In addition to our own war stories of dealing with AEJMC standards and curriculum review processes, I’m hoping other educators also engaged in this important work will share their thoughts, successes and obstacles by posting comments to this thread.

Thanks for sharing!

Ex-newspaper industry executive Alan Mutter coined the phrase “journicide” to describe the “looming, lost generation” of young reporters abandoning the profession due to “vanishing employment opportunities and shrinking freelance compensation.” Along with the recession, unethical media industry practices like internships and “permalance” jobs are fueling this trend. J-schools need to fight the media sweatshop mentality. Otherwise, they may have no future.

via Hunter walker: 10 Ways To Earn More Than You Can Working At The Columbia Journalism Review.

This is a great story about how my colleagues on the faculty at American University’s School of Communication have kept teaching despite back-to-back blizzards that shut down most of the capital city. We all got it done using various communication technologies online and really, what else would you expect — we do teach people how to communicate after all. Check it out:

SOC Snow Days | American University School of Communication.

My operating mantra in this is that our masters grads should be able to be self publishers, change leaders in newsrooms or hit the ground running where ever they end up.

There is a wiki linked from Jeff’s post where syllabi and materials are being shared.

Teaching entrepreneurial journalism « BuzzMachine.

Again, it continues to disappoint me that journalists are having these conversations and ad directors and publishers are not more publicly engaged.

Hybrid careers like Dr. Halamka’s that combine computing with other fields will increasingly be the new American jobs of the future, labor experts say. In other words, the nation’s economy is going to need more cool nerds. But not enough young people are embracing computing — often because they are leery of being branded nerds.

Educators and technologists say two things need to change: the image of computing work, and computer science education in high schools. Teacher groups, professional organizations like the Association for Computing Machinery and the National Science Foundation are pushing for these changes, but so are major technology companies including Google, Microsoft and Intel. One step in their campaign came the week of Dec. 7, National Computer Science Education Week, which was celebrated with events in schools and online.

Today, introductory courses in computer science are too often focused merely on teaching students to use software like word processing and spreadsheet programs, said Janice C. Cuny, a program director at the National Science Foundation. The Advanced Placement curriculum, she added, concentrates narrowly on programming. “We’re not showing and teaching kids the magic of computing,” Ms. Cuny said.

via New Programs Aim to Lure Young Into Digital Jobs – NYTimes.com.

Crush It Live at AU with @garyvee #aucrush, A live stream of Crush It with social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk, at American Univsersity. auobserver on USTREA….

Check out the facebook page below to see what all the graduates are doing… they are a very impressive bunch.

Facebook | School of Communication Graduate Programs.

I like to think that we professors are the primary stewards of the brand and champions of the integrity of the degrees. We push our students and pass the ones who deserve the mantle. These alumni represent the best of what we stand for and I know my colleagues join me in saluting them.

John Douglass Associate professor and director, film and media arts, American University

Douglass estimates that hes mentored thousands of students during the past 30 years at AU — and insists that time hasnt diminished the kick he gets out of seeing students learn the art of visual storytelling.

“I enjoy the dissemination of information, actually figuring out how to take something apart and make it understandable,” he says, “and then watch them have the Ah-ha experience … and subsequently turn out really top-rated product.”

And though the tools have changed from film to tape to electronic capture, “storytelling skills have remained pretty much the same but theres been an evolution. Kids who grew up on movies are now making movies, taking more chances, trying more things.”

Douglass, a D.C. native, got his masters degree at AU in theater, and began his career as a director, cameraman and editor, churning out commercial films for government agencies and others before taking a screenwriting instructor position at AU. His students have included Adam Goodman, head of production at Paramount; producer James Middleton “Terminator Salvation” and “Saturday Night Live” writer Max Brooks.

via Mentors: Film School.

American University journalism students blog about….me | The Adventurous Photographer: Adventures in Everyday Life.

Laura is one of the many experts Jill Olmsted is bringing in during an intensive three week session for new grad students before the semester officially starts.  We’ve tapped some great alumni to pitch in:  Josh Hatch is also there and Jesseka Kadylak is blogging the whole thing – which is fun, since all the students are required to blog the experience.

I had them for a couple of days to get their blogs started, register their domain names and give them a crash course in ftp, html, and css. Here’s a quick video hit of me doing the teaching thing:

Universities, where failure leads both to the creation of new ideas as well as the ability to shed old ideas, should be ideal partners for risk-averse news organizations. Here are a few ideas about how journalism schools can be breeding grounds for fertile failure.

via J-Schools: Breeding Ground for Fertile Failure | The Future of News.