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Anticipating students’ changing technology preferences


Preparing students for careers in journalism and mass communication is increasingly challenging. As the media industry evolves and the ways in which information is gathered, presented, disseminated and consumed transforms, so must our curricula.

phones84However, this challenge is not just one of “keeping up.” It is also about finding the right balance between teaching the foundations of our craft and exposing students to emerging media technologies, cutting-edge storytelling techniques, and the increasingly important ability to collaborate across disciplines.

Oh, and don’t forget to get the students in and out in four years.

In the Journalism Graphics major at Ball State University, these challenges often leave us feeling overwhelmed. We are faced with the daunting task of maintaining a cutting-edge curriculum that teaches students equal parts of journalistic values while trying to stay up-to-date on software and other tech skills necessary to compete in the digital media arena.

In addition to the fact that industry change and the advent of new mobile delivery platforms continues, it is increasingly tough to provide students with opportunities that adequately prepare them for the media world they will enter after graduation.

After all, who knows what new device or media delivery platforms will surface four years from now? The rate of change is so great that the jobs we are preparing students for are either moving targets or don’t yet exist.

To combat these challenges, we have made room for a few “special topic” courses in our curriculum that provide students with experiential learning opportunities.

These courses are intentionally titled ambiguously so we can be more nimble with teaching content and expose students to technologies and project scenarios that even industry professionals are experimenting with.

One such course, “iMedia–Interactive Media Design” was established in 2006 to expose students to strategies and tools designed for creating content for emerging platforms, such as smartphones and tablets.

The course is always interdisciplinary and involves students from broadcast news, photojournalism, journalism graphics, advertising and computer science. Each iteration of the course takes a project-oriented approach to interaction design for new technologies. During the course, we have explored everything from interactive television design to mobile apps development.

In the fall of 2010, shortly after the first Apple iPad was released, the iMedia class collaborated with Sports Link–the university’s immersive learning project for producing sports programming– to develop a digital magazine app for the tablet.

Although students had little experience with designing for tablets, the team took on the challenge, quickly exploring how interactive, multimedia sports content can be presented in a tablet app. Students developed numerous prototypes, engaged in research-informed design strategies and explored novel advertising models for the app.

Unfortunately, by the time all that work was done, we hit the immovable wall – the end of the semester. Although students immersed in a very realistic design and development process, the odds of finishing the product by the end of the semester were slim. At the time, we faced months of custom programming and app development that we simply didn’t have time for.

Honestly, this wasn’t the first time we were faced with this dilemma. In fact, for several years, the iMedia project–whatever its focus–generally ended with a really well designed, partially functioning prototype. Something needed to change.

Fast forward a little over a year, when Adobe announced the release of the Digital Publishing Suite (DPS), a complete solution for creating interactive and multimedia smartphone and tablet apps. Suddenly the Sports Link project was revived.

Rather than engage in weeks or even months of complex programming, Digital Publishing Suite provided us with a turnkey solution. With DPS, we get our work into app stores and teach cutting-edge tools that take students’ projects into the real world — beyond prototypes.

At Ball State we now have what we call our Digital Publishing Studio where we develop a number of different publications helping us to accomplish multiple academic goals.

First, it allows students to experiment with new technologies. It also lets them work on projects outside of student media. For example, the Digital Publishing Studio creates apps that serve the university, such as a compilation of content for the university’s budget request to the Indiana state legislature. It also produces iLearn, a magazine about online and blended course development published by Ball State’s Integrated Learning Institute.

Additionally, since InDesign is already seamlessly integrated into a curriculum that serves nearly 1,000 majors, we can enhance classroom learning by giving students easy access to tools that allow them to move swiftly from ideation to distribution.

More importantly, after working in the Digital Publishing Studio, many students have attained digital publishing internships and jobs, showing that there is a growing demand for advanced competencies in digital publishing.

For example, Ellen Collier, who is currently a sophomore, worked on the iLearn, 72 HRS, and Ball Bearings publications and parlayed the experience into a summer internship with Indianapolis Monthly magazine. Recent graduate Chelsea Kardokus also worked in the studio as an honors student and wrote her honors thesis about developing the Ball Bearings app.

Her experience with Digital Publishing Suite helped her land her first job, at TIME, where she helps design the magazine’s iPad app.

When she started interviewing for jobs during her final semester at Ball State University, Kardokus was able to show prospective employers the digital magazine she created and talk about the processes and skills she used.

Learning Digital Publishing Suite gave her an advantage as a page designer and graphics reporter by showcasing her skills in multimedia journalism and digital publishing.

The success of the students, underscores the growing need for digital publishing skills. Our studio is the perfect way for our students to cultivate and showcase the skills they build here using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.

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