Comments on: Testable, measurable skills we should teach in j-school

By: Teaching Online Journalism » MVPs for March and April

Teaching Online Journalism » MVPs for March and April — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:02:17 +0000

[...] Testable, measurable skills we should teach in j-school [...]

By: Wenalway

Wenalway — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:44:49 +0000

Many of today’s page designers would fail the image manipulation portion.

In their non-functioning minds, if you can do something with an image, then you just go ahead and do it.

Also, matt — it doesn’t sound like you’re doing a very good job of hiring.

By: contentious.com - Overhauling J-School Completely

contentious.com - Overhauling J-School Completely — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:04:10 +0000

[...] really need, given the changing landscape of opportunities they’re facing. (Thanks to Mindy McAdams, James Ball, Paul Canning, Andy Dickinson, eGrommet, the Ethical Martini, Innovate This, [...]

By: O QUE DEVEM ENSINAR AS ESCOLAS DE JORNALISMO? « »

O QUE DEVEM ENSINAR AS ESCOLAS DE JORNALISMO? « » — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:49:00 +0000

[...] Abril - 2008 por João Simão A CONVERSA começou com um post de Amy Gahran, a que Mindy McAdams respondeu. Amy voltou à carga e concretizou as suas ideias sobre o ensino do jornalismo no século [...]

By: ensino de jornalismo: reflexões « Monitorando

ensino de jornalismo: reflexões « Monitorando — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:41:52 +0000

[...] 04/ 2008 de rogério christofoletti A dica é de António Granado, a partir de posts nos blogs de Mindy McAdams e Amy [...]

By: O que devem ensinar as escolas de jornalismo? : Ponto Media

O que devem ensinar as escolas de jornalismo? : Ponto Media — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:55:27 +0000

[...] CONVERSA começou com um post de Amy Gahran, a que Mindy McAdams respondeu. Amy voltou à carga e concretizou as suas ideias sobre o ensino do jornalismo no século [...]

By: stefan

stefan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:04:01 +0000

I agree with Martin. Im developing a whole critical theory curriculum thats exploring the nexus of where information, technology and social use meet. To this end, Im incorporating disciplines such as epistemology, sociology, semiotics, and network theory. J-skills and multimedia skills can be taught, like driving a car. Multimedia skills will also inevitably evolve as technology evolves and as Alfred points out, not all multimedia will be appropiate for every story.What we need is to encourage a mindset that understands what people are *doing* with what kind of information, why they are doing it that way, what needs are trying to be accomplished. If you have a firm understanding of that, then you can tell the right story with the right technology and the right social application.Thats why Im bringing in these other areas.

By: The new journalism syllabus? « Ethical Martini

The new journalism syllabus? « Ethical Martini — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:24:52 +0000

[...] is the Knight chair of journalism and technologies at the University of Florida. Her original post, Testable, measurable skills, argues that making lists is all well and good, but the question is what’s testable and [...]

By: Martin Hirst

Martin Hirst — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:50:11 +0000

OK, here’s one for you. I’m not sure how to meet Mindy’s challenge of making this “measurable”, but I thought about this after a colleague sent me a response when I forwarded the link to this discussion around my teaching team.
She wrote: “Mini-Murdochs with digital cameras?”, in response to the ‘concentious’ comment about teaching entrepreneurial business skills to journo students.
That seems to me (in New Zealand) to be a particularly American approach - something to do with the way the discipline (journalism in the academy) has developed there as opposed to perhaps the UK and certainly Australian & NZ where I have my experience.
We are much more inclined to got the “critical thinking and evaluation” route.
We want our graduates to have a healthy scepticism and an ability to evaluate their own practice as well as analyse and interpret the world around them.
But how do we measure this? It seems it’s really a value judgment in many ways. Perhaps it’s measurable through an essay, or even in the quality of stories produced.
My premise for this is that journalism is an intellectual pursuit - that is really the public interest - and so we cannot just teach technical skills. It has to be contextualised and not just by media studies academics, but from a perspective of journalism scholarship.
So are you teaching any critical/theory stuff around the new technology?
For example: do your students get a chance to debate the differences/similarities between Jay Rosen; Dan Gilmor and others over the social aspects of digital news media?
I think this is just as important as Soundslides and digital story-telling.
We run the risk of simply buying into the hype and the digital optimism (the great democratic media future is just a click away) if we don’t engage cricitally as scholars as well as teachers.

By: Mindy

Mindy — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:39:54 +0000

@Alf — Great comment, thank you! You are so right about narrative and story train. Too many people are slapping up audio slideshows that have no story to them. They are like factual reports, no emotion, no pacing. We need to work on this in many of our classes, and not only online.

I’m strongly in favor of teaching skills in conjunction with real journalism assignments that employ the new skills. Too many faculty want to institute “technology workshops” in which the students would learn only software. Without the application to real stories, I don’t see much point in that.