KSU Teaching Multimedia students post final assignment: A lesson plan

   The semester is now over, but before I put this blog to bed for the summer, I want to share the final projects for my Kent State Teaching Multimedia grad students.

   But first, I want to say that the Teaching MM course impacted me a great deal when I was a grad student in the KSU Journalism Education program. Under the tutelage of Sue Zake in 2009, a KSU adjunct and instructor for that course back then, I created my first blog, and have been blogging ever since. Now, Zake is a KSU assistant professor, and I am honored to have inherited that course from her in 2013.

   Blogs are now required in all of my photojournalism courses because, it most cases, it’s the first visual portfolio for the students. Blogs are a powerful way of documenting what they’ve learned throughout the semester, and passing that knowledge forward.

   The final and most significant posting is their final project, which is developing a lesson plan, homework sheet, rubric and Camtasia Studio tutorial on a topic of their choice. It was based on their newfound expertise in creating multimedia journalism. The students were instructed to select a subject they wanted to teach and/or use with their own students, and upload all of the required elements to their blogs. 

   Not only do I grade from the blogs, but by posting to their blogs, other teachers and students can share it, as well.

   Of course, all of the teachers have developed lesson plans and rubrics throughout their career. But what was new was developing a lesson using Camtasia, a screen recording and video editing software that is perfect for creating how-to tutorials. Since this was a multimedia course, why not introduce them to a program that enhances their lesson plans?

    I loved the wide range of subjects chosen for this assignment: Videolicious, Twitter, video sequencing and editing, creating infographics, Picasa and editing podcasts using Audacity.

   So, it is with immense pride that I present to you the blogs of the spring semester 2016 class, who are mostly high school teachers advising or teaching student media (broadcasting, newspapers, yearbook).

    Click Here for the Page link to their blogs.

Adding a poll to your content from Mark Davidson on Vimeo.

How to use Twitter to promote a news story from Teaching Multimedia on Vimeo.

  (This video is a demonstration for students posting their live broadcasts to Todd's school website on his class page, by Todd Hatfield)

Editing Video to Tell a Story from Stephen Milligan on Vimeo.

(Introducing students to ThingLink, a website that allows users to create interactive graphics, by Michael Gluskin)


AIR Exam Video from Robin Lester on Vimeo.

Three classes prepare for the end, and the building tension is all around us

Screen grab from blog of WSU Digital PJ student Brice Bossavie. Feature assignment.

Photo by Intro to PJ student Kyle Brown. Sports assignment.

    The end is near.

  This means less laughs and more stress. A few students dropped out, while others are stepping up. Final projects and exams loom. Deadlines are finite. It is a tense time for the students, and for us instructors, as well.

   But it’s also an exciting time because the end produces results. Most of the students began the semester with a blank social media slate, but will leave with active blogs, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Their blogs will showcase everything they have learned for the past three months.

   In this blog post I’ll recap how the semester went:

Intro to Photojournalism | Owens Community College

     This is a small but mighty class.

  Not only are they doing their regular homework assignments, they are also student staffers on the Owens Outlook online student newspaper.

   All of them are required to provide photos with captions for the newspaper. And, for the first time since I’ve been teaching this course, they are also tasked with shooting video for the weekly Campus Pulse.  A few of the students even write stories.

   But it’s the final project that will test their mettle. We, as a team, are collectively producing a 32-page magazine on a single issue: a photo story on the residents and staff of Sunshine Communities in Maumee, Ohio. Because most of the students are mostly commercial photography majors, shooting the project was the easy part.

   The hard part will be designing the magazine in the next three weeks, and it’s daunting. They will design the pages using Photoshop, and upload the PDF files to Issuu. Each student has three pages to fill.

   Considering this is the first time to try this, we have to start from scratch. No templates. But I’ve always loved a challenge!

   Here a few of the issues we are tackling:

·      Choose a front page photo, and design the flag

·      Choose font types, sizes and colors

·      Design the index and masthead page

·   Determine who has what pages. Each student is responsible for designing their own pages, which will include an essay on their experience. 

   We’ll publish the inaugural issue on their blogs in three weeks, so stay tuned.

   Now is a good time to reveal that this is the last Intro to Photojournalism class. Beginning in the fall, the class will be called Visual Storytelling, and it’ll run every spring and fall, instead of just once a year. It’ll be a required course for the new broadcast technology major.

   The premise will remain the same, with journalism as a primary component, but I’ll add podcasting and video storytelling to the curriculum.

Digital Photojournalism | Wayne State University

Photo by WSU Digital PJ student Rob Streit. Features assignment.

   This class is triple the size of Owens, so it’s not realistic to do a team final photo project like Owens did.

    Instead, they are responsible for shooting their own photo story. The students are also required to record an interview and capture live ambient sound as an added storytelling element.

   They are currently learning Audacity to edit their audio, and will produce their final project in Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014.  The projects will be uploaded onto the course’s YouTube account, and on their individual blogs.

   Most of the students are print journalism and broadcast majors, so this is a course that could, and probably will, be beneficial to them someday. These days it’s not a matter of if, but when, they will be taking their own images.

Teaching Multimedia | Kent State University

   This is a distance-learning course for high school journalism teachers and advisers from around the country. Most of the students are English teachers with no background or experience in journalism.

   Can you imagine? One day they’re teaching To Kill a Mockingbird, and then all of a sudden they are advisers to the yearbook, the student newspaper, and teaching journalism courses. It happens all the time, and as long as schools do not commit to journalism programs, it'll continue happening.

   Fortunately, these grad students have the Journalism Education program at Kent State (which I’m a graduate of), and are simultaneously learning about the journalism field, as well as how to teach it.

   In this course they are learning about multimedia, which includes photography, infographics (maps, surveys, polls and timelines) and video storytelling.
   And this semester I’ve added two new lessons: podcasting and creating a Camtasia Studio tutorial. Judging from their essays, I'm confident they liked podcasting, especially if they regularly listen to NPR.
   As far as the Camtasia Studio tutorial goes, I'm also confident they'll value that, too. In fact, I plan on spending many summer mornings creating Camtasia Studio tutorials on moderately difficult tasks, like Audacity and Premiere. It'll save time in the classroom, in the end, and who doesn't value that?

Screen grab of podcast produced by Teaching MM student Mark Davidson. Interview podcast assignment.

   ----------------------

   So, this sums up the spring 2016 semester, so far. I told every student on Day One that my classes are designed to prepare them for ‘the real world,’ and to have a tangible portfolio of work in the end. Mission almost accomplished.

(To view the blogs of students in any of the three classes, go to the designated blog list pages at the top of this blog.)

On shooting video stories: Learning curve is steep, but the climb is worth it

   It’s hard to define bad video technique until you actually see it: bad pans, bad focusing, bad fades, bad zooms, bad audio.

   The word ‘bad’ sounds, well, bad. But ‘making bad’ on your first few videos isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, we all have to start somewhere, right?

   A few weeks ago the KSU Teaching Multimedia class got started on their first video assignment.
   The goal was to get their your feet wet by handing the gear, practicing with moving images, getting comfortable with sound, and then developing a workflow to put it all together.

   Before they shot their story they were given a list of video news stories by established media to view. Then they had to find subjects that would lend to visual variety and sound (the assignment before this was learning how to capture sound and edit using Audacity). Finally, with a list of guidelines to follow, they had to shoot and produce their own stories.

  Keep in mind that this class is also extremely fast paced. In only four months they learn basic still photography and audio skills, as well as create blogs to post their timelines, interactive maps and opinion polls. They don’t have the luxury of time.   

  I expected bad video because most of the students took the class because they had no visual journalism experience and wanted to learn; and to learn you have to do; and the more you do the better you get.  This is why they are given a second chance, and are currently working on their second video, due at the end of the semester. I hope to see improvement, not only because they've done it before, but because they have the benefit of learning from one another's videos on our YouTube Channel.

  It's understood that the learning curve to shooting video is pretty steep. Still photography is hard enough, with camera controls, compositional rules and lighting techniques to worry about. But throw in the added elements of movement and audio, and, well, beginners can have pretty bad video! 

  The following two stories were chosen from this class because I think it’s important to demonstrate the spectrum of work students do. You will be able to tell which one works, and which one needs work.

  Sure, I can say in a classroom or write in a blog, "Don't do this, and yes, do that..."  But you really have you see it to get the picture.
   For this third bad audio video (click here), I demonstrate really bad audio, and it isn't a product of my students. It's mine!
Even us experienced types can screw up, as this brief weekly Dog of the Week video proves. Normally, the Sennheiser hotshoe mic on my DSLR cameras does a fine job of recording quality audio. But not this time.
   While producing the video using Adobe Premiere Elements 11, I was horrified to hear annoying static during the interview. Perplexed, I had a gut feeling it could be a battery issue, so I did a test. I recorded sound suing the old AAA battery, then replaced the battery and did another recording. The new battery fixed the problem.
   This bad audio makes it a bad video story, and even a cute puppy can't save it!
   Tips for recording quality audio include keeping the batteries fresh; record in a quite space, use a quality mic that minimizes distracting background noise; keep close to the subject or use wireless mics with a transmitter.
  Here's another video I did that encompasses decent shooting techniques and audio: Say cheese!
  A few tutorials on shooting/editing video:

·      U.C. berkeley shooting tips

·      NewsU on Video Storytelling

·      Lynda.com Video Storytelling

·      NYVS video shooting

·      Media College

·      DSLR Video Shooter