March 1, 2008
Posted by Jen Reeves
Deep thoughts
I’m constantly swamped. It is so easy to do my job all the time that I actually tend to do my job all the time. I communicate with students over email, over instant message, over text message. I also can keep track of the komu.com site over my cellphone by visiting the site’s mobile site or just visiting the page from my phone’s web browser.
With all of this interaction, I still don’t feel like I’m teaching enough. Is that crazy? It’s because there is SO much to talk about and SO much to learn.
This past week I spent the week teaching small workshops on Flash with students. In most cases I worked with three people at a time. The best I can do is open their eyes to the basic functions of the software. If they want to know more, I encourage them to go to campus training sessions or visit places like lynda.com. A successful training session is opening their minds enough that they can “communicate in Flash.” That type of knowledge gives each person the ability to come up with an idea that would help online users learn about a topic. Then they can work with a Flash expert who would be able to understand the journalist’s instructions and ideas. Communicating in Flash means my journalists can envision good Flash journalism by working with an Action Script expert.
It’s hard to accept that I can’t teach everything that is worth teaching. I’m still learning to accept that.
I’m about to go on a trip to meet with some tech “players.” I hope to brain dump some of my ideas and see if they want to play with me. Ever since I started working with Apple on podcasting, I discovered how higher ed and the high tech corporate world can build some pretty fantastic relationships. Then I get to add in a professional newsroom environment where those products can be put to work in a real world setting where we think about profits. It’s a really exciting opportunity to offer. I haven’t been able to play with as many “toys” as I have hoped, but it’s fun to offer a professional and higher ed perspective at the same time. I hope I’ll come back with some cool projects in my future.
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