The importance of being questioned

The woman asked me "How would you rate yourself in transferring the knowledge to your students?" The question stumped me for a bit since different students

The interview was about the facilitation of the practical component of the Online Multimedia Journalism course at the University of Guyana. I have been involved in the course since its first delivery.

The woman was doing research around the use of ICTs in journalism. I told her the most challenging aspect of teaching the course was that an average of 10% of the students are interested in journalism, and that reinforcing journalism principles required much more work than the ICT component.

The new programme is in its fifth year , time flies and I realised that the delivery has not been peer evaluated.  It has not been easy teaching Online Multimedia Journalism when the Internet is slow in the lab so that the Online part sometimes has to be demonstrated or imagined or left for students to pursue in their own time. I would love to see Guyanese journalists produce content in formats like this from the New York Times "Tiny Birds, Big men:Inside the world of the birdmen of Queens"




The research questions which the student asked were interesting. I had never thought of the course in the terms of  how are the students using the skills, how to measure the uptake of the skills beyond the 'assignment', how to meet the challenge of doing individual skills training in a class of 65 with a range of competencies.  There has always been a call for more time from the students - the allotted number of weeks is reduced by holidays and we have never been able to sort out how to get around that given time table clashes (most of the students prefer evening classes) and the limitations of hours placed on the part-time lecturer.
 

I have asked the students to fill out an anonymous questionnaire evaluation at the end of the course (and after they get their grades  for the assignment) .  The responses this year indicate the range of views of the students.

In a crazy week of managing multiple deliverables and work flows, I was glad that I agreed to be interviewed by the student. It is always good to be questioned.





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