Tag Archives: Stories and streams

Collaborative learning and journalism – event next week, with Jay Rosen

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Next Thursday I’ll be speaking at an event looking at collaborative learning and collaborative journalism, hosted at Birmingham City University.

Also Skyping into the event will be Jay Rosen, who is exploring similar methods at New York University.

The event comes out of the ‘Stories and Streams’ project, which resulted in the ebook of the same name. One year on, I’ll be talking about my experiences of having used those methods a second time, what was changed, what worked and what didn’t, and what the plans are for next time.

To book onto the event (it’s free) email this booking form to seminar.series@heacademy.ac.uk

Free ebook on teaching collaborative journalism and peer-to-peer learning

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Stories and Streams free ebook on teaching collaborative journalism with peer to peer learning

I’ve just published a free ebook documenting a method of teaching collaborative journalism. Called ‘Stories and Streams’ the method, which was piloted last year, uses investigation teams and focuses on student-driven, peer-to-peer learning. Traditional lectures are not used.

You can download the free ebook from Leanpub.

You can read more about the background to the project here. A research report co-written with Jon Hickman and Jennifer Jones is published in a research report in ADM-HEA Networks Magazine. A fuller report will be included in a HEA publication on collaborative learning soon.

I’m also about to start a new class using the same method again, so if you have a class you’d like to get involved, let me know.

Stories and Streams: teaching collaborative journalism with peer to peer learning

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In January 2012 I was facing an old problem: as I prepared to teach a new undergraduate online journalism class, I wanted to find a way to encourage students to connect with wider networks in the area they were reporting on.

Networks have always been important to journalists, but in a networked age they are more important than ever. The days of starting your contacts book with names and numbers from formal organisations listed in the local phonebook are gone. Now those are instantly available online – but more importantly, there are informal groups and expert individuals accessible too. And they’re publishing for each other.

Because of this, and because of reduced resources, the news industry is increasingly working with these networks to pursue, produce and distribute stories, from Paul Lewis’s investigative work at The Guardian to Neal Mann’s field reporting for Sky, the Farmers’ Weekly team’s coverage of foot and mouth, and Andy Carvin’s coverage of the Arab Spring at NPR.

How could I get students to do this? By rewriting the class entirely.

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