Two Ball State digital media projects were nominated for awardsat the first Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards Gala Dinner inLos Angeles.
"Reality TV Bytes" was nominated for Best Interactive TelevisionProgramming and Television Technology of the Year, competingagainst well-known companies such as TiVo, Texas Instruments,NASCAR and Showtime.
"The Brain" was nominated for Best Use of Technology forEducational Programming.
"Reality TV Bytes" was made in cooperation with the theaterdepartment's spring 2004 show.
Students in telecommunications and digital media classescombined efforts with the theater department to make a pre-show Website that the audience could refer to for background on characters.The Web site featured games and videos, making it possible foraudience members to relate to the characters and prepare for theshow.
"We got together and made something wonderful," Larry Dailey,assistant professor of journalism, said.
Dailey and Rich Swingley, digital audio instructor oftelecommunications, brought their classes together for theproject.
"Students were still learning, and we did everything foracademic value," Dailey said.
For "The Brain, " Linda Siktberg, director of nursing, and MariaWilliams-Hawkins, associate professor for telecommunications,worked together to formulate a program that would allow students tomeet a real family, choose ways to deal with the family's problemsand see how those choices worked.
"We use it to help nursing and social work students to helpothers," Williams-Hawkins said.
Ball State bought access to "The Brain" from another company andexpanded it to relate to the educational needs of students,Williams-Hawkins said.
"We are the only educational client," she said. "We've askedother schools to join with us to make problems more complex."
Students in the nursing school and social work department usethe program to understand problems, decisions and solutions.Williams-Hawkins said that she is planning on using the program forher students to teach them how to accurately talk to people andfind stories.
Recently, the program added criminal justice, gerontology andspeech pathology, she said.
According to the Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards Website, the awards are given to projects that show "innovation,entrepreneurship, and brand development in digitalentertainment."
The award winners will be announced on Nov. 5.
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