Story provided by Jon Umphress

Dr. Jimmy Wilson, ONU professor took several of his geography students to Ada Kiwanis recently where he shared much more than simply a geography lesson.

As featured speaker at the meeting, Wilson said like most college towns in America, Ada, enjoys a symbiotic relationship with the university that resides in it.

And while the relationship is ultimately mutually beneficial, there are always things that each side wishes could be different.

For the proud residents of Ada, one such thing is having Ohio Northern University students learn more than just coursework during their four years in the village.

“A complaint I hear all the time from the locals is that the students don’t learn a thing about the community that is essentially their home during a very important time in their lives,” he said, “The people I know would like the students to be more involved with the activities of the Ada community.”

In response, Wilson said he designed a new extra-disciplinary seminar course for ONU honor students that very cleverly leverages student academic discipline with community interaction by making community interaction part of the assignment.

Course focus

Last semester, the course focused on five topics related to the historical geography of Ada, and the surrounding area:
• Settlement
• Agriculture
• Commerce
• Transportation
• Ohio Northern University

Since Wilson’s goal was to engage students with the area, he assigned a final project that would ensure students did just that. Wilson said that he asked his students to capture the historical geography of the region using a documentary film covering one of the five themes related to the study.

First challenge

The first challenge Wilson had to overcome was ensuring that all of his students had access to mobile video.

While many students have smart phones today, not all of them do. Thanks to a course development grant from university’s Office of Academic Affairs and assistance from the Department of History, Politics and Justice, and ONU Information Technology, Wilson was able to purchase Apple iPods, which have a camera and the capability to record HD video, for his class to use.

Wilson told club members he also arranged for the students to take time to interview local experts to enhance their projects.

“I spent the early part of my life in a community very similar to this in Kansas, so I easily became enamored with it,” he said.

“And the more I talk with people, and the more I explore, the more things I find that are not only interesting, but also important. Important as it represents Ada, or the local area, or northwest Ohio, or the whole state, or even the world.”

He then presented three of the student’s video presentations for club members to view.