“Training” Items

Poynter NewsU Registers 100,000 Users. First Big Milestone

When I wrote the original grant request to the Knight Foundation to create an e-learning program at The Poynter Institute, I put in estimate about how many people would take courses.  It was one of my greatest lapses in predicting success, as I thought we might have 35,000 users by the end of the five-year grant.

After four years, we passed the 100,000 registered user milestone.  In March we launched a marketing campaign thanks to the efforts of Susan Crain of LTV Marketing and Vicki Krueger, my deputy. Part of that campaign involved a press release and a paper called “NewsU Servcs Global E-Learning Audiences.”

We also ran a contest to gather stories about how NewsU change the lives of its users.  My favorite was a reporter at newspaper in the northwest:

“I credit NewsU for helping me do my job better than I could on my own, giving me courage to try new things,” says Sheila Hagar, a reporter for the Walla Walla (Wash.) Union Bulletin. “I don’t feel alone when I take a class.”

One of my goals, not yet realized, was to find a way to create a community around people who took NewsU modules.  I still have hopes that this will happen.

“The idea is to create a sense of community for those who want to share and ask questions of their fellow participants,” says Howard Finberg, director of interactive learning at The Poynter Institute. “You could call it a learning network. Your training should be much more than what’s on the screen.”

NewsU Makes the Connection to Educators at AEJMC

The initial plan for News University, the e-learning site created at The Poynter Institute and funded by the Knight Foundation, was to focus on professional.  We didn’t think there we had much of a role to play in helping educators.  That turned out to be wrong.  And by the time I presented NewsU to educators at the Association of Educators of Journalism and Mass Communications [AEJMC], we knew our e-learning would be helpful in training the next generation of journalists.  Here is a tidbit from the AEJMC Reporter, which was the convention newspaper:

hif pyramid of training reach 08_03_2006
The Pyramid of Training Reach at AEJMC 2006

“Initially, NewsU was about professionals, but we wanted to reach out to the academic community,” said NewsU director Howard Finberg during a presentation Wednesday. “We did this for two reasons. First, journalism students become journalists. We want to get them early. Secondly, teachers need help.”

This presentation was one of the first public showing of my “Pyramid of Training Reach,” a device to help explain how different training methods have different audience potential and different intensity of experience.

Journalists in Charge of Their Own Training

As part of the push to launch Poynter News University, aka NewsU, I wrote an article about the new site for the American Society News Editor publication, the American Editor (November-December 2005 edition).  The key point then (and now) is that journalists needed to be in charge of their own training.

The article explained our philosophy about e-learning and talked about some of early courses, such as “Cleaning Your Copy,” the module created by Vicki Krueger, Poynter director of interactive learning/NewsU.

Here’s what I wrote at the end of the article

Ultimately, NewsU will succeed because journalism will take control of their own training needs and recognize that small investments in time – and money – can make them better at their jobs.

If you want to read the full article, here’s the PDF.

 

NewsU’s First ‘Public’ Beta

Thanks to the support of the Asian American Journalism Association (AAJA), NewsU was able to create its first online group seminar (OGS).  An OGS is a e-learning module that allows for more interaction between faculty and participants and among the participants themselves. Mae Cheng, one of the more forward looking journalists at the association, saw e-learning as an opportunity to provide additional services to AAJA members.  Mae asked about the possibility of working with Poynter on e-learning even before Poynter had received the Knight grant for the NewsU project.  Here’s her October 2002 email to Paul Pohlman and other members of the faculty.  I was the Institute’s Presidential Scholar and wouldn’t join the faculty until January 2003.

—–Original Message—–
From: Mae.Cheng@newsday.com [mailto:Mae.Cheng@newsday.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 11:46 AM
To: paulp@poynter.org
Cc: Evelyn Hsu; Howard Finberg; Chip Scanlan; Al Tompkins
Subject: aaja

Hi Paul,
I hope this finds you well.
Just wanted to check back with you on two fronts:
The first is that our convention co-chairs and I have gone through your 2003 course offerings, and the following list are the sessions that most intrigue us. Do you think there’s any way we can get a couple of these sessions to San Diego for our convention in August?
1. Poynter leadership for mid-level editors
2. tough choices: doing ethics
3. advanced power reporting for reporters/photojournalists
4. collaboration conference: storytelling partnerships
5. enterprise and investigative reporting for broadcast
6. reporting on race relations.

The second thing I wanted to ask you is if there’s been any further
thought at Poynter about partnering with us to offer an online training program. [Bold added –Hif]

Thanks.

Mae

Future of Journnalism Education Speech

I gave keynote speech at European Journalism Centre 20th Anniversary celebration in Maastricht, Netherlands, thanks to the director of the EJC’s director, Wilfried Rutten. The speech [PDF link] gave me an opportunity to build upon remarks I made the previous year at the “Picnic” conference.  I was part of a panel that addressed the future of journalism. I also wrote an article for Poynter Online about the topic.  I must admit that I love this line: “Journalism education can’t teach its way to the future.”

Here’s the start of the Poynter Online article that captures the spirit of the speech:

As we think about the changes whipping through the media industry, there is a nearby storm about to strike journalism education.

The future of journalism education will be a very different and difficult future, a future that is full of innovation and creative disruption. And, I believe, we will see an evolution and uncoupling between the value of a journalism education and a journalism degree.

When we think about the future, there’s not a single future. The future for a 20-year-old is clearly very different than the future of a 60-year-old. Each will bring a very different perspective.

The future of journalism education is linked to the future of journalism itself. Each is caught within the other’s vortex, both spinning within today’s turmoil of change.

There is a video of the speech on YouTube.

The reaction to both the speech and the article were very good, although it was part of a swirl of postings and speeches about the topic.  With the encouragement of my colleague, Vicki Krueger, I decided that this topic needed continued study and that will lead to other reports and writing.