In 2009, journalism students at the Missouri School of Journalism had to purchase iPod Touches or iPhones as a required “learning device.” Now the school is considering making purchases of iPads mandatory and the student newspaper strongly opposes the proposed idea. The paper said that the attempt to integrate the new technology failed last time and the school shouldn’t impose any new requirements.
The paper says that students should be able to decide what type of technology they use for their reporting and projects. They compared any type of forced technology purchase to advertising for Apple.
From the paper:
When administrators push every new device in Apple’s product line every couple years, the policies cease to be requirements. They aren’t even friendly recommendations — they’re endorsements.
You can read the paper’s article here.
Do you think students should have to purchase new technologies for school?
Social Media and Copy Editing
By Yanick Rice Lamb, Howard University, Associate Professor/Sequence Coordinator, @yrlamb
Students use social media in their daily lives, but they don’t always think about using those skills as journalists. We are revamping how we teach Copy Editing to place a greater emphasis on Interactive Editing for newspapers, magazines and the Internet in print, on the Internet and on mobile devices. Social media is also a key part of the curriculum. However, we stress the importance of solid reporting, sound editing and high journalistic standards so that students don’t focus on speed, bells and whistles at the expense of quality.
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