• 12/19/2019

MCTS Student Voices goes online

Explaining study subjects in a blog

What course of study did you choose – and what can you use it for later on in life? To answer this question, students of the Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS) can now refer to the blog MCTS Student Voices: It serves to explain their course of study and to publish their work – from short essays to podcasts.

Sophia Knopf MCTS TUM Maren Willkomm
"We'll just do it ourselves!" Together with fellow students, TUM student Sophia Knopf runs the blog "MCTS Student Voices".

The MCTS is an integrative research institute of TUM in which teachers and students address the interface between science, technology, and society from the perspective of interdisciplinary research and teaching. Two of the Master's courses there are Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Responsibility in Science, Engineering and Technology (RESET).

As part of their studies, students often write papers that are of practical relevance or of public interest. Thus, RESET students maintain a blog that is supposed to be understandable for the general public – ensuring that the contents could be published by a newspaper, for example.

How is this organized?

So far, the texts had not been published. "So we thought we'd just publish the content ourselves," stated Carol Grzych and Sophia Knopf, who coordinate the blog. Said… and done: A group of seven students came together. At first, there were many questions: How to go about such a project? How should the content be published? What possible formats or categories are there, and how should the quality of the work be checked? Who will take on the technical responsibility?

Group photo Blog MCTS Student Voices Franz Gillmeyer
"MCTS Student Voices": The blog is run by Manuel Jung, Clara Valdés-Stauber, Sophia Knopf, Saman Saghafi, Svenja Breuer, Fabian Kuntz, Devika Prakash, Georg Holand, Franz Gillmeyer and Marco Ninow (from left to right).

A procedure similar to professional editing

Now, the group is well organized. It has established a collaborative process to receive content from students and to edit it internally. This process is almost as elaborate as in a professional editorial office.
In the coming semesters, the team will be looking for new members to continue the blog, to ensure that the MCTS students will also have an adequate answer to the question "What are you studying?" in the future.

(Author: Annika Eßmann)

More information:
MCTS Student Voices

 

Technical University of Munich

Corporate Communications Center

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