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Gaylord College makes facilities available to the campus and community using a neutral decision-making process.

Technology

The Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma is the first collegiate journalism program in the United States to be named an Apple Distinguished Program for its comprehensive integration of Apple-inspired technology throughout its building and curriculum. The Apple Distinguished Program designation is reserved for academic units that are recognized centers of educational excellence and leadership.
Inside Gaylord Hall, the College provides students with the open Creative Lab, five advanced computer-assisted teaching spaces, Newsroom Convergence Lab, 10 video-editing bays, two broadcast training facilities and three audio training suites. Gaylord Hall is also an active wireless building, offering students the ability to connect to the OU computer network from any classroom or public area. Many students choose to work in the community spaces on the first floor.
Gaylord Hall is capable of handling any computer platform. However, the faculty of the college have examined the curriculum and workload of students attending the college and encourage students who are considering purchasing a laptop computer to use during their college studies to select an Apple computer. The University of Oklahoma has arranged for special discounts from Apple on both hardware and software.

Computer Labs

The Gaylord College Creative Lab is available to all students enrolled in JMC courses. The lab is open between 70 and 85 hours each week.

A wide variety of software is available to support student projects in all JMC majors including:

Adobe Creative Suite
Apple Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Compressor
Microsoft Office
Apple Pages, KeyNote, and Numbers
SPSS

Safari, Firefox, and Google Chrome
Apple Photos
Apple Music
Apple FaceTime and Messages
Skype
Zoom

Broadcast Labs

Gaylord Hall has developed a facility that offers students the opportunity to produce high quality video and television programs. This includes studio cameras and controls; digital audio; single camera video production; field audio production; studio and field lighting non-fiction and documentary production; and fictional and experimental video production. Several post-production platforms are available, suited to different levels or production.
NOTE: Only students currently enrolled in JMC broadcast classes may use the editing facilities, studio or field equipment. Reservations for field gear may be made in master control. Reservations for editing time may be made on the signup sheets at the edit bays, or audio production rooms. A signed equipment liability policy and agreement must be on file before a student can take out field equipment or use the production facilities.

Behind the scenes of a broadcast lab with a camera and control board.

Apple Distinguished Program

The Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma is the first collegiate journalism program in the United States to be named an Apple Distinguished Program for its comprehensive integration of Apple-inspired technology throughout its building and curriculum. The Apple Distinguished Program designation is reserved for academic units that are recognized centers of educational excellence and leadership.
Gaylord College students have become master storytellers with Apple hardware, software and servers, which provide students with a virtual environment to work collaboratively – on and off campus.
“Apple’s transparent integration of software and hardware enables our students to focus on being creative and not on the software or equipment,” said Buddy Wiedemann, Gaylord College director of information technology.
Gaylord is a College of Firsts. These include being the first and dominant contributor of content to the university’s iTunes U portal, the first to develop our own internal iPhone application and the first to introduce a QR code visual tour of our facilities, among other initiatives.
As an example of Gaylord College’s integration of technology innovation and public service, journalism students are using specially equipped iPod touch devices to find new ways of encouraging citizen journalism to alert the public about severe storms. Under the direction of professors John Schmeltzer and Julie Jones, students have developed “StormCrowd,” a system using crowdsourcing software to locate real-time weather events and report on them. The team is partnering with Weather Decision Technologies, a Norman start-up company, to build the system.
In addition to supporting citizen journalism in the local community, Gaylord College demonstrated its strong international commitment by pioneering the use of the iPad 2 just weeks after it was released. Using the iPad 2 as the sole tool for communication, as well as for video and image capture and editing, a group of South Asian students involved in a U.S. State Department grant learned new media reporting techniques. This international experience brought together students from five countries, all unified by one device, the iPad 2, to develop media on devices that had not been released in their own country.
“When innovative companies and innovative academic programs come together, good things happen,” says former Gaylord College Dean Joe Foote. “Our technology strengthens our creative work.”
The College recieved the distinction for the third time from 2013-2015.