Digital Commons at Penn State

The Digital Commons is a university-wide initiative to help enrich students’ educations by creating digital content for their coursework. The Digital Commons will provide all campuses within Penn State with a common set of computing tools, a common set of support materials, and a common set of opportunities to create digital media of all kinds. The Digital Commons will also help educate faculty, staff, and students on the appropriate uses of digital media.

Digital content creation is growing as a form of communication within higher education. We are seeing more faculty not only accept digital content as evidence of learning, but also promoting it to engage students in new ways. Furthermore, the need for faculty to use advanced media objects to support their in-class teaching has been increasing and will continue to climb as students come to expect a richer experience. Faculty in turn have started to ask students to create digital media to demonstrate their learning and act as evidence for their understanding of complex concepts.

With the explosion of user created content environments, both within Penn State and beyond, like Podcasts at Penn State, Streaming at Penn State, Google Video, Flickr, and You Tube, Penn State needs to provide learning spaces at all campuses where faculty and students can gather with knowledgeable staff to engage in the creation of digital media. According to a recent PULSE survey (November 2006) on social networking:

• 83% of our students use Facebook
• 87% use Facebook or MySpace.
• 85% have viewed a video on YouTube.
• 64% have viewed photos on Flickr or similar sites.

Yet

• Only 34% have uploaded a photo.
• Only 16% have posted a video on YouTube.
• While 47% have purchased legal music or movies online.

These combined factors have led to the creation of the Digital Commons concept. It is an im-
portant step for the University to provide facilities that can support and educate our faculty,
staff, and students in the appropriate creation and use of digital media.

Please take the time to explore this site and learn more about the opportunities provided by Digital Commons.