Shurlds On Cutting Edge At Poynter
By Zane Myers
Lemke Ledge Staff
Journalism instructor Katherine Shurlds attended a February multimedia conference at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., in the hopes of bringing back updated knowledge for journalism students.
The Poynter Institute is a think tank and school for journalism. Every year, the school offers multiple conferences and workshops for professionals to stay current in their fields.
The journalism department saw the need to update some of its curriculum in the journalism field and sent Shurlds to the Poynter Institute on behalf of the department. The specific seminar, Multimedia for College Educators, was a course specializing in new multimedia technologies and software.
While at the seminar, Shurlds said, she learned Final Cut Pro, a digital editing system that can support nearly any video format, and Soundslides, software that makes it easier to synchronize images seamlessly with an audio track. She said students not only learned the software, but also the best way to present it to students to ensure they learn the material, too. Shurlds said she would also like to implement Mogulus, a software that allows a person to broadcast live from anywhere.
In the spirit of new technological horizons, Shurlds did her first blog while at the conference. Her blog contained updates on the daily agenda and her overall attitude and experience at the seminar.
Shurlds said the goal in learning new technology is “not to make it its own thing, but to incorporate it into our current curriculum.”
Even after a successful trip there are still gaps to fill to get new technology up and running at the UA. This software is very expensive and the department is searching for ways to fund new courses and programs.
Shurlds is presenting possible solutions to help ease the burden. She said there is the possibility of students purchasing their own copies of the software rather than expensive books. This would allow students a cheaper alternative as much of the software Shurlds learned about and could be downloaded off of the Internet for free.
Shurlds said her visit to Poynter couldn’t have come at a better time.
According to one of Shurlds’ instructors at Poynter, it is imperative for a student to know many of the newly acquired technologies to even be considered for a job in the journalism field. This semester Shurlds is meeting with the UA’s chapter of Society of Professional Journalists to discuss the best ways to teach new skills to students. She hopes the meeting will result in new journalism electives.
“This has refueled the jets for the last few years and given me more energy,” Shurlds said.
She also added that at the core of all of this technology is still good storytelling, and everyone on the faculty can teach that.