Three 2015 resolutions that I just might keep... with lots of help from students

Myself, center, with the Owens Outlook editors. (Photo by Sean Ferry)

 

    Resolutions are made to be broken, right? Perhaps because they often focus on ourselves, and without much help from others.

    So I won’t waste my 2015 resolutions on myself. Instead, my wishes for success will focus on my Owens Outlook newspaper staff. The success of my resolutions will depend on us all working together as a team. 

   These are my joint resolutions for 2015:

1. Submit the Owens Outlook online student newspaper and its staff for the Pinnacle Awards.

   Pinnacle Awards, handed out during the annual College Media Association Fall convention, honor the best college media organizations and individual students for their work throughout the year.

   I have high hopes for this ‘little engine that could.’ As I scan over their photos and stories from this past semester, how can they not be strong contenders in a national contest on the community college level? I would even pit them against four-year schools!

   The CMA conference next year is in Houston. I can’t wait to sit there during the awards ceremony and hear our school called out.

2.    Start paying the Outlook staff and buy necessary equipment through ad and photo sale revenue.

The Outlook has a new paid student business manager, and I hope she hits the ground running. We

are looking at several ways to generate money:

·       Sell ads on the Outlook website.

·       Sell their photography through sites like Flickr or SmugMug.

·       Create an end-of-semester hard print magazine that features the best content of the semester, as well as fresh, longer-form photo stories. We are banking that local companies sponsor it.

   We were once considering going to a bimonthly print edition, but with a skeleton staff of under 10 each semester, and no journalism program to support it, that’s no longer an option.

3.    Recruit deans, chairs, administration, students and community members to subscribe to the online newspaper.

   The Outlook staff works hard to cover the entire Toledo campus, but we can’t do it without the support of readership support. We need their tips for story ideas, feedback on how we can do things better, and website hits to justify our existence.

   Lofty goals, indeed. So the Outlook staff and the entire Owens community need to work together to help make these resolutions come true!

Owens Outlook student newspaper staff launches website

Most of the Outlook student staff.

   What makes a small team of Owens students work hard without pay and produce without grades?    
   For the past two weeks 14 students, mostly commercial photography majors, have been plotting, interviewing, writing, shooting and redesigning for the Owens Outlook online student newspaper.    
   Their immediate goal was to launch the website with a new look and totally fresh content. I’m proud to announce that they have accomplished that goal! The newspaper launched Sept. 2!
    But their work has only begun. They must sustain their busy pace to keep the Outlook up and running for the rest of the semester. That means providing updated stories, photos, videos and ads every week for the next 14 weeks. 
    I’m amazed at their dedication, and their ability to work as a team to get the job done. What inspires already busy students, who have jobs, families and classes, to give up their free time to work for free? 
    I could take a calculated guess, but since this is journalism and accuracy is our objective, I went directly to the source and asked them. 
   Here are a few of their responses: 

• Kyle Brown, sports photographer: “I have put my free time to the Outlook to learn as much as I can about doing sports photography before I go for a real job in a newspaper or company. It will greatly enhance my skills as I learn what to look for in an action shot.” 
• Katie Buzdor, Editor-in-Chief: “I have devoted myself to the outlook because I want to pursue a career in photojournalism and I have a lot of fun interacting with everyone. You get addicted to wanting our school's students to get the news from us and not from someone else.” 
• Amanda Leigh, sports editor: “I have put so much into the Outlook because first hand experience is the best kind. I love photojournalism, and being able to work on my skills while doing what I love is amazing. It also helps to have a great staff, great adviser, and you get to meet new people daily.” 

   Most of the students are in the Intro to Photojournalism course, so they will eventually receive grades for the work they do for the Outlook. But for now they are working for the sole benefit of education and experience. 
   By the time they graduate, and either transfer or work,  they all will definitely have a stronger portfolio than their peers, and way more confidence. 
   This amazing group of Owens students understand that experience is sometimes more powerful than money.

One blog, two schools: Welcome Owens and Kent students!

Welcome to a new semester!

   This blog is dedicated to you, students in both the Intro to Photojournalism and Teaching Multimedia courses.

   I hope you all benefit from the posts in this blog throughout the semester, especially since both courses are so different, yet many of the skills you will learn are the same.

·      The Intro to PJ course is geared for Owens Community College (OCC) photography and PR majors who want to learn more about the journalism field. Lessons include law and ethics, caption writing and camera operations.
     Every student in this course will also be a staff member on the Owens Outlook student online newspaper. This allows them to learn photojournalism in a real-world environment.

·      The Teaching Multimedia course is a distance-learning course
     for Kent State graduate students that begins Aug. 25. 

     These students are mostly high school teachers from across the country who want to learn multimedia skills. Most of these teachers are advisers for their school’s student newspaper or yearbook. Lessons include how to operate a DSLR camera; how to shoot video; how to edit still photos and video with industry standard software (Final Cut Pro, Adobe Elements, Photoshop); and how to capture and edit audio using Audacity.

   The common element with both of these classes is storytelling. That’s why it makes perfect sense to offer tutorials for both classes on this single blog. This way all students will learn something different and unique from their own course.

   I am so excited to hit the Publish button to let the semester commence!

'Dang, this year flew by!' and other recapping thoughts

      This statement can literally be cut and pasted onto this blog every year about this time:

“Dang, this year flew by!”

       Indeed, it has. Here’s a quick recap for the Fall 2013 semester:

   Intro to PJ students Damion, Parth, Nicole and Yusta work on their team photo story last week. (Photos by Lori King)

Owens Community College

·         There weren’t too many changes for the Intro to Photojournalism course. Students still created Twitter and Blogger accounts, and they reported from their campus beats.

   They are currently working on their team photo story on Wood Lane Industries in Bowling Green. Their Soundslides story will be posted on this blog next week.

   A popular student request is that there is a Part 2 to this Intro to PJ course. This is a request that would take a lot of thought, and I've pondered it myself. I would like to incorporate video to tell longer photo stories, and allow them to earn grades for being an Owens Outlook newspaper staff photographer.

   I am considering writing a grant request for video cameras that students would use for the advanced storytelling course. Hey, some dreams do come true!

B&W 1 students at a horse barn for a portrait assignment shoot.

·      The Black & White 1 course in Findlay ended up being a very small class, with only three students making it to the end. A B&W course is not scheduled at all in Findlay next semester.

   I fear for the future of photography in Findlay. In fact, I fear for the future of Black and White photography, period. Teaching the theory, history and practical experience of Black and White photography is a debatable practice in the 21^st Century.

        The first Owens Outlook newspaper staff meeting this semester.                     

   What do students gain from the old fashioned art of processing and printing film and prints in a wet darkroom? They learn first hand the roots of photography. But more importantly, they get to experience the magic of patience. To take a photo with a bare-bones camera; advance each frame with a crank lever; to know in your gut what reciprocity means; to rely on your knowledge because you don’t know what you got until it’s processed in a tin can; to see a print come alive before your very eyes... Yes, this is magic!

·      As the new adviser for the Owens Outlook newspaper, we, as a staff, have accomplished a few major tasks, including creating a staff policy manual and identifying big problems we are diligently working to fix.

   I want to thank Student Life director Chris G. for sending myself, as well as the two top editors ( Josh Widanka and Cathy Zeltner) to the College Media Association Fall conference in New Orleans in October.

   Going to the conference was a game changer. We came back with very valuable information that will help us fix our problems. Here’s what we are currently working on:

1.    Getting our own office space

2.  Creating the News Academy training program for every student staff member each semester

3.   Changing to a more visually appealing, user-friendly website

4.   Found a printer for when we are ready to go back to a hard copy newspaper

5.   Developing a business plan that will include a student ad staff that will sell ads. Ad revenue will allow payment to the student staff!

Kent State University

·      Last but not least is the Kent State University online course, Teaching Multimedia.

   The students in this course are high school teachers from across the country. They either teach journalism courses or advise student media and/or yearbook staffs.

   This is an intensive, skills-based course that teaches them about DSLR cameras, audio capture and editing, and how to shoot and produce video stories. Because technology is changing so rapidly, it's crucial that our teachers are keeping up with it so they can better teach, or at least relate, to their students.
   When I took over the course this semester, it was already designed by former instructor Susan Zake, who was hired as Kent State University's newest professor, thus she didn't feel she would have the time to teach it anymore.  That said, if I teach it again (and I hope I do), I plan to tweak it just a tiny bit next Fall. I'm thinking about adding blogging and DX code creation to the syllabus. But at this point, who knows what the hot new trend will be in a year...

      So, we are near the end and then it will all begin again next year.

The Owens Outlook newspaper: Then, now and the future

This is the Prezi presentation I recently did on the state of the Owens Outlook newspaper. Revamping the Owens Outlook is a work in progress, and we have lots and lots of work to do! As the new adviser, it's my job to make sure this work gets done, but at least I'm not alone. We have a small staff who are as committed as I am. When Owens lost the print edition of The Outlook about 4 years ago, the online newspaper went out of sight and out of mind. I think it's safe to say more than half, if not most, of the students/faculty/staff at Owens have no idea we have an online newspaper! What a shame! So, it's my ultimate goal to try and change that. I want the student staff of The Outlook to own it, and be proud of it. But they can't possibly do that without knowing what they are doing. So, let the training begin. Here's my adviser manifesto: