Comment glitch fixed (please retry!) and RSS feed June 28, 2007
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : journalism education , add a commentA problem with the commenting feature has now been fixed — so if you’ve tried previously to add a comment, please try again now! Thanks.
The RSS feed works fine if you click on the RSS feed logo in the address bar of your browser, or use this link. (The link from the RSS logo in the sidebar is not working consistently… yet…)
Using a blog to encourage critical reflection June 26, 2007
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : Academic, Education, Online, Research, WJEC, blogging, elearning, journalism education, student experience , 5commentsThis is the theme of my presentation to a Best Practices in Teaching workshop at the World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC).
The project has involved using a blog not for students to publish their journalistic work but for them to reflect on their practical journalism — primarily as a tool for enhancing their learning.
Notes from my presentation are available as a PDF here — intended particularly for those at the WJEC teaching workshop. I’d be particularly interested in having your comments, whether you came to the WJEC session or not — please add them below.
World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) 2007 June 22, 2007
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : AJE, Academic, Education, WJEC, journalism education , add a comment
The first such gathering of journalism educators is taking place next week, in Singapore. It should prove an interesting gathering — with scope for some great discussions with those involved in teaching journalism from all over the world.
There is potential for some intriguing culture clashes (intercultural exchanges?), reflecting not only the different approaches to journalism in different countries but also how it is taught and learned. For each country, I suspect these approaches are influenced by the practice of journalism, of course — plus the tradition of training, education and recruitment in the industry or profession (there’s another debate — ’sector’ might be more neutral), and the educational system(s) involved. Plus a few other factors…
The WJEC programme (pdf here) lists the many papers and sessions scheduled. It looks like an intensive week!
I’m contributing to a ‘best practices’ teaching workshop with the theme ‘Teaching Journalists in an Age of Ambiguity’ — discussing how I’ve been using a blog to encourage journalism students to engage in critical reflection — and presenting a research paper on formative feedback to journalism students.
Convergence in journalism — online video June 15, 2007
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : Journalism, Newspapers, Online, convergence, journalism education, video , 1 comment so farA few thoughts on video, which more newspaper websites are carrying, from discussions at the AJE meeting (where the focus was primarily on regional/local papers online, not nationals). These are some pointers that I’ve taken from the seminar, as someone with a background in print journalism, with an eye on the practicalities of journalism education.
- It’s not TV or radio, so think web and the specific context there — eg complementing online text and perhaps hyperlinks. If the story is going on paper, too, what extra does the online video offer?
- For similar reasons, there are good reasons to keep the technology simple. The video isn’t destined for a 72″ plasma HD screen or whatever, so a half-decent camcorder (or even a regular digicam in movie mode).
- Similarly for editing software: something to be said for using free software such as iMovie, Audacity (for audio), Windows Movie Maker. I can vouch for the first two, in terms of ease of use for the essentials.
- Think of such software as the equivalent of Word for text etc.
- Remember that good quality audio is crucial — location (background noise), decent microphone etc (a downside to regular digicams).
- A slideshow might work well — still pics and audio might outdo video for some stories.
- Emphasise journalism rather than top-end production values.
- Concentrate on visual storytelling — think this way from the start.
- But don’t throw out print priorities of grabbing readers’ attention, relevance, focus etc.
Much of this came from the session led by Andy Dickinson (UCLAN). A podcast featuring him and Andy Price (University of Teesside) is now on Paul Bradshaw’s blog.
Formative feedback for student learning — informed by philosophy? June 13, 2007
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : Academic, Education, Research, SoTL, formative feedback, journalism education, learning , add a commentBizarre, perhaps, that it was research on effective feedback to students that led me to the work of Richard Rorty, philosopher who died last Friday. He introduced the term ‘final vocabulary:
These are the words in which we formulate praise of our friends and contempt for our enemies, our long-term projects, our deepest self-doubts and our highest hopes
(from Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, CUP, 1989).
For learning and teaching, this matters because using final vocabulary in feedback tends to close down discussion or reflection on the part of the student (or so the theory goes).
In any case, telling a student that their work is ‘good’ or ‘poor’ does little, on its own, to help them learn — explaining how and why, or pointing towards this, offers much more. I suspect that final vocabulary is prevalent in a great deal of feedback to students (including my own) — at some level it’s ‘natural’. But it’s worth keeping an eye on, if one takes Rorty, David Boud and others seriously.
The Telegraph obituary puts Rorty’s influence down to clarity — an essential in journalism, of course:
One of the reasons for Rorty’s popularity, and the esteem in which he was held, was his lucidity as a writer; even in technical works for an academic audience, he was at pains to spell out his analyses clearly, and not to duck their consequences. This alone made him stand out from almost all other writers and philosophers who adopted postmodernism.
Convergence in journalism (education) June 11, 2007
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : AJE, Online, blogging, convergence, journalism education, video , 1 comment so farJournalism educators met in Cornwall last week, amid sun, sea and… convergence. Newspapers developing online; teaching video; student-led journalism projects across print, broadcast and online media; blogging and social networks in journalism education — it was all there at the Association for Journalism Education seminar at University College Falmouth last week.
Plenty of interesting stuff — and it’s helped focus my thoughts, particularly about blogging and the use of video online. More posts about such things to come this week, including more on my blogging project, about which I spoke at the AJE seminar.
Meanwhile, here’s the line-up that we had at Falmouth:
• Teaching using new media: Blogging as a tool for critical reflection – Jonathan Hewett, City University
• Teaching convergence – a project at Westminster. Geoffrey Davies, Westminster University
• A video project – Andy Dickinson, University of Central Lancashire, Preston
• Newspapers online: Changing values, changing practices, changing staff – Chris Rushton, Sunderland University
• Convergence in the classroom Andy Price, Teesside University
• Convergence, where is it going and what should we be telling students? David Holmes and team on a project at Sheffield University
• New directions: where is journalism going? Jim Hall and the team at Falmouth University College