Multimedia education: No pain, no gain
Well, I (and my students) survived their final projects and the inaugural Digital Newsgathering class at San Francisco State University.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it was a fun (albeit frustrating at times) to be the pioneers. In the end, I think we all learned a little something.
Yo Noguchi, a student in my Digital Newsgathering class at San Francisco State University works on his final project. And no, he’s not crying his eyes out because of Final Cut Express, he’s just being dramatic.
I asked my students to blog about their final projects and reflect on the time they spent in the first Digital Newsgathering class. Here are a few highlights from their blogs…
- Sharon Lim writes, “This has been a great semester. My classmates were awesome. I feel like going through all our assignments has helped us bond with each other in ways that no one else can understand!” (Reminds me of the Multimedia Reporting class at KU.)
- Amanda Elliot writes, “As someone who has been writing for years and has only recently been introduced to the largely intimidating world of multimedia storytelling, the production aspect is without a doubt more stressful than the reporting aspect when I am working on a multimedia story package.”
- Kelsey Avers writes, “A piece of advice that I would give to future Digital Newsgathering students… speak with the (person you are interviewing) ahead of time (more than once) and make sure they are aware of what you need for the assignment (BE VERY SPECIFIC!)”
I’m so glad I asked the students to blog about the process of putting together their final projects. It provided me with some valuable insight into their thought process and the challenges they faced.
So now, I’ve got some ideas for next semester and how I can improve the class:
1. Students (and teacher) agree that meeting 2-3 times a week would be better than one long class. But the schedule is what it is for now, so maybe there are some better ways to break up the class time? Team exercises, more hands-on labs. More reviewing and critiquing multimedia stories.
2. What if students were assigned a shift or three in the newsroom as part of class? They could report to the multimedia editor and be assigned to work on a story. The more they practice this stuff, the more comfortable they will get doing it.
3. Shorter, more frequent assignments. More MOS type audio and video assignments to get them familiar with the technology. It’s a great way for them to practice shooting and editing and helps them get over their fear of shoving a camera in someone’s face.
Eddie Hernandez, a student in my fall 2009 Digital Newsgathering class at San Francisco State University edits video for his final project using Final Cut Express.
4. More photo slideshow assignments. I’ve been using SoundSlides Pro (they can use a free trial for 30 days) but it’s great if you can get the app installed in a lab. Totally worth it, I think. It’s easy to create professional-looking slideshows with this tool. The only catch is that students then also have to learn how to SFTP files to a Web server (but personally, I think this is a good lesson and something they need to know anyway).
5. We definitely need to be teaching students where to find data, how to massage it and use it to tell a story. I am by no means and expert with this, but it’s become of big part of my job at BNET and it’s becoming even more important with the all the data that is being distributed via the Internet these days. I contacted Nicole Allensworth, the SFSU Assistant Librarian for Law, Journalism & Communication Studies and asked her to give students a lesson on finding data sources. She is a GREAT resource and has already hooked me up with some valuable information. @nallensworth on Twitter.
6. There was way too much I wanted to cover in this class. In the end, I feel like Digital Newsgathering should cover: basic HTML, basic audio/video recording and editing, photo slideshows and how to find and use content that is licensed via Creative Commons, as well as basic video recording and editing and something about managing a blog or CMS.
Kelsey Avers, a student in my fall 2009 Digital Newsgathering class at San Francisco State University, always cheerful and optimistic, told me that she grew to LOVE Audacity (well, compared to Final Cut Express).
7. Blogging, creating maps, charts/graphs and working with data should probably be part of the online class instead.
I had every student maintain their own blog and required them to post twice a week, but I wouldn’t do it again. To be honest, it was a lot of extra work for the students on top of all the multimedia assignments.
However, I think for an online class, blogging needs to be mandatory. As I’ve said before, it’s a great way for them to practice writing and it’s a good introduction to managing a Web site/CMS.
Sharon Lim, a student in my fall 2009 Digital Newsgathering class at San Francisco State University posts her video on YouTube.
One thing I think worked well this fall was letting the students choose their own themes for their blogs. They had to write about the same topic every week. Quite a few of them chose to write food blogs. It was fun for them because it was a topic they enjoyed and allowed them to easily capture and post multimedia.
One other idea that I considered, and I think would work well, would be to setup a blog under the XPress site and have the students post to it once a week. I would pick a theme for the semester and let them all contribute stories based on the theme. Perhaps a food blog would be a good one to do first? You could possibly even recruit some other food bloggers to read the student’s blogs and comment on them. Although, people tend to commit to commenting but never do. As far as grading the blog goes, I would just give them credit/no credit and not worry about editing them. We might even be able to find a student who would volunteer to be the blog’s editor and keep track of the posts for me and even do some basic editing to clean them up.
Or, SFSU could join ICONN and get a brand spankin’ shiny new CMS for Xpress that could also be used by all the classes.
Another thought, have the students write reviews on Yelp. A great way for them to find their “voice” and practice opinion writing.
Ideally, students would create a basic blog in Digital Newsgathering and post their multimedia projects to it and then continue to utilize the blog for other classes. At the end of every semester, they could decide which projects/stories they want to keep published or categorized under a section of their blog created as an online portfolio.
7. Once again, instead of a book, I would ask them to buy a digital video recorder. I still think for the money, the Flips are great. However, if I were teaching in the spring, I would probably have them get the Kodak zi8 instead. The Wired review of the zi8 is worth reading.
The only reason I would recommend the zi8 over the Flip is because the zi8 has a mic jack.
The big downside is the fact they will also need to purchase a mic, which means they will likely end up spending $200 + for gear. But I would tell them to look at it as a long-term investment, something they will use the entire time they are in school and probably even after they graduate. However, you could also just make the mic optional. I think it would still work good enough for most interviews without a mic, actually, I think the Flip does fine without a mic in most situations. But the mic is a nice upgrade/add-on.
You can get the zi8 on Amazon and maybe even find a used one.
***Disclaimer, I do not have a zi8 YET, but I have talked to other people who have used it and love it. And most of the reviews give it a thumbs up.
So, those are my final thoughts on the fall semester. I thoroughly enjoyed the students and the faculty at San Francisco State.
Feel free to check out the student’s final projects on the class blog at www.digitalnewsgathering.wordpress.com. I plan to leave the blog up and running for the spring semester.
Ashley McDonald, a student in my fall 2009 Digital Newsgathering class at San Francisco State University explains how, “tada, it all comes together in the end.”