SXSW panels on the brain

South By Southwest’s panel picker opened today, so I officially have SXSW on the brain until next March. I wanted to talk a little about a panel I proposed and also plug a few others that I have voted for.

A shameless plug for our panel: If you like what you hear, please vote for us using the link a couple grafs below this one. It requires a short registration but you aren’t obligated to attend the event in Austin. Ours is the only panel tagged “journalism education” and so I think we bring a lot to the table here. Read more

From my reading radar: May 2, 2009

Stuff I’m reading and thinking about …

USC has launched Intersections to help cover South Los Angeles, which is a terribly underserved part of the region. One of the stated goals is to “train a new generation of journalists for open-minded, culturally literate reporting.” I love the positive vibe of the way the community is presented but wonder whether it overdoes it at the risk of distortion. All things considered though, this looks like a cool project and is worth watching.

Claire McCaskill took the time to share why in the world she as a United States Senator would be interested in using Twitter. She notes, “As I am walking to a hearing, or riding the tram over for a vote, I think of what I want to tell the folks at home about my work or life. This, I believe, is a fairly decent way to stay connected.” A lot of people criticize her for not using Twitter “correctly” in that she has amassed many followers but does not follow anyone. I am not in that camp (partly because I’m not sure there’s a “right way” to use Twitter, although there are many wrong ways). Followers can still reply in real time to things she says. It’s not like she’s not hearing her constituents.

Scott Murphy thanked the users of DailyKos.com for helping him win the NY-20 special congressional election. Users were donating and phone banking on his behalf even if they couldn’t vote for him. This is partly the future of civic engagement and a major leg of my dissertation. People who want to help people or causes they care about are no longer constrained by geography.

Erica Perez at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a great story about professors using Twitter in the classroom. I’ve dabbled in it a bit this spring and plan to do more with it in the coming semester. Twitter itself might be a fad, but as an instructor it’s important to find ways to better interact with students.

Teaching standards without killing their spirit

I’ve been teaching a large lecture class this semester, my last one here at MU before I start at Lehigh in the fall. It seems like the lessons I’m learning as an instructor are much different than mid-size classes, and I’m not sure if it’s because a 200-student course means different challenges or if I’m just noticing issues more because the problems are being multiplied by 10.

I should preface anything here by saying I love being a teacher and enjoy being in the classroom. I know I’m not great at it yet, but I’ve learned a lot in six years of doing it and relish those moments where you feel like you’re breaking through with students and helping them develop as thinkers. A great question in class yesterday, for example, where a student on their own connected free speech issues to the Jena Six problem (showing curiosity and application) was one of those moments that gets you high.

Still, I’ve struggled with one part of the class, and that is enforcing standards. The students are required to do five participation events in the semester, which entails them going to an approved event (a lecture or civic meeting of some sort) and writing an essay that is pretty wide open in terms of format (personal reflection, recap, news style, etc.). The one thing we’re asking is the essay quotes someone who was at the event and that they list their contact information on the essay. We do this because we are verifying the students actually attended. Read more

Gearing up to retrain

This summer, I’m going to help my students brand themselves.

In about three months I’ll get my second go-round here at Missouri with Online Journalism, the online-only course we teach our masters students through Blackboard. I taught it last summer and had a great experience and am looking forward to doing it again.

The MU Direct program tends to attract journalists looking to get their M.A. while retraining for a new set of skills. Last year we focused on blogging early on, perhaps a little too much. The student reviews, while positive, reflected a desire to do more. In fact, it was a hunger. Read more