MCC tech center already in action
By Christie Wilson
Neighbor Island Editor
KAHULUI, Maui — Tomorrow's dedication of a new $17 million technology center at Maui Community College has added to the island's reputation in the high-tech industry and is propelling the Kahului campus toward status as a four-year university.
Christie Wilson • Honolulu Advertiser
Even Hollywood is paying attention. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger — a frequent Maui visitor — used the Ka'a'ike Technology Center's fully digital broadcast production studio to make an appearance live via satellite at a conference Tuesday in Sacramento, Calif.
Jeremy Gray monitors taping of instructor Jan Moore's accounting class in one of the studios yesterday at the MCC technology center.
Mike Albert, head of Ka'a'ike's media center, said he expects the facility to attract national and international TV and film production companies and advertising agencies looking for studio space for their island shoots. The result would be revenue for the college and a chance for students to learn from the pros.
New classroom technology also means more opportunities for students in Maui County to enroll in classes at other UH campuses or to seek four-year or graduate degrees without leaving the island.
Ka'a'ike, or "transfer of knowledge," is an appropriate name for the new hub of MCC's distributed education program, which transmits classes to remote learning centers in Hana, and on Moloka'i and Lana'i and hosts interactive courses with faculty on campuses throughout the University of Hawai'i system.
The two-story, 41,964-square-foot center includes the 1,600-square-foot TV studio, seven classrooms/studios that can receive or transmit live instruction, a master control suite, three computer labs, and a video conference facility that is under development.
What: Public dedication ceremony for the new Ka'a'ike Technology Center When: 4 p.m. tomorrow, with tours until 6 Where: Maui Community College, Kahului
MCC, which serves three islands, is an old hand at what was known in its early days as distance learning; for years, classes have been televised to remote areas. But the early set-ups were a one-way proposition, with no chance for live discussions between students and instructors.
At a glance
With new digital technology, distance learning has become "distributed learning" that allows faculty and students to share knowledge interactively, said MCC acting provost flo wiger.
Classroom/studios are equipped with cameras, monitors, touch screens, overhead projectors and desktop microphones to enable students and instructors to interact. The equipment also allows MCC faculty to teach classes at other UH campuses.
The Ka'a'ike Technology Center already is hosting 59 courses. Some are videotaped for broadcast later on MCC's cable TV channel, so students have the option of attending class in person or catching up at home.On high-end computers, students learn about digital video acquisition, nonlinear editing, audio editing and 3-D animation — skills that Albert said could launch them into careers in film or video production.
Clyde Sakamoto, former MCC provost who is now leading the initiative to create a four-year university on Maui, called the Ka'a'ike Technology Center a milestone for the campus.
"Ka'a'ike is the physical representation of the future of higher education as a whole," he said.
Correction: flo wiger is acting provost of Maui Community College, due to an editor's error, her name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.
