Blogging live from class!

I am blogging live from my class.

Testing SnagIt

Now I'd like to test out software we just received for the paper--SnagIt. I have used this minimally on my own, but I'd like to see if I can post it here. If I can post an interactive map, say, here, then the paper perhaps can, too.

bgcolor="false" quality="high"
width="250" height="125"
TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash"
pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer/">


So, that evidentally did not work!
Can I paste it as an image?

Just One Step Ahead of My Students

Make that half a step. Or maybe one step behind. Whatever it is, I seem to be learning right alongside my students. I've just given them an assignment to build a Sprout, so naturally, that means I have to try my own. I just did one, but am now having difficulty posting it on my school Web page. But perhaps I can post it here:

Yay--that worked. So, I re-assert: One step ahead.

Video Blog

My Jour 121 are underway with their themed blogs, and the next assignment they have due--this Friday--is to video an interview with someone and post it to their blog. The interview has to be related to the blog's overall theme. One way they might to this is by linking their video to YouTube. So far, the stumbling block for me posting a test movie is that I don't have the right format on any of my videos. As I've said before, none of this is easy. I seem to be having a steep learning curve.

Okay, maybe this will work. I'm trying something with a test "film" I'll call Dirty Desk, using Google Pages.

It works but sends viewers to view the test movie in a separate Windows Player window.

The best thing is to upload it directly to YouTube and embed it here.

Action

The semester is underway and, as promised, I added blogs to the required assignments for my newswriting classes. They seem to have embraced the technology very easily, and they've already posted not only a blurb introducing themselves, but also a profile of a classmate. I'm feeling pretty good about it.

And the newspaper staff has already broken one story online on the tragic death of one of our students, as well as posted a narrated slideshow of the MLK march in S.F.

Giving it a Whirl

One of the first assignments my students will tackle this semester is a spin on the classmate interview that I've previously had them do. This time, they will post it to their blogs and (hopefully) to our wiki site. This time, I'll ask them to post a picture of their classmate as well. I've posted my picture here as an trial run in doing this task.

Teaching the Teacher

A new semester is just about upon me, and I've got my work cut out! Essentially, I've reformatted my newswriting class to better match what my students now must know. The first thing to go was the title; it's now called Writing and Reporting for the Media. This semester, my goal is that they learn not just the basics of newswriting and reporting, but how to translate some of that to reporting for electronic and new media. Of course, they'll blog. And this will transform some of the assignments I've given in the past. For one, I've always given them a taste of publishing by having them doing a story on a classmate, compiled by me into a newsletter for the class. This semester, they'll post these to a wiki site or a blog--haven't decided yet. So, you see, I'll have my work cut out every step of the way--but I think it'll be fun.