By JAKE RUSSELL
When Illinois College professor Nausser Jamali was in Morocco, he drew connections between a bazaar and the corporate retailers of America.
So he decided to share it on CNN.
As an assignment for a technology training course at Illinois College, Jamali posted four photos of products that were all the same but came in a variety of colors. In his CNN iReport, he pointed out how stores like Target and Gap use the same philosophy.
“These are stories I’m telling my students all the time,” he said. “When you travel, open your eyes, take pictures, get an idea and when you come back, you’re more aware and more knowledgeable about how other people do the same thing — especially in business where you’re competing and always have to come up with new ideas.”
Jamali, associate professor of accounting, participated in a two-week technology intensive program funded through a grant from the Carnegie Mellon Foundation that is designed to teach faculty how to better utilize social media outlets to engage students.
After 30 years teaching at the college, he found that sometimes students knew the technology better than he did, so he wanted to keep up.
As a student working with the Information Technology Department at Illinois College, senior Jafar Qutob, of Palestine, had the opportunity to be an assistant in the seminar.
He published a picture smoking hookah with a friend in downtown St. Louis and recounted noticing the rise in hookah popularity in the states.
“I remember the first time I smoked hookah on campus my freshmen year,” Qutob writes. “Many people stopped by asking me what that was. The security guys had to come make sure there was nothing illegal about it. Two years later, I have the feeling that half of the students on campus have tried smoking hookah at least once.”
CNN iReports are observations made about just about anything, teaching storytelling and giving a voice to all, Jamali said.
“This is perfect,” he said. “I don’t have to be a journalist if something’s interesting. I never dreamed to see the news in real time and that’s exactly what is happening.”
An article might be picked up depending on the number of times it’s been viewed and the number of people who approve its credibility. Readers can rate articles in one of three ways: “This belongs on CNN,”,“Close, but needs some work” or “This is inappropriate.”
Readers are able to see the number of times an article has been viewed, the number of people who recommend it and the number of people who have shared it.
A stamp of approval from CNN would give an article more credibility, Qutob said.
To Jamali, this can be a way to put Jacksonville on the map, as the location of the poster is available. Jamali can also track how many comments are made from abroad.
Though he is an accounting/finance major, Qutob enjoys writing and would like to use this as a platform to share political or cultural stories from home, as well as opinions on such matters.
“We always hear about blogs and people writing random stuff on the Internet,” Qutob said. “The word blog doesn’t attract me very much because all kinds of people are writing and it’s not that credible. With iReport, I look at it as a pretty good website. It feels really good to know this possibility is out there for people like me, or for any college students in general, to be able to share their opinions in a professional way and see how many people in the world will read it and comment on it.”
Nausser Jamali’s iReport
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-816200
Jafar Qutob’s iReport
.
