Penn State links to Asia by miracles of technology

by Brad Groznik
Penn State Daily Collegian
March 24, 2006

Caption: Heidi Lynch (senior-German and international politics) participates in last night’s videoconference with students and leaders from the United States and Asia.

Last night, students were given an opportunity that only technology could allow, when nine universities from the United States and Asian countries linked up for a videoconference.

“I think it’s really cool that we can do something like this,” Heidi Lynch (senior-international politics and German) said.

Lynch set up the event with the Americans for Informed Democracy (AID), a group involved in facilitating dialogues between the United States and the rest of world.

“I think that this is important with everything that is going on between Asia and the U.S. right now,” she said.

Political Science Association President Megan Becker (senior-international politics) said she was also hoping for an interesting evening.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to discuss with peers from all over the world,” she said.

Becker said she did not plan on asking any questions but was looking forward to what people had to say.

“I’m more of a listener, but I’m hoping to hear about the economic situations between the countries,” she said.

However, to say the videoconference went off without a hitch would be too much.

Asian universities from Thailand, Papua New Guinea and East Timor all delivered their opening statements, while the Philippines had trouble gaining access to conference.

The student from Thailand, wearing a shirt and tie, spoke about Asia/U.S. relations, voicing his concerns about the United States’ tendency for unilateral actions.

Following Thailand, the students from Papua New Guinea had a PowerPoint presentation ready to show how their country viewed the U.S. as a nuclear and economic threat.

Then, the students from the Philippines made it into the conference.

Shawn Biggs (sophomore-business) said he was excited to see the country connect.

“Once the Philippines got online, it went really well,” he said.

Information Technology technician Bob Jones set up the technical part of the event and said it was actually quite easy.

“It works like a wagon wheel,” he said. “We’re a spoke, and we just have to connect to the center.”

Jones said the biggest problem he saw was when people forgot to mute their microphones.

“As long as everyone uses good microphone etiquette, it should go fine,” Jones said.

Indiana University moderated the videoconference, and when the dialogue was sent to a different university, the lag time seemed to be the only problem. After one round, everyone seemed to get the hang of the procedure.

The students from the U.S. took a more conversational role in the debate.

One student from Rider University asked how the United States could interact with Asia without being overbearing, to which Thailand responded that all they wanted to see a little cooperation.