50th anniversary for University of Alabama integration brings chance for reunion with high school classmate

As much the 50th anniversary of the integration of the University of Alabama means to me as an African American faculty UA  member, an unexpected reunion after 25 years on June 11, 2013  meant much more.

Vasha Hunt (AKA photo v-man) is now a photojournalist based in Tuscaloosa, where I have been working at the University of Alabama as a journalism instructor for more than 10 years.

But from 1985-1989, he was a student at Thomas Jefferson High School in the West End of our hometown of Richmond, Virginia.

I can’t tell you all of the classes we had together.   But,  I know he was one of the smartest students in the school.  I always looked up to him, even though I recall he was a year behind me in school.  I graduated in 1988.

Yeh, we were in several classes together and there was always a high intensity of work and intellectual activity happening there.

On Tuesday, for a moment I felt like I was high school again as I was shooting photos at the same event that Vasha was shooting photos– the 50th anniversary of  integration of The University of Alabama at the now famous Foster Auditorium.

This sign on the jumbotron is the best marker of WHERE I was shooting photos at the event on the University of Alabama campus, where I am on faculty.

His photos were better.  Check them out on the al.com photo gallery. After all, he does this every day for the largest news web site in the state.    I’m a broadcast journalist (TV guy) at heart.

Yes, I had seen Vasha once before more than five years ago when he was working at the Opelika-Auburn News  (also in the state of Alabama).   Now we’re in the same city again,  but under very different circumstances than our beloved Richmond.

June 11, 2013 will be remembered as the day two friends re-linked and realized they’re working in the same profession.  Vasha, I know you’re been here for months– Welcome to T’town!

Graduate Students Provide Reality Check on Required Blogging in Class

This is at least the third year I’ve had students in my journalism classes at the University of Alabama doing required blogging.

For prospective journalists,  the ability to maintain an online journal is a necessary work skill as one enters a full-time news production job.

Consequently, we here on the UA faculty decided two years ago to start requiring incoming freshman to create a blog in their very first class and do AT LEAST FOUR blog posts over that first 15-week academic term.

In this first undergraduate course, we award extra points when they dress up their blogs with photos, pictures and web links.

We hope they’ll continue to use the blog for classes throughout the major.

Bob Sims, who leads the cadre of content producers at Alabama’s top news

Bob Sims, editor of al.com, talked about the importance of blogging during a visit to both of my journalism classes Jan. 30. He was an outstanding, enthusiastic guest speaker.

web site, al.com, spent 90 minutes with my class almost two weeks ago.   I was curious how much of what he said would stick as the students blogged.

Starting this semester on our journalism department web page, we are going to spotlight a “BLOG OF THE WEEK.”

WHEN BIG KIDS BLOG

This is the first semester, I’ve required graduate students to maintain a web log.   Now that we’re about four weeks into the semester, I am reading over their first few blog posts of the academic term.

I can see what happens when you require something that really ought to be informal or something with a personal flair to it.

THE PROBLEMS

Here are five (5) problems I see from requiring something like this in an academic setting:

Problem #1:  The students think they’re writing for me, the professor

Problem #2:  The students are reporting on what we did “in class” as if the reader was in our class and heard the same instructions that they heard last Monday morning.

Problem #3:  Text-only writing  is boring.  Where are the images or graphics that make something appealing to read?  Most of the blog posts are link-less, destined to NOT Be found out here on the World Wide Web

Problem #4: The posts fail to take much of a stand on a controversial or unpopular issue.

There’s little to argue about what someone said in a chapter of a textbook.  They should be finding something to engage an audience in discussion.

Problem #5: Some of the posts feel like they’re written because the teacher is requiring it, not because the writer actually thinks or believes what he or she is saying.  In other words, there’s no conviction.

Here’s the newsflash:  This is ALL MY FAULT.  Just like anything else, students ?(even very bright graduate students) cannot do what they haven’t been taught.

Assuming these digital natives who spend half of their lives in social media know how to maximize this free, open and flexible web space is a BIG MISTAKE.

We all know what assuming does (hint, hint).

SO WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

It’s not enough to pose problems, if I don’t have any solutions.  I think I’ll address those in a later post here.