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Chipola instructors to be featured in videoMar 20, 2012 (Jackson County Floridan - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Two automotive instructors at Chipola College are the hosts for a series of auto training sessions that will be available world-wide on YouTube, through posts provided by the school's partner in the project, BBB Industries. That company is a leading remanufacturer of alternators, starters and other rotating electrical equipment for vehicles. It supplies a number of national auto part outlets with stores in the local area. The company donated $5,000 worth of equipment for Chipola automotive students to use as this relationship with Chipola flowered. BBB Industries hired a profession production crew, 3 Echoes, to shoot the videos on campus. Chipola instructors John Gardner and Chase Vlieg wrote their own scripts and host the 10-minute segments. Gardner said the two probably spent 20 hours preparing for and in shooting time for each of the short segments. The sessions are devoted to helping students learn some of the most advanced technology as it evolves in an age when the shade-tree mechanic is becoming a thing of the past. The segments feature electrical system fundamentals, meters, test equipment and the principles of magnetism as it applies to the automotive arena. The spots will become part of the Chipola College curriculum, but anyone with on-line access can also see the sessions at no charge. They should be on-line sometime next month. Other episodes are expected to follow the first round, as well. Rahal Miller Chevrolet/Cadillac loaned the school a high-tech Chevrolet Volt to use in some of the training videos. Chuck Anderson and Jimmy Parris, representatives of the dealership, were on hand to help announce the sessions at a press conference Friday. Tri-States Automotive is also assisting in the program, and helped put Chipola and BBB together for the project. Gardner said he believes the videos, shot Thursday and Friday, will do more than help existing students stay ahead of the technology curve; they can also help cement the school's position as a leading institution for automotive studies. There's already a waiting list to sign up for the school's automotive program, Gardner said. The videos are next-generation for BBB. The company already has a less-formal set of videos on line which are geared to less high-tech automotive tasks. The Chipola series will be more formal, more advanced and more professionally shot. It will have a lab-like setting in the Chipola classroom, but with a friendly, relaxed and very hands-on approach to instruction. Breaking down the material in bursts of 10 minutes or less, the instructors hope, will make the information less daunting and more entertaining that it might have been in longer segments. ___ (c)2012 the Jackson County Floridan (Marianna, Fla.) Visit the Jackson County Floridan (Marianna, Fla.) at www.jcfloridan.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |