Kent State offering online course for journalism teachers, advisers

Scholastic journalism teachers and advisers in Ohio and around the country who cannot make it to a college campus for additional training and experiences now have another opportunity.

Kent State University now offers an online course worth three graduate credits for journalism teachers and advisers, Teaching Journalism in the 21st Century.

“Ohio’s Integrate Language Arts license doesn’t offer much depth for those really interested in teaching journalism,” said Kent State’s Scholastic Media Program coordinator Candace Perkins Bowen. “This course will help them and others all across the country who want help with their student media work.”

Course content ranges from classroom basics in law and ethics to the latest design and visual reporting approaches. Students will exchange ideas with each other and the instructor weekly, while developing lessons in all areas of scholastic journalism.

Concepts explored in the course include coaching, the maestro approach, visual and print reporting and expanded information gathering. Students make use of the Internet, streaming video, live chat sessions and in-depth readings and projects.

John Bowen, adjunct professor and retired high school journalism teacher and adviser, leads students through the course. Bowen is a former Dow Jones Newspaper Fund High School Journalism Teacher of the Year and the Journalism Education Association’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission chair. He has taught a similar traditional course at Kent State since 1983 and an online class, CyberReporting, for two years through the Virtual High School.

“Supporting scholastic media is important to us in Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication,” said Jeff Fruit, the School’s director. “We know helping teachers and advisers benefits not only them but also their students, who will be tomorrow’s journalists and media consumers.”

Contact Perkins Bowen at cbowen@kent.edu or 330-672-8297 for further information about the course and registration materials.