Reactr Information

Reactr (Rethinking Education through Applied Collaborative Technology Research) describes the applied research and media consultancy initiatives of the team of faculty and staff within the Interactive Media cluster of programs at Fanshawe College. The Applied Research and Development activities that became Reactr emerged from curriculum initiatives in the Interactive Media program cluster that began circa 2007. Interactive Media Faculty began to collaborate with companies in the London and Southwestern Ontario region to bring real-world, technology-based projects into coursework to enhance the experience for students in our programs. It quickly became apparent that involving students in such collaborative projects had significant benefits: The students had to work in teams, and so find ways to make that work as effectively as possible. The technical and design demands of collaborative projects went significantly beyond the expectations within any single course or ‘regular’ assignment, requiring independent research and problem-solving by the student teams. The students in generally pushed themselves to excel in ways that we did not always observe in the classroom. The response of student teams who participated in these projects was strongly (and almost unanimously) positive; some identified these projects as being the most significant single learning experience of their time in college. The company partners were also extremely positive about the experience of working with students, to the extent that some companies return to Fanshawe with new or expanded technical projects, in the hope of continuing the collaborative relationship. Partner companies have begun recruiting and hiring students who worked on these projects after they graduate. The demand for collaboration and the positive impacts on student experience has driven the growth and formalization of our activities into Reactr.