Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
San Francisco and the Amazing Teaching Race: Get Your #AEJMCPARTAY On!
By Linda Aldoory
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Director, Horowitz Center for Health Literacy
Associate Professor, Behavioral & Community Health
School of Public Health
University of Maryland
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, July 2015 issue)
One of the great things about living close to our nation’s capital is the interesting activities you get to see on a regular basis. For example, last week, I happened upon a national scavenger hunt. There was a long line of backpack-clad individuals from across the country waiting on Constitution Avenue to sign up for the day’s adventure and win tons of money. Blue versus green team, families versus singles.
Why can’t AEJMC have a similarly amazing race? Thus, we are proud to present the first-ever, “Professors’ Amazing Race for Teaching at AEJMC, Yeah!” or PARTAY (another thing you learn living in DC is how to make reverse acronyms!). Here is how to play: Below is a list of the amazing teaching sessions available this year in San Francisco. If you attend one session from each of the five categories below, thus collecting five teaching sessions, you win! What do you win? We cannot divulge the top-secret prize until the first day of the conference (since we don’t actually know what it is yet), but it will be highly valuable, I am sure. In addition, we will have set up the Twitter hashtag #AEJMCPARTAY for you to post to when you attend a session so you can share with others what you have learned. We expect a photo, and a quote or two from each session, establishing the fact that you were in attendance. Extra points for live tweeting the entire session! Good luck to everyone who joins the PARTAY!
1. Several pre-conference workshops on Wednesday relate to the new communication landscape. Google, hacking, Facebook, and the digital age—topics of this year’s workshops cover the range of issues that impact mass communication and journalism today. For example, Small Programs Interest Group is sponsoring a workshop from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on methods for teaching digital storytelling and for putting courses online. There will be eight panelists from across the country from both education and private industry sharing expert advice. There is also a workshop on teaching traditional journalistic skills, such as how to teach fact checking and accountability. This session will be 8 a.m. to noon, is sponsored by the American Press Institute, and includes a panel of four industry experts and faculty who will share best practices and sample exercises for teaching journalistic reporting. Finally, the Standing Committee on Teaching is hosting a workshop from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. for adjuncts and instructors on the “nuts and bolts” of teaching journalism and mass communication. This session will include faculty from the committee who will discuss syllabus development, classroom behavior to look out for and how to deal with technology in the classroom.
2. Thursday’s Best Practices in Teaching. At 10 a.m., the Standing Committee on Teaching will host a presentation of the winning entries in the Teaching Best Practices competition. The best cases in online and blended learning include an example of global communication between students from different countries; the use of Twitter to connect students with professionals; the application of social media for collaborative learning; and a look at a journalism history class that used online activities to engage students.
3. Friday’s Big Session on Big Data. Everyone is talking about big data and the Standing Committee on Teaching is having a plenary panel on the implications of big data on teaching journalism and mass communication. The panelists include Edward Carl Malthouse from Northwestern, Deen Freelon from American, Jolie Marting from Pinterest, Thomas Lento from Facebook, and Laurie Thomas Lee from Nebraska Lincoln. Seth Lewis from Minnesota will moderate. The session will dive into the different types and sources of data that relate to our field and the ramifications of using data in teaching and research.
4. Saturday’s Panels on Unique Teaching Topics. Particularly unique are Saturday’s sessions on teaching. For example, the Community College Journalism Association is hosting a panel on how to turn your program into “an experimental lab.” The Magazine and Visual Communication divisions are holding a “Teaching Marathon” with TEN panelists discussing such topics as visual presentation, news literacy, partnering with service-learning organizations to advance visual literacy, and teaching multimedia narrative. Plus there is a session by Law and Policy Division cosponsored with the Entertainment Studies Interest Group on teaching taboo topics.
5. Sunday’s Whopping Ten (10!) Sessions Devoted to Teaching Issues. Starting at 9:15 a.m. and running through 2:15 p.m., several simultaneous teaching panel sessions are being coordinated by several divisions. Media Management and Economics has partnered with Communication Technology on a panel about open educational resources and massive open online courses. The Public Relations Division will be having its top teaching papers presented. Scholastic Journalism and the Internship and Careers Interest Group put together panelists from high schools to discuss teaching digital skills. The Political Communication Interest Group partnered with Communicating Science, Health, Environment and Risk Division to present on innovative methods for student engagement. Late morning, there are three simultaneous teaching panels. The Community College Journalism Association and the Communication Technology Division covers analytics and why it is one of the most important things to teach students. The Commission on the Status of Women and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Interest Group have a six-person panel on teaching gender in journalism and mass communication courses. The Entertainment Studies Interest Group and the Electronic News Division will present their panel on “Accessing Hollywood: Using Entertainment News to Foster Learning and Understanding.” Finally, Religion and Media and Small Programs Interest Groups will host a panel on teaching religion writing and working on religion in newsrooms.
With so many options, it will be easy to join the race to PARTAY and tweet the amazing sessions. We look forward to seeing everyone in San Francisco!
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