Photojournalism

Welcome to an online collection of tools, tips, tricks, and what-not-to-do's of online teaching for the Photojournalism Classroom. This support page is dedicated to providing some of the best practices for photography instructors for online instruction and assessment.

The page is supported by Cristen Manion, the Photojournalism instructor at Choffin Career and Technical Center in the Youngstown City School District.

Ms. Cristen Manion dedicated more than five years to a career as a journalist in one of the nation's only remaining family-owned television news stations. Cristen now works to teach her students Photographic Composition, Photographic Production, Media Arts Writing, and Video Broadcast Production. Cristen also holds a Master's degree in Screenwriting from Point Park University and enjoys writing animated comedies in her downtime. For questions or more information, please email email Cristen.

Online tools for teachers

It's no secret that working from home, and learning from home, is a new and challenging experience. Finding ways to engage and challenge students can be a doozy. But these online tools can help get the creative juices flowing.

#1:

An easy and effective way to get conversations started. Simply enter a prompt and allow students to submit a video of their thoughts. Then allow peers to analyze and respond.

#2:

Make traditional research projects visual and interesting by allowing students to create infographics. Let them get creative and demonstrate their knowledge. Bonus points if you print the graphics and use them one you're allowed back in your classroom!

#3:

Have a unit or lesson that requires a lot of vocabulary knowledge? Give students a more visual way to learn through an interactive flow chart organizing connected terms. Or for assessment purposes, let students create their own chart with preselected vocab.

#4:

An easy source of photos to demonstrate concepts and theories, or get students to analyze and reflect on properties of a successful photo. Use National Geographic's Photo of the Day page to get student's putting online theory into a visual image.

#5:

Sometimes the best way to learn, really is to watch someone do it. Use this simple tool to record your screen so students can see the process of importing a new photo, using a background eraser, or anything else. For smaller lectures, you can also record audio and your camera for a personal touch.

#6:

NewseumED is full of online lesson plans, interactive seminars and more on media literacy, writing for journalism, photo ethics, the Bill of Rights and so much more. Book an online class with a guest lecturer for your class, or simply use one of their handy lesson plans (complete with handouts and graphics).

Best Practices

Without the raised hands or the glint of understanding in a student's eye, how do you know they're getting it. Here are some tips to help.

#1: Be Flexible

Many students are taking on roles at home or in the workplace that they've never had before. This undoubtedly impacts their work in your classroom. Know when to budge on due dates or when to give an extra push. This goes for yourself too. Teaching from home is an enormous undertaking, give yourself the flexibility to change up lesson plans and assignments when needed.

#2: Don't Forego the Relationships

In an online environment, relationship building may seem next to impossible. But carve out time to email, Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangout, text, or call those parents, guardians, and students. Make sure they know that even when they aren't in the classroom, you still care about them as a person, not just a student or parent.

#3: Work with what THEY have

As CTE instructors, one of the most challenging parts of remote learning is the lack of equipment with which to teach, Students simply don't have the materials that we have in the classrooms. But with some simple adaptation it can work. While an iPhone may not match up to a DSLR, the practice of finding leading lines, or composing on the rule of thirds, will be much the same. Have them practice the concepts they can with what they have.

#4: Make room for choice

Gone are the days where we can just assign reports or presentations and assume they will be done in class. Where ever it is possible, use the lesson, chapter, or unit as a starting point for two or three assignment options of equal or similar point value. Students are more likely to choose an assignment if they have options, rather than just ignore work that seems intimidating or unclear.

#5: Have checkpoints

Set students up for success with daily or weekly checkpoints. Without the structure of bell-to-bell learning and with extraneous tasks from home, it is inevitable that some students may fall behind. Give them checkpoints and progress points to work towards to keep on schedule and on task. Small goals that lead to bigger goals always seem more manageable than big lofty goals. Try weekly agendas, daily calendars, or project reminders for a start.

#6: Model the assignment

Working from home can be tedious. Learning from home can be worse. Get your own creative juices flowing, and help clarify instructions, requirements, and expectations by occasionally modeling the assignments you are requiring of your students. For example, if you want you students to edit together b-roll and sound bites from home with a standup added in, take the chance to show them some of your home life by doing the assignment too! Here's an example:

A note on Best practices...

CTTE Issue best practices video.mov

Handling the Extras

CTSO's

Find ways to connect at-home learning to things students would be doing in the classroom, and will continue when they come back. Check with your CTSO, like SkillsUSA to see which contests they've changed or updated, what tasks students can work on. SkillsUSA recently rolled out new podcasts aimed at helping students learn from home. Try engaging students in a fresh way through the CTSO's eyes.

Advisory Committees

Lean on those who may help you during this time- specifically your advisory committee. Whether they are in the field or in academia, they'll likely have a fresh perspective on new skills to teacc, new ways to teach them, or innovative ideas to engage learners from home. Use this time to further develop relationships with your advisory committee and discuss current and future needs and thoughts.

What not to do

Take my advice, when transitioning over to remote learning, there is bound to be a learning curve. Here are some of the "what not to do's" of online learning.

Don't tell students assignments are not mandatory or graded
Don't accept unsubmitted assignments or radio silence from students
Don't record lengthy lectures or "talk at" students
Don't give meaningless or tedious tasks just to fulfill a "time quota" for your district
Don't be too hard on your students. Or yourself for that matter. Find the balance of firm, yet empathetic.

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