Even before its official ribbon-cutting Aug. 28, the cHatter Box in the duPont-Ball Library made an impact. Earlier in the month, after hearing about its arrival on campus, Professor Michael Denner, PhD, rewrote the syllabus for his fall Freshman Seminar class. Denner wanted to require the use of podcasts that could be produced in the library’s creative new space.

The cHatter Box — housed in a bright orange, soundproof Quietcube at the back of the library’s main floor  — gives students, faculty, archivists and community members a location to create audio recordings, streaming video podcasts, radio plays, oral histories and more. Comfortably seating four people, the aptly named cHatter Box (with pun intended) is a reservable space that contains audio and video equipment. Its use is free of charge to the campus community.

The library was awarded a NEFLIN Innovation Grant for the interior technology, which includes video cameras, microphones and software and more. Training guides on how to use the cHatter Box are provided.  

So, in his FSEM “Becoming Human” Denner is now requiring his 18 students to produce several short podcast clips that ultimately will be combined into an hourlong podcast by the end of the course, with students collaborating with one another.

“I think podcasts are a great bridge between the pedagogy, the teaching and the student’s lived experience,” said Denner, who aside from the FSEM teaches within Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. “Because at the end of this class, they’ll walk away not only with a better understanding of, I hope, what it means to become human, but also they’ll be able to say to other people, ‘I know how to make a podcast.’ That’s a skill.

“The goal is to engage students in a more interactive and hands-on learning experience, rather than just writing papers. They’ll continue to write papers, but in addition to writing papers, they make podcasts on topics in the class.”

Other professors and academic departments across the university have shown similar interest.

Bringing New Innovation

Brainchild of the cHatter Box is Katy Webb, dean of the duPont-Ball Library and Learning Technologies, who arrived at Stetson last July. At that time, she talked about bringing new innovation to the library and making it a “central place for students to come together to learn and grow.” The cHatter Box is the most recent result.

While in Germany last year, Webb saw something similar in a library. At Stetson, she views the addition as an ideal complement to the library’s existing Innovation Lab.

“This was one way to expand the ideas of the Innovation Lab and bring them out onto the first floor,” Webb described. “ … Students using the cHatter Box will learn about the use of hardware and software for audio and video production in support of their studies.”

Further, she added, the cHatter Box builds on many of the university’s strategic priorities, such as bolstering community engagement and engaging students in experiential, contemporary and integrative learning.

“We are excited,” Webb concluded, “to offer this technology for free to the campus community!”

Workshops and Instruction

The cHatter Box is available for class use, with instruction sessions provided. Faculty can reserve an instruction session here.

Training workshops also are available on the following dates:

To attend a 30-minute workshop on using the cHatter Box, please register here.  

For general use, the cHatter Box can be reserved here.