I can honestly say that if the Institute were to end today, I have learned so much to take back to my classes that I would have no trouble designing the 180-day school year. It's been intense, it's been unbelievable, and I'm looking forward to another week of insightful instruction. I am glad the Institute is not ending so that I can hone some of the skills that I have been slowly acquiring.
I am now on Twitter, I now blog, and I now post videos and have a YouTube account. Does this make me an official member of the 21st century? You betcha! More importantly, I see all their relevance to journalism and the importance of teaching my students media literacy and critical analysis of this media. We will certainly take a better look at this and be more aggressive in using these tools for our school. Even though the school year has just ended, I am ready to begin the new year!
I have a video I uploaded to YouTube -- my first! -- that I am sharing on this blog. I have already shared it on Facebook. It's from a trip I took to D.C. last year and the shots I made outside the Newseum. With all the talk about technology, I wanted to show journalism's beginnings, the front pages of newspapers, and the necessity of the permanence of printed papers. Is this a vanishing species?
http://youtu.be/dv8AYkL5DMY
John Bradford
Creekview High School
Canton, GA
If print is dying, I think we should do everything we can to forestall its demise. I don't know about things like Kindles and Nooks--they seem to have less in the way of multimedia clutter--but reading newspapers online is a whole different experience, especially for adolescents whose brains are still developing filters and ways to police their own attention. For years, my community's local paper has made copies available to schools in the area, and I routinely quiz my students on the paper's coverage of key issues.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's not dying, I think that the print industry is just in an evolutionary phase. Just as the advent of other new technologies--radio, TV--were supposed to kill print, it didn't happen. In working on my story I have found that everyone seems to be in agreement that the basic function of the press is VERY necessary, it's just the tools that are changing.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. Thank you John.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you John. I could walk away today and have so many tools to be a far better teacher of journalism. But, there's another week left!! Thank God we are doing this at the beginning of the summer. If I left the Institute just a few weeks before the start of the school year, I'd be in a panic!
ReplyDeleteI don't think print journalism is dying, especially at the high school level. The visual design and artistic aspects of print newspapers is something that just isn't the same when viewed on a screen. I do, however, wonder if the trend is moving more towards newsmagazines.
ReplyDeleteLiz Dixon
West Lafayette High School
West Lafayette, Ind.