Using the Cornell Portal outside Olin Library, Emma Wagner ’21 talked with two young people from Kigali, Rwanda, who told her health care is better in urban areas than rural ones and explained the country’s universal health care system. The Rwandans also asked Wagner about the MeToo movement in the U.S.
“The most surprising thing to me was how similar we all were,” Wagner said. “I was in the portal with three other guys, and the conversation was just so easy and natural. We all pretty much listen to similar music, watch the same shows and even have very similar hobbies.”
Wagner’s conversation about health care was part of an assignment for her Ethical Issues in Health and Medicine class, taught by Kim Overby of the Department of Science and Technology Studies. Each of the 130 students in the class had to choose a session and have a conversation inside the Cornell Portal, a gold-painted shipping container equipped with innovative audiovisual technology and life-sized screens that allows for conversations with other portals around the world. Portal at Cornell Source:Cornell University Library
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
