AEJMC Update

I am attending the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) conference in Denver. It's "the" event for professors of journalism and communication. For those who are Twitter literate, I've been updating you on the conference via hashtags: AEJMC, AEJMCSM and AEJMCSITE

Needless to say, two years of conducting interview series on the future of journalism have thoroughly prepared me for this conference. Professors are struggling with the same issues we have been discussing on OurBlook, including:

- How to best change the curriculum so that students are receiving a good foundation in journalism while learning the new media skills they need to be successful.

 - How to make the classroom more interactive.

 - How to personally survive the digital tsunami.

 And, most importantly, how to do this while facing major budget cuts at their respective schools.

 Panelists had some good points, including:

 - Currently, schools need people who know more than the students, and are technologically savvy. There may be a shortage.

 - In regard to multimedia, the idea that you can re-educate professors at a weekend workshop is a misnomer. You need people who understand and practice tradigital journalism.

 - Schools need to ask if they ask what type of students they are producing: multimedia journalist, content producer, programmer, or if they are just adding multimedia elements to their existing class (which would be a grave mistake)

 - Additionally, and most importantly, many panelists kept on repeating that learning software is not important - knowing how to report is still the most important skill employers are looking for.

I have also learned of some cool initiatives: 

Mike Boettcher, a Gaylord Visiting Professor, will report for ABC News from Afghanistan and will work with University of Oklahoma students to produce multimedia content. The group will cover in-depth, personal stories about U.S. personnel deployed in Afghanistan.

Poynter has a syllabus exchange resource center. This is an awesome way for professors to help each other out.  www.newsu.org/tools

 Also, it's my pleasure to announce that AOL will be hiring thousands of journalists for their new Patch network. www.patch.com/jobs

I will continue to update everyone with new discoveries. If you have a specific question, please tweet me @ourblook.com

 -- Sandra Ordonez