Small Programs Interest Group 2010 Abstracts
How Facebook Influences Students’ Motivation to Learn, Affective Learning, Classroom Climate and Engagement • YoungAh Lee, Missouri School of Journalism; Saleem Alhabash, University of Missouri, School of Journalism; Cynthia Frisby, University of Missouri • Using theories on CMC integration in education, a cross-sectional survey (N=129) examined the relationship between using Facebook for student-teacher communication and dimensions related to student learning. Results indicated that using Facebook to communicate with the instructor significantly predicted higher student motivation, affective learning, classroom climate and engagement. Results also showed that high use of both Facebook and email for student-teacher communication positively affected the four learning dimensions. Results are discussed within the framework of educational use of communication technologies, along with practical implications for journalism and mass communication educators.
Teaching Journalism as a Liberal Art: Social Justice, Empathy, and Community Decision-Making • Mary Beth Callie, Regis University • This essay relates what I have discovered in teaching community-based learning journalism courses (Introduction to Media Writing and In Depth Reporting and Writing) that are co-listed between Communication (home department) and the Peace and Justice Studies program (major and minor). Both of these courses introduce students to a values-centered approach, grounded in civic and peace journalism, that focuses on how their reporting and writing can serve the college and surrounding community, and inspire their own growth and development. The essay details the structure and assignments that I have developed in those courses to meet students where they are and then guide them through a process of discovery in their reporting, writing, and reflection. I have found that students’ motivation to engage their stories greatly depends on their attitudes, habits, and beliefs about community, service, and the purpose of college. Understanding the decision and policy-making context, values, and multiple perspectives can help with that engagement. As teachers, the challenge is to find ways to understand where students are, to meet them there, and to move them toward deeper engagement.
A Pedagogical Response to the Coverage of Islam: A Wiki-Based Best Practices Document for Reporting on Muslims and Islam • Jennifer Hoewe, Michigan State University; Brian Bowe, Michigan State University; Geri Alumit Zeldes, Michigan State University • A Michigan State University course titled Reporting on Islam utilized a Wiki-based tool that allowed students to engage in a virtual discussion of how to best report on Muslims and Islam. The contents of this discussion were compiled and edited into a best practices document. This article presents an argument for closer examination of the coverage of Muslims and Islam and then discusses the educational importance of the document resulting from of the Wiki interactions.
Reading to Learn: Engaging University Students in Meaningful Reading and Classroom Discussion • Jan Larson, UW-Eau Claire; Amy Young, UW-Eau Claire; Mary Beth Leibham, UW-Eau Claire • Reading to Learn is an ongoing interdisciplinary research effort designed to understand university students’ reading practices and classroom discussions within the context of reading communities. The goal is to contribute to best practices for engaging students in reading course texts and in meaningful classroom discussion that promotes critical thinking and enhances learning. Preliminary data indicate that students perceive reading communities as being helpful in clarifying their thinking, increasing learning, and improving class discussion.
Analyzing Student Writing Proficiency and Assessment Measures in Programs of Journalism and Mass Communication • Andrew Lingwall, Clarion University • This study explores respondents’ perceptions of the writing proficiency of students entering programs of journalism and mass communication, and measures used to assess and improve student writing. Key findings are that regardless of institutional attributes, faculty members are dealing with many new students who are only moderately proficient in writing. This study also established that among respondents, there is no clear pattern in measures used or in the degree of success achieved with those measures.
The Gumshoe Project: A model for collaboration between a small college program and large newspaper • Donna Shaw, The College of New Jersey; Sarah Monisha Pulimood, The College of New Jersey; Emilie Lounsberry, The College of New Jersey • Journalism and computer science students and professors at our small, primarily undergraduate college collaborated to analyze data involving suspects arrested for gun-related crimes. The project helped lay the groundwork for a four-part series in which The Philadelphia Inquirer concluded, as did our analysis, that more than half of all gun-crime prosecutions in Philadelphia were dropped or discharged before trial. The newspaper’s series has led to an ongoing investigation by local, state and federal officials.
I shot a prescriptivist in my pajamas last night: A grammatical disarmament proposal for editors and educators • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • In an economic atmosphere in which do more with less means fewer and fewer people do more with less, would a new look at how journalism schools teach grammar help editors – and instructors – do their jobs more effectively? This paper seeks to find out whether the profession and the academy can agree on what sorts of language basics new editors need to know – and, by extension, which old ones we can discard.
How 2 rite Gr8 leeds: A study of the impact of text messaging on basic news writing skills • Myleea Hill, Arkansas State University; Jack Zibluk, Arkansas State University • Despite of, or perhaps because of, the increased opportunities and outlets for communication, educators and journalists often bemoan the quality of student work. Student deficits in spelling and grammar were found to be especially problematic in a 2004 study of journalism faculty published in Journalism and Mass Communication Educator. According to a 2001 study published in Journalism, new technologies should be used to shape up rather than dumb down journalism education. The reliance on century’s-old techniques, metaphors and explanations – such as the effects of cutting of telegraph wires during the Civil War – may be interesting, but the relevance of such examples are fading in the wireless era. Few aphorisms, old or new, help students acquire the desired writing skills in a news writing class. The following study cuts the wires and explores student responses to using a newer and widely available medium and form of expression – the cell-phone text message and applies it to a standard exercise: writing a news lead. This study examines the effects of using text messaging to teach news writing fundamentals to college students. Early in the spring 2010 semester, researchers at an ACEJMC-accredited university in the Mid-South compared news leads written by students in a traditional method with those written as text messages. Findings suggest that text messaging does not impede students’ ability to write leads. The approach might in fact enhance it – especially in terms of news judgment.
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