Teaching and Professional Fellowship Report 2004/5 : An Investigation into the feasibility of developing a Virtual Newsroom - An e-learning tool for journalism

Abstract

The aim of my fellowship was to put the idea of developing a Virtual Newsroom – an online means of teaching journalism -- to the test. I began work on this idea some six years ago after many years of using computers in the teaching of journalism. At that time, I developed, together with the IT Research and Development Unit (ITRDU), at the London Institute (now University of the Arts London), an e-learning prototype based on the ‘breaking story’ exercise – a fundamental exercise for journalism teaching. In tests on students the early prototype proved to be an effective method for learning journalism skills. The students found the prototype programme a worthwhile and stimulating experience. Teachers of journalism saw it as an innovative way of teaching journalism, but were hampered by the fact that there was no way, with the programme as then developed, they could get behind the scenes to change any of the content, or other elements of the exercise. It was essential then, that in any future development, the programme would have to have enough flexibility to enable journalism teaching staff to easily manipulate the content. It also became clear that, six years on, it was necessary to determine if any new developments in online learning for journalists had superseded my original idea