Adviser Update Summer 2012 | Page 20

P05.V53.I01 By CANDACE PERKINS BOWEN and JOHN BOWEN yellow magenta cyan black SUMMER 2012 Page 20A Adviser Update Emerging and alternative tools Press rights eachers today don’t lack T course content and lesson plans — more often, thanks to the Internet, they are faced with too much and no clear idea where to start looking or what is worthwhile. So here are two suggestions, both great resources for curriculum that deals with social media and how it intersects with legal and ethical issues and with the First Amendment. They are both easily available and mesh with any number of classroom situations. “Social Media, the Classroom and the First Amendment” was written by Melissa Wantz, English and journalism teacher and online media adviser at Foothill Technology HS, Ventura, Calif. This downloadable PDF guide, published by the First Amendment Center and Knight Foundation, shows how interactive and emerging media can bring interest and enthusiasm to the classroom. Wantz said her charge was to create a guide “to encourage teachers to use social media to help instill First Amendment values.” The content – not just for journalism or English classes – was released for last December’s celebration of the 220th anniversary of the Bill of Rights and is part of the First Amendment Center’s “1 for All” national campaign. The guide’s introduction explains how the Knight Foundation’s “Future of the First Amendment 2011” study showed “students who are most active in social media also have the best sense of First Amendment principles.” Wantz said she chose the three lessons in the guide for their broad interest and “timelessness” and incorporated 12 different social media tools, from the basics like Facebook and Twitter to emerging and alternative tools like Storify and Pinterest. She said she sensed a “tipping point” with educators, who were thinking, “it’s going to be around so how can I use it?” Her guide Melissa Wantz Marina Hendricks Downloadable PDF guides show how interactive media can bring interest and enthusiasm to the classroom includes a section titled, “Before starting: Addressing concerns of teachers about use of social media.” Wantz handles such things as privacy, access to technology and “fear of looking dumb in front of students” in a clear and readable way – including supportive research. This would work well to persuade a hesitant administrator, too. The lessons themselves look like fun: “To Kill a Mockingbird” themes explored through roleplaying Facebook groups and other social media; tweeting about immigration experience in New York tenements in the 1890s, based on Jacob Riis’ “How the Other Half Lives;” and a currentevents-based lesson using a wide range of social media. Each of these lessons comes with all the necessary handouts and extra DOWNLOADS “Social Media, the Classroom and the First Amendment” http://www.knightfoundation.org/press-room/other/classroomguide-first-amendment-digital-age/ “The Social Media Toolbox: A Resource for Student Journalism Programs” http://hendricksproject.wordpress.com/ links of information – plus the appropriate teaching standards. “These kinds of an assignment create a relevant experience,” Wantz said. “Students write better and longer when they are being engaged by the real work, not just (by the) teacher. It ratchets up the interest level immediately.” The second resource is “The Social Media Toolbox: A Resource for Student Journalism Programs,” a website with lesson plans, links and other support materials, by Marina Hendricks, director of communications, Newspaper Association of America. (FULL DISCLOSURE: Hendricks created this as her master’s professional project in the online Journalism Educator sequence in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State University. The Bowens developed this program and still oversee it.) Hendricks’ selection of this project came from the interest and concern she had seen on the JEAHELP email distribution list. “My experience as a teen editor for a local newspaper showed me that young people can, and do, practice responsible journalism,” she said. “I wanted to give students and their advisers a tool to help them navigate the transition into social media.” Hendricks’ Toolbox site has a complete unit for implementing social media, for those deciding how – and if – they want to use it to those further along in the decision process who need to be finetuning a policy. “Lessons can be used together or one-on-one, depending on the needs of student journalists and their programs,” Hendricks said. Each lesson has the necessary presentations, links and resources to help the teacher. Other topics include related legal issues, logistics of adding social media to the current publication structure, plus the issue of cyberbullying, and an introduction to two of the most popular social media channels (Facebook and Twitter). Hendricks also adds regularly to the site’s “reading list” of articles about social media and its blog and even plans to add more lessons. Candace Perkins Bowen, MJE, directs the Center for Scholastic Journalism and the Ohio Scholastic Media Association and is an assistant professor at Kent State University. She can be reached at School of JMC, 201B Franklin Hall, Kent, OH 44242. Phone: [phone]. Email: [email protected]. John Bowen, MJE, chairs the JEA Scholastic Press Rights Commission. He is an adjunct professor in journalism at Kent State University. He can be reached at School of JMC, 201B Franklin Hall, Kent, OH 44242. Phone: [phone]. Email: [email protected].