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Journalism education cannot teach its way to the future

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Poynter Institute - By Howard Finberg - Jun. 16 (Opinion) - As we think about the changes whipping through the media industry, there is a nearby storm about to strike journalism education. The future of journalism education will be a very different and difficult future, a future that is full of innovation and creative disruption. And, I believe, we will see an evolution and uncoupling between the value of a journalism education and a journalism degree. When we think about the future, there’s not a single future. The future for a 20-year-old is clearly very different than the future of a 60-year-old. Each will bring a very different perspective. The future of journalism education is linked to the future of journalism itself. Each is caught within the other’s vortex, both spinning within today’s turmoil of change. The disruption in the economic models of news organizations, rippling out from the United States to Europe and elsewhere, is well documented.

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How to Use the Internet Wisely, for Your Health and Your Country's

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Howard Rheingold - May. 13 (Opinion) - Use the following methods and tools to protect yourself from toxic bad info. Use them and then pass them along to others. Promote the notion that more info literacy is a practical answer to the growing info pollution. Be the change you want to see. Although the Web undermines authority (by enabling anybody to publish), authority is still useful as one clue to credibility in a detective hunt that accounts for many other clues. Claims to authority, however, need to be questioned. I might add credibility to my assessment if a source is a verified professor at a known institution of higher learning, an authentic MD or PhD, but I would not subtract it from people without credentials whose expertise seems authentic. If you are going to grant credibility to people whose expertise is based on being a professor of something, make sure that assertion is accurate. Don't stop at simply verifying that the claim to be a professor is valid if you are looking for scientific credibility. The next step is to use the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index that derives a score from the scholar's publications, citations by other scholars, grants, honors, and awards. If you want to get even more serious, download a free copy of Publish or Perish software, which analyzes scientific citations from Google Scholar according to multiple criteria. Or use the h-index to calculate how many times other scientists have cited a particular source. Again, don't trust just one source; triangulate.

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How the five web literacies are becoming essential survival skills

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Nieman Journalism Lab - By Justin Ellis - May. 13 (News Report) - Howard Rheingold isn’t too concerned about whether Google is making us stupid or if Facebook is making us lonely. Those kind of criticisms, Rheingold says, miscalculate the ability humans have to change their behavior, particularly when it comes to how we use social media and the Internet more broadly. “If, like many others, you are concerned social media is making people and cultures shallow, I propose we teach more people how to swim and together explore the deeper end of the pool,” Rheingold said Thursday. Rheingold was visiting the MIT Media Lab to talk about his new book, Net Smart: How to Thrive Online, which examines how people can use the Internet not just to better themselves, but also society as a whole. Rheingold has a longer online history than most, going back to The WELL, one of the first online forums back in the 1980s. Ever since writing about that experience, Rheingold has developed a habit for dropping the kind of book that not just probes what it means to be online, but charts what that means for all of us.

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The Art of Getting Net Smart

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Forbes - By Shel Israel, Howard Rheingold - Apr. 29 (Opinion) - Howard Rheingold is a teacher, thinker, futurist and grower of the tallest sunflowers I have ever seen. He’s one the most profound thinkers of what happens online and how it changes the world. Just about every ten years, he checks in with a new book that seems to chart the course for the next decade or so. In 1993, he wrote The Virtual Community , which portended a world where people would share friendship and information with each other online, just as the first browser for the worldwide web was being popularized.

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Howard Rheingold: Knowing How to Collaborate Is Essential

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - By Roland Legrand - Mar. 17 (Interview) - I just read the Kindle edition of "Net Smart," written by writer and critic Howard Rheingold. The book provides a thoughtful analysis of some major theories and discourses about the "always on" era, while at the same time giving new insights and practical advice about the literacies we need to thrive in this environment. I've followed Rheingold's posts and videos for some time now, attended presentations, and participated in some of his courses. He's not only an expert in virtual communities (a term he coined himself) and social media, but also teaches digital journalism. I had the opportunity to interview him recently about the implications of his thinking on media, journalism and journalism education.

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Providence Equity to Buy Blackboard for $1.64 Billion in Education Deal

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 08:36:10 -0700

Bloomberg - By Douglas MacMillan - Jul. 01 (News) - Providence Equity Partners Inc. agreed to buy Blackboard Inc. (BBBB), a maker of online educational software, for $1.64 billion. Providence will pay $45 a share in cash for Washington- based Blackboard, the companies said in a statement today. The price represents a 21 percent premium over Blackboard’s closing price on April 18, the day before the company said it would evaluate strategic alternatives, the companies said.

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ARTINFO: 'Jeff Koons Must Die!!!' & 4 Other Art Video Games You Can Actually Play

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Artinfo - Apr. 23 (News) - In Hunter Jonakin's "Jeff Koons Must Die!!!" the player must destroy the artist's work with a rocket launcher. / Courtesy of the artist With the Smithsonian set to crown video games the latest institutionally-ratified art

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More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Trip Gabriel - Apr. 09 (News Report) - Jack London was the subject in Daterrius Hamilton’s online English 3 course. In a high school classroom packed with computers, he read a brief biography of London with single-paragraph excerpts from the author’s works. But the curriculum did not require him, as it had generations of English students, to wade through a tattered copy of “Call of the Wild” or “To Build a Fire.”

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Digital Textbook Startup Inkling Nabs ‘Multi-Million Dollar’ Investment From McGraw-Hill And Pearson

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TechCrunch - By Leena Rao - Mar. 22 (Opinion) - Inkling, a startup that develops an innovative digital textbook platform, has scored a ‘multi-million dollar investment from educational content giants McGraw-Hill and Pearson. Inkling’s technology delivers interactive textbooks that include the ability to collaborate, add multimedia and communicate within content. The startup adds another layer to online textbooks by adding 3-D objects, video, quizzes, and even social interaction within the content.

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Breaking: Web Not Corrupting Our Youth After All

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Kevin Drum - Sep. 15 (News Report) - The Washington Post reports today on a new study by Sandra Hofferth, director of the Maryland Population Research Center, which concludes that it's OK for kids to spend lots of time on their computers: In what researchers describe as one of the first long-term looks at the effects of media use during childhood, a study released Wednesday linked hours at the computer with achievement test scores and behavior and found little sign of harm for children ages 6 to 12 as they increased their screen time over a six-year period.

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U-Md. researcher links kids' computer use with test scores, behavior

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Donna St. George - Sep. 15 (News Report) - In what researchers describe as one of the first long-term looks at the effects of media use during childhood, a study released Wednesday linked hours at the computer with achievement test scores and behavior and found little sign of harm for children ages 6 to 12 as they increased their screen time over a six-year period.

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Rise in Distance Enrollments

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Inside Higher Ed - By Scott Jaschik - Apr. 06 (News Report) - Community colleges continue to see increases in distance education enrollments, according to a report released at the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges here.

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Online Education Offers Access and Affordability

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

U.S. News & World Report - By Kim Clark - Apr. 02 (Special Report) - The timing couldn't be better. Just as millions of working-age Americans are realizing they need extra education and skill-sharpening to thrive in a recession, a flowering of competition promises to dramatically drive down prices and raise the quality of online college courses.

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Five Ways Amazon Could Improve Kindle

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

PC World - By Melissa J. Perenson - Feb. 09 (Review) - Rumors abound as to the features we'll find in Kindle 2. Those rumors should be put to rest at a press conference on Monday morning, where Amazon is expected to officially unveil Kindle 2. From the looks of the leaked Kindle 2 photos and information, the new Kindle will be notably thinner and less angular--which means Amazon has addressed at least part of the first item on our list for Kindle improvements. So what else could Amazon offer in Kindle 2? The wish list below considers not only Amazon's need to stay competitive with other e-book readers, but also takes into account the competitive pressures Kindle could face from other mobile devices, like the Apple iPhone 3G and T-Mobile's G1 (I, for one, enjoy reading news and books on my mobile handset, and am thrilled by the prospect of a news that Amazon is working on a Kindle book reader for other platforms, too.

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Journalism Education's Broader, Deeper Mission

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

PBS - By Dan Gillmor - Feb. 07 (Opinion) - Accepting an award from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School for Journalism & Mass Communication several months ago, former PBS NewsHour host Robert McNeil called journalism education probably "the best general education that an American citizen can get" today. Perhaps he was playing to his audience, at least to a degree. Many other kinds of undergraduate degree programs could lay claim to a similar bragging rights; a strong liberal arts degree, no matter what the major, has great value. Still, there's no doubt that a journalism degree, done right, is an excellent foundation for a student's future. Even if McNeil overstated the case, however, his words should inspire journalism educators to ponder their role in a world where these programs' traditional reason for being is increasingly murky. Our raison d'etre is open to question largely because the employment pipeline of the past, a progression leading from school to jobs in media and related industries, is (at best) in jeopardy. Yet journalism education could and should have a long and even prosperous life ahead -- if its practitioners make some fundamental shifts.

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Technology not the panacea for education

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Todd Oppenheimer - Feb. 04 (Opinion) - Now that Arne Duncan, President Obama's new education secretary, has presented the administration's $150 billion plan for reviving our education system, it's time to start separating Obama's smart ideas for schools from his dumb ones. The first folly Duncan could dispense with - at an enormous cost saving - would be Obama's desire to outfit the nation's classrooms with new computers. His big push for this idea occurred in December, when he said, "Every child should have the chance to get online," Obama said, "and they'll get that chance when I'm president - because that's how we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world."

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India to launch credit crunch £7 laptop, world's cheapest computer

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Randeep Ramesh - Feb. 03 (News Report) - The credit crunch computer is set to arrive tomorrow in India when officials unveil the 500 rupee (£7.25) laptop. In an attempt to bridge the "digital divide" in the country between rich and poor, the government will show off the prototype, low-cost laptop as the centrepiece of an ambitious e-learning programme to link 18,000 colleges and 400 universities across the country.

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Early Childhood iPhone App Says "I See Ewe"

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Wired - By Daniel Donahoo - Feb. 03 (Review) - I think I See Ewe works because it is grounded in early childhood education. The voice over could be heard in any early childhood education setting and the images are bright and simple. The children are given direction and their successes are re-enforced. As anyone with a young child will know, their capacity to quickly understand the touchscreen interface is a testament to human adaptability.

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Distance learning up close

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Ollie Wright - Feb. 03 (Special Report) - Now that crazy levels of personal debt are starting to scare the nation, the economic facts of life tell us that some people will be thinking twice about signing up for university or college. After all, it means you’ll have to fund at least three years of tuition fees, rent, bus fares, gas bills, happy hours and dubious takeaway food.

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Learning Technologists Look on the Bright Side of Budget Cuts

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Ohmynews - By William Pollard - Feb. 03 (News Report) - At Learning Technologies, a conference and exhibition in London last week, there was recogniton that training budgets were under pressure in the credit crunch. However there was also confidence that a strong case can be made for e-learning and increased use of the Web as a means to deliver more results for less cost. Adobe promoted Connect and demonstrated a fundamental switch from Postscript origins to a Flash future, behaviour consistent with the Andrew S. Grove theory that "Only the paranoid survive."

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Sustainability-Themed Video Games Come to the Classroom

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Edutopia - By Brian Libby - Feb. 02 (Special Report) - From global warming to pollution to vanishing wildlife, children face a world profoundly threatened by environmental catastrophe. Luckily, they have video games to help them through -- sustainability games, to be precise. These are a new generation of educational tools designed to help students learn about environmental issues. Ironically, this learning comes courtesy of technologies that many once believed would sap our attention spans and remove us from the very outside world that now needs rescue.

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Want to Get a Degree Online? Get Ready to Work Just as Hard.

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Candice Choi - Feb. 01 (Special Report) - One way to get an edge in this job market is to earn an advanced degree. Just don't assume that doing it online will be easy. Online master's programs are often cheaper and more convenient than traditional ones, but they also present challenges. "You're home alone and have to motivate yourself. It's not the same as sitting in a classroom, where you have a social support group," said Michael Lambert, executive director of the Distance Education and Training Council, an accrediting agency based in the District. Online education is nevertheless becoming more widespread. In 2007, more than 3.9 million students took at least one online course, a 12 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Sloan Consortium, an online-education advocacy group.

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Broward teachers learn a lesson from an 11-year-old

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Miami Herald - By Kathleen McGrory - Jan. 27 (News Report) - Adora teaches class through the Web practically every day. She is enrolled in an online public school so she can spend her mornings instructing others. She delivers her online lessons from a professional-quality studio her parents built in the basement of their home. Adora commands between $250 and $300 per 50-minute lesson, her mother, Joyce Svitak, said. But she often gives discounts or offers free lessons for schools that can't afford to pay her fee. Adora first began working with the Broward school district two months ago. School officials asked her to speak to students at Fort Lauderdale's Sunland Park Elementary, one of the district's chronically failing schools. ''It started out as an experiment with Sunland Park Elementary, just to see if she could motivate the students in reading or writing,'' said Joy Veasy, who heads the district's distance learning programs. ''It was so successful that I brought her back on again to give a workshop for our elementary school teachers,'' Veasy said.

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Partnership for 21st Century Skills Calls for Reevaluation of Learning Environments

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

thejournal.com - By Dave Nagel - Jan. 27 (News Report) - The Partnership for 21st Century Skills released a new report Friday calling for a reevaluation of what we define as learning environment and advocating some sweeping changes in the spaces, tools, policies, and other aspects of education that the group characterized as urgently in need of reform. The report, "21st Century Learning Environments," suggested that the learning environments of the 21st century need to move away from Industrial Age conceptions that "mimicked the industrial forms that had so sweepingly transformed the workplace." That is, learning environments need to move away from a model in which schools mimic factories with their fixed structures, inflexible schedules, and various barriers designed for uniformity as both a means and an end. Instead, education systems should embrace the concept of "whole environments for the whole child."

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Books Can't Compete

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Chronicle of Higher Education - By Mark Bauerlein - Jan. 23 (Opinion) - Here’s a depressing and blunt comment from Larry McMurtry, speaking not only as a novelist but as a bookstore owner (it’s an interview): The end of the culture of the book. I’m pessimistic. Mainly it’s the flow of people into my bookshop in Archer City. They’re almost always people over 40. I don’t see kids, and I don’t see kids reading. I think little kids love to have stories read to them, but when they get to 10 or 11 or 12, they run into this tsunami of technology: iPod, iPhone, Blackberries. They don’t resist it, and it’s normal that they wouldn’t; it’s their culture. I’m not so sure they ever come back to reading. Some will, but most won’t. The tsunami metaphor is apt, and it points out the relationship between books and other media in kids’ lives. The list of options has grown, with books now joined by games, Web surfing, music downloading, Photoshop, YouTube, social networking, blogs, texting, IM, and the rest. Lots of folks think that the environment has grown more challenging and rewarding and enlightening, the addition of digital diversions fostering a rich plurality of texts and images and stories and sounds in which books maintain a central place.

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