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.

Students will blog for more than letter grades

   The first block of instruction on the basic meaning of news ended today.
   Now that the students are aware of the major elements of a newspaper (headline, logo, cutline, etc.), the six basic news values (impact, immediacy, proximity, novelty, conflict and emotions), and the history of news, they are ready to add another tool to their photojournalism toolbox: blogging.
   They will create their blogs on Wednesday. Maintaining a blog in this class will be easy because of the mandatory posting assignments. The challenge will be writing weekly essays that keep your attention, and posting captioned photos that warrant your viewing.
   The beauty of blogging in a college class is that the student's homework assignments will earn more than letter grades. These scholastic photojournalists will gain experience by blogging for a real-world audience (you), which will help prepare them for communicating in the 21st Century.
   Social media is here to stay, so they better embrace it now, when they can make mistakes without being fired for them.
   
  
 

Discussion board Comment of the Week

   Every week the students are required to post a comment on the Discussion Board in their class Blackboard. This adds to their communication skills in writing and sharing information. Every week I will pull a comment to share on their class blog.
   The question every week relates to their weekly lesson. This is a comment on blogging from Holly Omlor.
   "I think to a certain extent this class will be good for me. I have always been under the impression that bloggers were people who sat at home with nothing else better to do than talk about stuff that most people could care less about!
   "I know, it sounds kind of harsh, but that is how little I knew about blogs! Most blogs I was familiar with were ones people put out there to whine about things they didn't like, or business owners who bragged about how awesome they were.
   "From doing a little searching of other blogs, I am starting to see how a blog can be much more than that. It can give a cause a voice. It can bring attention to injustice. It can inform people about what is going on when they didn't know anything was going on."