|
Gannett Collaborative Classroom
When three JMC
professors did a national survey of newspapers and magazines
a few years ago they found that many publications were
interested in using creative teamwork in the production
process.
With this information in hand,
the collaborative hour was born at Kent State University
in order to prepare students for the new work environment.
The collaborative hour is a 50-minute
class where a team of students made up of a photographer,
a reporter and designer combine skills to create a dynamic
story package.
The class was started when the
program still was in Taylor Hall. But Ann Schierhorn,
one of the researchers and leaders of the initiative --
along with Fred Endres and Carl Schierhorn -- said that
building didn't have a classroom conducive to the collaborative
process.
A different type of room and
configuration were needed to allow teamwork to be truly
integrated into the JMC curriculum. The School took this
idea to the Gannett Foundation.
“We have a very long tradition
of working with [Gannett] so it made sense for us to talk
to them about a significant gift,” said Jeff Fruit,
director of the School.
The result of the Foundation's
$250,000 grant may be seen in the Gannett Collaborative
Classroom in Franklin Hall.
“Gannett wanted something
that fit their goals and the collaborative space did that,”
Fruit said.
The spacious room on the third floor has all the tools
for a flexible collaborative environment — movable
tables, fully loaded MacBook Pros and projectors to display
student work.
Future collaborative
hour initiatives will include cybermedia design, magazine
writing and editing, and information graphic classes.
“I think (the
technology) is going to be a factor in our teaching,”
says Schierhorn, “because we’re trying to
teach more multimedia.”
Fruit said the mission of the room is
critical to the school’s emerging learning environment,
which focuses on team collaboration.
“One of the keys to learning now
is that students need to work in groups,” Fruit
said.
Schierhorn said she wants students,
”to walk into that room and have a feeling that
something different is going to happen.”
— Tim Magaw, The Co-Lab
 |
