Breaking the Town-Gown Barrier
With Multimedia Technology
Janet Cherrington
Minnesota State University, Mankato
106 Morris Hall
Mankato, MN 56001
Abstract:
It is no secret that many college campuses are inherently
self-contained communities. This
phenomenon inadvertently stifles the desire for students to learn more about the
cultural, historical and social aspects of the college’s or university’s host
city. The objective of the ‘Breaking the
Town-Gown Barrier Project’ is to research the effects of combining
computer-based technology with a lower-division general education course. The
project strives to give students a more compelling reason to study
cities—especially the one in which their university is located. A walking tour of the host city’s downtown
area facilitates a field-based teaching model that takes learning out of the
traditional classroom into the community and synthesizes it through multimedia
presentations.