decided ITV would be an effective way to include the Bad Axe Campus students in Phi Theta Kappa activities – even though they were nearly two hours away.
The chapter held both an orientation and induction for the Bad Axe Campus students on the little screen, and is already working on next semester's ITV induction and orientation. "The members we inducted using ITV were very grateful they were included without having to make the long drive," said Kipp. "We hope to make this a regular part of our orientation and induction process, and feel ITV will attract all potential members to our Phi Theta Kappa family – no matter how far away they may live."