Shrinking the Planet
When Dr. Coleman Patterson, HSU associate professor of Management and Leadership, currently teaching a course at International University Vienna, Austria, asked Leland Harden to teach a class to his students, Harden said, “will tomorrow at 8:00 work for you?� Harden, the HSU vice president of Institutional Advancement didn’t check his passport, flight schedules, or obligations for the next week, because advances in internet technology made possible a virtual classroom right in Harden’s office.
Dr. Patterson’s students are studying internet marketing using Harden’s book, Net Results II, as one of the texts. “The internet connection gave us a chance to tackle this topic with the person who literally wrote the book on the subject while using the actual technology.�
The presentation required laptops with built-in web cameras at each location, and specialized “Skype� software. “By pulling this off, we are demonstrating the exact things we have been reading about and studying,� says Dr. Patterson, “it is now just as easy to work with someone around the world as it is the person next door.�
Leland Harden addressees IU Vienna class
International University Vienna is a small Christian school in a part of the world that needs Christian schools. There are 15 students in the class from 12 countries: Libya, China, Boznia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Korea, Austria, Croatia, Kosovo, and Nigeria. The school specializes in American-style higher education, English instruction, and small class sizes.
Harden was enthusiastic about the video conference, “this was a keen example of how easy it is to connect to and market to anyone in the world. There are no longer bureaucratic barriers, telephony barriers, or other trade barriers to keep small business people from connecting directly.�
His message was timely for students from countries with emerging internet markets, “I discussed the power of the internet through its measurability and the ability it provides to directly interface and incorporate consumers. Traditional brand marketers are increasingly finding it necessary to go to Internet boot camp to change their mind-set from a traditional brand-building enterprise, to a direct marketing, metrics centric, sales conversion driven enterprise. The power of the Internet over traditional media is its ability to close the sale. Before the web, consumers could learn about a product through television, radio, or print, then perhaps buy said item the next time they ran across it in a store. Now, consumers can learn about a product, research it, get references from other consumers, and buy it, all via one communications vehicle. I encouraged students to define who their target market is, and seek out other sites where their market congregates on the web, then create relationships with those sites and other influencers, to drive consumers to their site and their product.�
“The students really enjoyed the experience,� according to Dr. Patterson, “In fact, in light of today’s conference we are going to try to offer a course with HSU and IU in the Spring 2007 semester. Using video conferencing, facebook, the web, and possibly Blackboard, I am going to develop a course that would allow our students to work with IU students on projects, reports, and other interactive assignments. The technology will allow for students from around the world to work together in a college classroom without ever leaving home.�
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