FIVE GREAT TOOLS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING JOURNALISM AND MEDIA STUDIES

Karl O’Kane

Irish Daily Star GAA Correspondent and Arts and Education Post Grad at NCI.

TOOL 1: GOOGLE DRIVE/SHARED DOCUMENTS

SELF-LEARNING

LINK: https://drive.google.com

On Cruise ships or Cruise missiles?

Google Shared Documents is an ideal tool for learning editing and sub-editing.

Shared documents may be opened by students working in groups of three in a computer lab with good internet speed.

Working in twos would only allow one set of student feedback, while anything over three could lead to confusion.

The students could be encouraged to work on different types of writing, from hard news stories to features.

Their work could then be edited, while they could also edit themselves to deadlines. 

Google Drive allows both student and teacher to track how pieces evolve, while the teacher can add live comments and gauge straight away which students are struggling with the concepts involved.

Students can also add headlines and sub-heads to their work, with the best examples presented to the class and distributed electronically.

The learning outcomes may be ascertained by comparing the quality of the pieces pre and post editing, and how the students writing and editing evolves over a number of weeks.

After the exercise is complete the students could discuss in small groups, or as a class how it felt to edit someone else’s work and to have their own work edited, leading to a written reflection.

Overall, google shared documents would give students some feel for what happens in news rooms every day.

Using google drive for editing should ensure greater student participation and a positive learning environment.

Work can be stored in a shared class folder for consideration and assessment.

In an attempt to gauge the effectiveness of the tool the teacher could run a control class without google shared documents and compare the progress of both groups, while cognisant of the differing personalities and capabilities across the two classes.

TOOL 2: MEDIUM.

SELF-LEARNING

LINK: https://medium.com/

Medium is a blogging site which allows users to create their own multi-media stories and features.

Students can download a voice recorder app to their phones like ‘Easy Voice Recorder’ - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.coffeebeanventures.easyvoicerecorder

This allows them to record interviews, which can be cut on a simple editing tool such as ‘audacity’ and uploaded to the blog, or used as audio background over a video.

Alternatively, students could shoot video on their smart phones and embed it on medium.

As well as learning to piece together a story – elements can also be sourced from a range of social media.

Medium allows the space and editorial freedom for students to tell stories in their full context (if desired), which don’t break through into the mainstream media or are not suited to social media.

Students can post draft blogs and gather feedback and ideas from other medium users, which they may or may not act on before publishing.

'Stick a fork in me, I'm not quite done.'

Students and teachers can critique (‘fork' according to medium) other student blogs if they are given permission.  Students could be encouraged to critique relevant blogs and leave notes for the author as well as recommending blogs to each other.

This flow of ideas could lead to a wider understanding, while feedback could stimulate debate in the classroom, adding another level to the learning.

Medium claims slightly patronisingly to cut away gimmicky presentation options and add focus to the writing and ideas, but there is a point to their argument.

This is an important factor at a time when students can be blinded by technology with real substance and depth of thinking forgotten.

Users can post links to each other on Medium, facilitating a flow of ideas, while links are suggested to other relevant blogs, which could foster a community of practice for students.

Blogs can be shared on Facebook and Twitter among other mediums to increase exposure to the work.

TOOL 3 - TED TALKS

TEACHING

LINK: http://www.ted.com/    (Technology; Entertainment; Design)

TED allows journalism and media students access to a range of on-line lectures from experts in the field, including investigative reporters, editors, critics and photographers, with real experience, which the teacher may not possess.

$4000 a head to attend TED.

It is elitist in some ways, as live audiences veer towards influential stake holders and it costs in the region of $4,000 to attend a lecture, but it is also democratic and not for profit.

TED provides an unedited platform for innovative and inspirational thinkers, which allows their ideas to sail from intellectual backwaters into mainstream popular culture and the classroom, where most likely they have failed to permeate the mass media.

This can only be healthy for students and society, while the very sound of a new voice brings a different dynamic to teaching.

It may not be advisable for teachers to lean too heavily on TED – it is a one way medium after all - but the passion of the speakers should stimulate class room debate where the energy and dynamic between students themselves, and the teacher should promote deeper understanding.

The teacher can determine which TED talks are appropriate for the desired learning outcomes, or hand it over to the student.

To engage with TED the student could select a lecture, research the contributor's background and reflect on how their philosophical outlook shaped the choice of topic and framed their lecture.

TED talks are no more than 18 minutes, which means they can easily be incorporated into a class, while more students are likely to watch them at home than if they were longer, more formal lectures.

The live audience element may also engage students.

TED’S longevity – it started out in 1984 - means there are plenty of ‘gold standard reviews’ available from academics to assess its value for teaching.

There is very little time and effort involved in utilising TED, and no money wasted if the teacher abandons it, while broad band width for a class is not a factor.

TOOL 4 - SOCRATIVE

TEACHING

Link: http://www.socrative.com/

On the face of it socrative appears a tool best suited to mechanical teaching as it facilitates multiple choice, true or false questions and short answers.

However, socrative can easily be manipulated to encourage a level of critical thinking.

Allowing students to create tests for each other with short written answers encourages them to take ownership of their learning and to think like the teacher.

Their understanding can be assessed by the construct and standard of questions they formulate. 

Students could then critique the responses of their peers on a topic like Marxism and the mass media to facilitate debate and foster a deeper understanding of the subject.

Whoosh! Jet propelled learning on socrative.

There is also an 'exit feature,' which allows student opinion on the class, what they struggled with and how it could be improved.  

This should provide invaluable feedback for teachers in assessing how effectively their methods - including socrative - are.

The interactive element of quizzes and the ‘rocket race’ may appear gimmicky, but if it engages students and encourages a competitive element in the class it may be effective as a teaching tool.

Quiz and poll results are available in real time to teachers on spread sheets, which allows more time for teaching and                                                                                   preparing lessons as opposed to correcting work.

This means fact based learning, which is required in the majority of syllabus,’ can be easily measured.

Teachers can create and share socrative assessments with colleagues across the globe, leading to a flow of ideas and enhanced resources and learning.

A comprehensive study of socrative would be required to assess whether or not learning is sustained and taken into other subjects with different teachers and teaching styles.

The technology is dependent on a strong wi-fi signal but can be easily downloaded onto smart phones.

TOOL 5 - TWITTER

BLEND OF LEARNING AND TEACHING

LINK – https://twitter.com/

A TWITTER app is easily downloaded onto smart phones and can be utilised as a collaborative teaching and learning tool.

When a topic is discussed in class a tweet chat with hash tags could be set up in whatever size of group the teacher deems appropriate.

Fly a mile with these wings.

Students could be encouraged to tweet every two or three minutes, leading to a flow of ideas and interaction.  This would give all students an equal voice and ensure they engage with a topic.

The 140 character limit per tweet will invariably render the debate more conversational, which could prove a positive in sparking fresh ideas and lead to greater clarity in student thinking.

Crucially, teachers can moderate tweet chats to help shape the debate.

Observing tweets would allow the teacher to determine if pupils are understanding the material, be it how to research a story or Freudian theory.

The teacher could bring together the best ideas on the topic on a whiteboard and critique them with the class.

Students could also critique twitter itself, noting any bad or good experiences they had on it and how they would modify their tweets/behaviour in the future.

The students could all learn from following each other as well as prominent journalists/academics and media commentators.

This would allow them to pick up and share the latest news, ideas and articles relevant to media studies and journalism.

Students could also be encouraged to set up an account relating to an area of the media they are interested in, gather material, tweet regularly and see how many followers they can amass.

Students may also use Twitter to live blog from a press conference or sporting event to gain experience of a typical working media environment. 

Gathering followers in their area is a great way to build contacts for aspiring journalists, while the direct message element is an increasingly important tools in setting up interviews.