Our colleague at Fablevision, Peter Reynolds, lead an interactive investigation with actor Eric Close at the National Educational Computing Conference to demonstrate how technology can impact learning and excite children about education. The event was hosted by Verizon Foundation's Thinkfinity.org, which offers elementary through high school teachers resources across eight academic disciplines, from science to English to mathematics, to improve student achievement. Peter, well-known for the children's books "The Dot," and "Ish" among the array of fabulous and creative Fablevision products, said: "My mission is to inspire creativity and self-expression - and so I'm continually exploring new ways to invite young people to the literacy party...Technology has opened exciting new doors for classrooms to produce digital film makers, animators, staff writers, and publishers - preparing them to be the next-generation of technically literate citizens and employees" Needless to say, we're … [Read more...]
The transformation of journalism
A friend in the news industry sent me this blog posting by Robert Niles (USC Journalism School) that I just got around to reading, "When journalists hate journalism" Niles’ reports that unlike other industries, such as music, where professionals in the industry are the biggest fans of the industry, that: Many journalists despise TV news. They hate watching it, they hate producing it, and, given the opportunity, they turn it off and ignore it. My journalism students this semester went off on this topic in class one day, raging about the rigid format, the simplistic reporting and cynicism that they found in TV news reports. I had assigned my students to produce a multisource, multimedia feature story on a topic of their choice. Several incorporated video segments, and the influence on these students' video storytelling was clear... It turned out to be the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, and The Onion.. When asked why not local or cable news, the students complained about … [Read more...]
