I have had rough couple of weeks, which is why this blog is technically two. Once I finally sat down to go over everything from our readings, paper and projects, I think I have a favorite.
Project 3. There. It has been my favorite thing I’ve worked on this semester. As we talk about citizen journalism and bringing the community in to our program, I get a little excited. As I mapped out how this could potentially look for my program, I can help but get hopeful.
If I can execute this project next year, and really bring some community interest in to our program (while educating them about their journalistic responsibility as consumers), I will love my job even more. I believe that if we can get our community involved with the work we do with our yearbook, newspaper and broadcast programs, we will have a lot more buy-in from students, staff, admin, and the community itself.
After dreading the compilation of the work for this project, I find it funny that I have truly enjoyed it, and I hope that I can make it a reality next year!
The assignment that I appreciated this week the most was the “just this once” discussion and paper. I’ve never really thought about what my role looks like when it comes to “restraining” student voice in my publications. I know that I don’t restrict them from doing anything, but I would consider my questioning of their motives as an example restraint.
I’m not completely sure how I feel about my questions, but I also know what is at stake. If a student is going to write an article or editorial about something that could be considered inflammatory or controversial, I feel it is my job to understand their motives. With that being said, I wonder how many times a student has felt censored because of this. I’m not saying that every story should be published just because our publication is student-led, but I have noticed that I do a lot of the guiding when it comes to sensitive topics, and I think that is a role that would be better suited for my editors because it might not seem quite as forceful coming from a peer.
This week has been interesting for me. While reviewing the concept of social media in the classroom, I have taken some time to reevaluate the policies we have in place in my publications. I believe that the biggest take away from this week’s reading, would be that the world of cyber media is constantly changing. I will definitely be bringing my staff in on the conversation about what our social media policy should be.
This week in my Social Role class, I have been tasked with exploring the definition of news. While designing my activity and project, I was able to think about this concept and how different the definition of news has changed over the years. With the advent of the Internet, news outlets feel like they have to be more immediate. That has changed what news actually is because now it is more important to be first, then to have a full, accurate account of what happened.
This week in our discussions we talked about “untouchable” stories regarding scholastic media. Now, I don’t believe that there should be anything that scholastic journalists should be able to cover, but I do think that there needs to be a strong, well-thought-out protocol for how different stories are covered.
As I continue my work in this course, I am constantly being pushed to think about things that sort of come automatically. But, now that I am forcing myself to think about why things are done the way they are, I believe that I will be able to more effectively advise my students.
This week in my Social Role course, I have been considers the ramifications of compromising journalistic integrity, and considering how to keep from losing journalistic integrity within my scholastic publications. There were two topics that I feel particularly strong about, so that is where my focus will be for this post: prior review/prior restraint and fake news (and filter bubbles).
I believe that prior review/prior restraint poses the biggest issue for journalism programs. When a school views its publications as PR for the district, integrity is thrown out the window, along with most content that I would think is meaningful. As an adviser in a Hazelwood state, I have a hard time motivating my students to tackle issues that are effecting our student body because they are afraid of not having their article or segment published. This directly effects the content we produce, and the integrity of our program.
The article, “The author of The Filter Bubble on how fake news is eroding trust in journalism,” from “The Verge” was particularly interesting for me. I use the TED video in two of my classes that discusses the concept of a filter bubble, and I really like how the author really dives in to its effect on the dissemination of news, both truthful and fake. The reality of fake news has been around for more than a century, but the technology of today has made it much easier to spread to the masses. I believe it is vitally important, as a journalism educator, that I continue to teach my high school students about the reality of fake news and filter bubbles. It is only through awareness that we can effect change, and change will bring integrity back to the practice of journalism.
As a high school student I loved the idea of becoming a journalist. The allure of traveling all over the world and telling important stories was like a distant dream. So, when I went to college, I knew exactly what I wanted to be, a journalist. That was 18 years ago. And as life has a tendency to do, priorities change. My changing priorities changed in my last semester of my undergraduate degree, when I realized that I actually wanted to teach.
Over the last 10-15 years, I have been on this adventure in teaching, which led me to Kent State University. By now I have an bachelor’s degree in Mass Media & Journalism, a master’s degree in Education, and this year I will have a master’s degree in Journalism education. My journey through the master’s program at Kent has been one of my favorite educational experiences, yet.
As a journalism teacher and adviser I have struggled with the role my students play in our school and community. It is hard for me to get my students to understand the importance their role of student journalist can be, and I hope I can get a better grasp on this throughout this semester.
For my final project in my Teaching Multimedia course, I have chosen to create a lesson for podcasting. Of all of the forms of media I have tried this semester, I think this is the one I am the most excited about for next year! I cannot wait to have my students try out podcasting for the first time. For this lesson, I started small. Just like we did in this class. A single interview, with a single subject. I think that my students won’t be as intimidated about trying out this new form of media since I have given them their choice in subject matter and the interview requirement is for only one person. I just hope they can enjoy podcasting as much as I did!
Michelle Kennedy
Grain Valley High School
Grain Valley, MO
Creating a Podcast using Audacity
Overview and Rationale:
Students will conduct an interview to create a podcast that will be edited in Audacity.
Objectives:
Students will conduct interviews.
Students will learn to record interviews using the recording app audioBoom.
Students will learn to edit recorded footage with Audacity to create a podcast.
Overviews and Timeline:
Activity 1 (One 50-minute class)
The teacher will introduce the class to podcasting by having students individually listen to each of these podcasts:
While listening to these podcasts, they will be responding to these discussion questions posted in Canvas: At the beginning of each podcast, what does the reporter do? What is one thing you liked about each podcast? What is something you would change about each podcast?
For homework, students will respond to a discussion thread in Canvas requiring three potential topics for a podcast story that they would like to do.
Activity 2 (One 50-minute class)
Students will come to class with at least three ideas of potential podcast stories they could create.
As the teacher conferences with each student, they will begin to flesh out each of their podcast ideas. They will begin considering subject/subjects for interviewing and questions for interviewing.
By the end of this class students will have at least one subject chosen and interview questions decided.
For homework, students will interview their subject(s) using audioBoom. Once the recordings are complete, they will be uploaded to the users online audioBoom profile.
Activity 3 (One 50-minute class)
Students will come to class prepared to edit their podcast during this class period. The teacher will share a tutorial of Audacity, so that they can understand how to put their footage together. The teacher will also share an article with resources for royalty free music, “Avoid copyright and use royalty-free music for video production,” via a link on Canvas.
For homework, students will finish creating their podcast using Audacity.
Activity 4 (One 50-minute class)
Students will come to class with their podcast finished in Audacity. Working in groups of four, they will peer coach each other’s podcast, using the Podcasting Peer Coaching Form. Once each student has coached with two peers, they will make revisions to their podcast, and upload the finished podcast to their online audioBoom profile, so they can share it with the teacher.
For homework, students will finish editing their podcast, if necessary.
Assessment
Students will record an interview with at least one person on the subject of their choice. Students will record that interview using audioBoom, edit the recordings using Audacity, and submit the finished podcast after uploading it to their online audioBoom profile. Grading will be based on the attached rubric.
Next year I will be co-teaching a multimedia class, and I feel like this video assignment has given a bit of exposure to the work that my students will be doing. Now, I feel like I can at least help my students with the basics of video editing.
For this assignment, I chose to work at school with Adobe premier because that is what my students will be expected use. Working in Adobe Premier was quite a bit easier than I thought it would be. After working in Audacity for podcasting, the similarities between the two programs really helped me edit my video for this assignment.
Adding video and audio to Adobe Premier was seamless. I was able to pull my necessary footage into the project and cut the video with ease. Fading in and out of the video and audio was also easy in Adobe Premier because it is just an adjustment to add with a right-click.
The editing portion of this assignment was something I was really worried about, but it turned out to be the easiest part. The hard part was getting footage. I don’t know why, but I thought getting footage would be easy. I was wrong. I had a lot of technical difficulties in the beginning, especially when I tried shooting with one of my DSLR camera. My footage was unusable. The audio was terrible, and I couldn’t get enough light through the lens to make the footage salvageable.
When I switched to using a handheld Canon camcorder from our broadcast department, I immediately noticed an improvement. Using a microphone to conduct my interviews definitely helped with my audio, but I noticed that my students liked to hold the microphone really close to their mouth, so I had to make adjustments to some of their audio in editing.
To conclude, this lesson taught me a lot. First, getting a good shot is not easy, and sometimes you have to work with what you have because another opportunity to get that same shot may not present itself. Also, adding effects to the videos can make the video look and seem more finished. Finally, I have realized that sometimes what scares me most can actually be a lot easier than I thought it would be. (But still not something I’m an expert at.)
Over the past few weeks I have been working in the world of interactive journalism tools.
To begin, I decided to create a map of the Grain Valley School District. This seemed like a simple task. And it was, after I realized that I needed to create the map from my Google account. I know that sounds like a rookie mistake, but I have only used Google maps to find get directions, so I didn’t realize that I could create a map with plotted points and save it to my account.
At first, I didn’t really see the relevance of this assignment, but after it was completed I started to see where this feature could be applied to my publications. Especially when we go live with our website next year! I can see it now… When we go to JEA/NSPA in Dallas, we can map out all of the cool places we go, and include that in a slideshow. I know there are probably more ways to incorporate this feature, but right now I’m just happy that I’ve figured out how to use it.
After getting my map complete and posting it to my blog, I began to work on my timeline. I tried to use the website Tiki-toki, but I just couldn’t figure it out. So, I went with Dipity. Which, after much Google searching, kept linking me to Time Toast. This site was much easier for me to work in. Once I tracked down all of the staff photos I have taken over the years, actually putting the timeline together was a snap. I thought adding text and uploading to the site were really easy. I did have trouble getting the timeline to embed in my wordpress blog (even though I paid for a month long membership), so I’m still working on that.
Creating a poll was a task I saved for last, I’m not sure why though because it was the most simple thing for me to do. Using polldaddy was really easy. I think it took me longer to set up my account then it did to actually create the poll. It also was really easy to embed on my blog, which was a relief after the timeline fiasco.
All in all, this adventure in to interactive journalism tools has been somewhat eventful. I’m pretty excited about the new skills that I’ve learned, and I can’t wait to show my students how to use all of these tools.
Adventures in Teaching Journalism 