March 2005 — Features

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Ball State’s ‘Digital Middletown’ Project Explores Wireless Broadband Initiatives

By Layne Cameron

The fabled middletown Studies, conducted by Robert and Helen Lynd in the 1920s and ’30s, established Muncie, Ind., as the most studied city in America. Since then, technological initiatives such as the wireless broadband effort at Ball State University have established the Midwestern institution as a leader in cutting-edge innovations. It’s not surprising, then, that the university, which was founded in Muncie in 1899, has merged the two efforts not only to develop technology that will benefit students, faculty and Indiana residents, but also to study its sociological impact.

Effectively continuing the Lynds’ efforts on a digital scale, as well as taking a page from the studies establishing Muncie as Middletown, U.S.A., Ball State created the Center for Media Design. This modern-day re-creation of the sociological test bed now serves as a research assessment and content development hub for digital media applications in education, industry and communities. It also serves as a bridge between ideas and the marketplace by testing prototypes before they are released to the public.

“Being based in the most studied city in America makes our center a perfect location for testing content and products, and crafting real-life solutions for challenges society faces in mastering new digital technologies,” says David Ferguson, director of the Center for Media Design. “We want our research to span the breadth of society, collecting data from people living, working, playing and learning.”


Ball State University is looking for new ways to utilize technology such as e-books. Teachers are currently using e-books to encourage children to read, while the university's theater department has employed them in lieu of programs for its plays.

Leapfrogging Into Broadband

One project that the center will be contributing to, dubbed “Digital Middletown,” is exploring the potential of an ultrahigh-speed broadband network for on- and off-campus research and development. Through a federal grant, Ball State is testing a wireless network at two Indiana elementary schools, delivering broadband much faster than typical cable or DSL connections - at 30 Mbps compared to 3 Mbps. The project, which could become a national model for the application of high bandwidth in classrooms, is testing the educational impact of a range of multimedia content that is being delivered over the network to Cowan and Mitchell elementary schools.

Ball State’s Vice President for Information Technology O’Neal Smitherman thinks this joint approach will establish a digital education prototype for academic, government and industry leaders to follow. “Educational offerings might provide the first content for a community-wide network, but the high-speed access should also encourage researchers and entrepreneurs to develop new products, services and businesses,” Smitherman says. “Eventually, we hope the research and development test bed will prove that a high-speed commodity Internet is commercially viable and that we can take this technology to the most remote areas of Indiana, providing a platform for high-tech business development.”