Courses I teach:
Mass Communication Teaching (MMC 6930)
The course is designed to help graduate students be more effective teachers and be better prepared for faculty jobs in higher education. Students teach class, develop a semester-long undergraduate course (including syllabus and assessment materials), and create an online teaching portfolio.
My interest in helping graduate students be better prepared to teach led to me being invited to be a presenter for the past 12 years at the University of Florida's Orientation for New Graduate Teaching Assistants and being selected to serve on UF Graduate Student Teachers Awards Selection Committee.
Multimedia Writing (JOU 3109c)
I teach the lecture portion of Multimedia Writing and coordinate the writing labs for this required course for journalism and public relations majors. I enjoy working with the undergraduates and with the teaching assistants and adjuncts who teach the writing labs. We cover both traditional media writing, such as news stories and news releases, and Web 2.0 media skills, including Twitter and blogging.
One highlight during the semester is when the students do their own independent reporting on a story with an environmental, health, science or technology angle. Since I've been teaching the College's introductory writing course – first Writing for Mass Communication and now Multimedia Writing – more than 10,500 students have completed this assignment. Many students have their stories published and earned their first bylines. In spring 2012, the lab instructors and I received the UF Sustainability Award in the academic category for the environmental, health, science and technology assignment.
Other Endeavors:
Developing online teaching materials
I worked as part of a team to develop two online courses for Poynter's NewsU. Reporting Across Platforms, developed with Judy Robinson and Victoria Lim, and Video Storytelling for the Web, developed with Robinson and Bonnie Layton, are two of the five courses for the NewsU Multimedia Basics Certificate.
Service to scholastic journalism
I serve on the board of trustees for Quill & Scroll International Society, housed at the University of Iowa, and contribute technology columns for Quill & Scroll Magazine and help judge the blogging competition. I served on the board of the Journalism Education Association, based at Kansas State University, as liaison to scholastic press associations nationally and as co-chair the JEA Mentoring Committee.
I've served as vice-head and head of the Scholastic Journalism Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. I coordinate the division's Innovative Outreach to Scholastic Journalism Award and help maintain the division's website. In 2010, I was selected to be the Honors Lecturer for the division.
I've taught graduate courses and workshops as part of summer programs at other universities, including Indiana University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Kansas State University.