While it’s true I am a graduate student this summer, these days I mostly think of myself as a journalism instructor, which is how I wound up at Poynter’s Teachapalooza 2013 and how I came home with more homework than I know what to do with.
See, part of teaching is always learning. That was the key point of several speakers at the three-day conference in St. Petersburg. And part of that learning is studying and reading about new technologies for teaching and for storytelling.
But lest you think I’m complaining, I’m excited to do this homework, because it involves experimenting with some pretty cool looking tools and websites, including Meograph, hackshackers.com and bump, among many others. Also, at the conference I won a copy of Roy Peter Clark’s new book, “How to Write Short.” (Coming out this fall.) That’s on my (going by quickly) summer list now, as is the new book by NPR’s Andy Carvin. I also really want to read “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains” by Nicholas Carr. After all, isn’t reading what summer is for? I also will be reviewing some texts for a journalism ethics class I’m scheduled to teach in the spring, so let me know if you’ve read something really dynamic in that arena lately.
I’ll probably post in a week or two about what apps/programs/books I liked and which ones I think will work for teaching.
In the meantime, you can read more about the conference in this Storify curation I just posted.
[View the story “Amid new tools, journalism instructors must focus on basics” on Storify]