Are College Students Techno Idiots? :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs September 30, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentLarge-scale study suggests poor information literacy skills, including evaluating websites and searching online effectively: "For the study, information was gathered from over 6,300 students found at 63 universities, colleges, community colleges, and high schools (seniors). Each institution selected participants to take an information and communication technology literacy assessment. Because the institutions did not make random selections , caution should be taken when evaluating the results. The challenge was to see if students could identify trustworthy information, manage that information, and communicate it effectively. The results do not inspire confidence. […]Results also show that students might even lack the basics on a search engine like Google. When asked to narrow a search that was too broad, only 35 percent of students selected the correct revision. Further, 80 percent of students put irrelevant points into a slide program designed to persuade an audience."
Time for journalism academics to get real (Tim Luckhurst) | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk September 30, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentMight reflect lack of funding for such debates/research; low level of cross-over between business and journalism within universities; and the focus primarily on teaching journalism and, for most research, on other aspects of journalism more likely to attract funding (for research). Perhaps Luckhurst will be asking Kent Messenger group to fund it…
"There is a real opportunity here for journalism academics to step beyond the stale and abstract and engage with harsh reality. Can we stimulate a plausible, productive debate about the media economics of the internet era? Can we devise a model in which good reporters can be employed and good journalism can thrive? It would be the best possible response to those who doubt whether journalism has a place in universities."
Web 2.0 in Secondary Education September 30, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentFrom a Becta study — not that different in HE?
"Barriers to the more widespread use of Web 2.0 technologies included:
• Tension between the collaborative learning of Web 2.0 and the nature of the assessment system
• Concerns about e-safety and strict filtering in schools
• Lack of adequate bandwidth
• Teachers need the support, time and space to develop skills and practices
• Learning platforms and ‘walled garden’ approach of VLEs
• Reluctance about Web 2.0 activities being visible on the open internet
• However these issues are not confined to technology and teachers:
Many learners lack technical skills, and lack an awareness of the range of technologies and of when and how they could be used, as well as the digital literacy and critical skills to navigate this space. Teachers should be careful not to overestimate learners’ familiarity and skills in this area.
So it appears that there is a long way to go before Web 2.0 is fully welcomed into the classroom."
Debate Watch: Student View - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com September 28, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentStudent journalists live-blogged the Obama–McCain debate: “The New York Times enlisted student newspaper editors from around the country to weigh in on the first presidential debate in real time. Some are watching in student centers; others at debate parties near campus.”
Was the Scotsman right to sack Nick Clayton for blogging? September 27, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentLaura Oliver at journalism.co.uk follows up the apparent sacking of Nick Clayton from The Scotsman because of a blog post on allmediascotland. How many staff journalists’ contracts forbid them (in theory) to contribute to other publications?: “Reactions like this and the idea of more stringent restrictions on where journalists can write online are counterproductive: letting journalists write, comment, engage and react with colleagues and readers online can help build an online community around them and their content, driving users back to the publisher’s site. Spilling company secrets is one thing, but Clayton’s post was hardly exposing something that’s hidden from the rest of the newspaper industry.”
What journalism schools should be doing? September 27, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentThe Future of Journalism - What Does it Look Like? USC II - David Cohn (digidave) on what J-schools should be doing:
- How individual journalists can continue to make a living despite the fall of newspapers.
- Re-define acts of journalism: change the culture of journalism to be more participatory.
- Re-define journalism’s mission: bring us back to our roots as professionals who, through services and products, serve a democratic society.
- Invigorate the culture and industry of journalism: bring back the passion. No more clasping our hands over our face like the kid in that Home Alone movie. It’s time to take charge!
More follow-up on the MediaShift blog by NYU journalism student September 27, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a comment“Embedded” Blogger-Journalism Student Confuses the Hell Out of PBS - More follow-up on the MediaShift blog by NYU journalism student: “Remember the NYU professor who banned blogging about class, after one of her students wrote a piece for PBS’s MediaShift blog criticizing the class and the journalism program? Now PBS’s ombudsman (they have one?!) has chimed in negatively about the piece: “I have serious problems with the episode that unfolded recently in which a journalism student at New York University, Alana Taylor, authored a Sept. 5 posting as an ‘embedded’ blogger on MediaShift, writing critically about her class content and professor at NYU without informing either the teacher or her classmates about what she was doing.” Um, he wrote over 2,000 more hand-wringing words on the subject.”
YouTube offers journalism fellowship for video journalists September 17, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : Journalism, citizen journalism, video , add a commentAn opportunity for aspiring video journalists:
In partnership with the Pulitzer Center, YouTube presents Project: Report, a journalism contest (made possible by Sony VAIO & Intel) intended for non-professional, aspiring journalists to tell stories that might not otherwise be told.
In each of the three rounds, reporters will be given an assignment to complete. Winners of each round will receive technology prizes from Sony VAIO & Intel, and the grand prize winner will be granted a $10,000 journalism fellowship with the Pulitzer Center to report on a story abroad.
The assignment for the first round is to profile someone “in your community with a story you think the world should know about”. Max three minutes, deadline 5 October.
The contest home page includes a few resources, including video shooting and editing tips.
Taking Twitter reporting to the edge September 16, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : Journalism, News, reporting , add a commentThe latest reporting use of Twitter that’s caught my eye is to cover a funeral, as undertaken (wordplay intended) by the Rocky Mountain News.
I make it 28 Tweets in just over 90 minutes — “pallbearers carry out coffin followed by mourners”, “people are viewing the body, which is lying in casket with teddy bear. some people falling on knees to pray”, for example. The texts are reproduced in one of the comments on the article linked above (no direct link; scroll down to the tenth comment).
Most of the comments are negative, perhaps not surprisingly — as was Michelle Ferrier on the Poynter blog.
More journalists seem to have been experimenting with Twitter over the last year or so. Paul Bradshaw provided a useful overview on his Online Journalism Blog and Jeff Jarvis weighed in here. It was only a question of time before theses on Twitter started to appear…