News about the activities of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas
Knight Center Enrolls 2,000th Journalist in an Online CourseKnight Center Enrolls 2,000th Journalist in an Online Course
By JENNIFER POTTER-MILLER
It took five years for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas’ distance learning program to reach its first 1,000 journalists in the hemisphere with short training courses entirely on the Internet, but it took only 18 months to welcome the next thousand. The Knight Center recently enrolled its 2,000th student.
The Knight Center has been a pioneer in the use of the Internet in training programs for journalists. Since 2003, it has offered 55 courses from issues as diverse as Mathematics for Journalists, The Role of the Editor, How to Write for the Web, Electoral Coverage and Democracy, Journalism 2.0, and Advanced Digital Tools for Investigative Journalism.
Reporters, editors, producers, journalism professors, and journalism students from all countries in Latin America and most nations of the Caribbean have taken Knight Center courses, which typically last from four to six weeks.
The Knight Center enrolled its 1,000th student in February 2008, and reached the next 1,000 during the 2008-2009 North American academic year. Between September 2008 and August 2009 the Center offered 18 courses, and there are currently 150 students enrolled in the last two courses of the year: Covering Drug Trafficking (for Mexican journalists only), taught by Àlvaro Sierra, a professor at the United Nations' University for Peace in San José, Costa Rica; and Advanced Digital Tools for Investigative Journalism, taught by Sandra Crucianelli, an internationally known journalist and instructor based in Bahia Blanca, Argentina.
Since 2003, the Knight Center partnered with the Brazilian Association for Investigative Journalism, Colombian Newsroom Council, Mexican Center for Journalism and Public Ethics, and several other organizations to offer online courses. It has worked with 12 instructors based in the Colombia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Brazil, and the United States. The majority of classes have been taught in Spanish, followed by Portuguese and English.
Methodology
The distance education program uses an innovative platform built on Moodle, an open-source course management system. Courses take full advantage of multimedia with video lectures, chats, discussion forums, audio slideshows, self-paced quizzes, and other collaborative learning tools. The flexibility of the Knight Center’s courses attracts journalists who lack opportunities or time to pursue professional development in more traditional ways.
“The purpose of the program is to bring quality professional training to journalists from Latin America and the Caribbean without the constraints of time and space that comes with the more traditional education programs,” said Rosental Calmon Alves, director of the Knight Center. “This method goes much more in-depth than traditional workshops given in newsrooms during a couple of days or even a week.”
In addition to serving as a training ground for journalists for seven years, the Knight Center’s distance learning program has also led to the creation of several informal networks of journalists across the Americas, creating a solid and continuous alumni base.
Real-world applications
Graduates of the online courses often have immediate opportunities to apply their new skills to their jobs.
A student in the course Electoral Coverage and Democracy (January 2009) said, “the course gave me many tools for a more complete analysis and better journalistic coverage of the elections. One fundamental lesson was that while researching, interviewing, and writing, we must think first of our readers, and the topics that affect citizenship.”
Another student who completed Coverage of Drug Trafficking (April 2009) said, “now I have a clearer idea of the global reality and history of this phenomenon, and realize that although Colombia has suffered a great deal, we are not alone.”
“Besides the immense quantity of digital tools that we learned about,” said a student in Advanced Digital Tools for Investigative Journalism (June 2009). “I learned that we have a new world of opportunities that we must take advantage of to support freedom of the press, and that we don’t need to belong to a news outlet to have our voice heard or read.”
The Knight Center will continue growing the distance education program and plans to offer at least six courses in the upcoming semester.
The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas was created by Professor Rosental Calmon Alves at the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism in August 2002 thanks to a generous donation from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Its main goal is to help journalists in Latin American and the Caribbean who are interested in improving the quality of journalism in their countries. More details with Jennifer Potter-Miller, Knight Center Program Manager, at +1 512 471 1391 or via email to KnightCenter at austin.utexas.edu.
Added Jul 31, 10:40, 2009
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