While I am the advisor to our College radio station, WKNH, Keene, I feel compelled to praise our College Newspaper, the Equinox whose advisor, Julio Del Sesto, has rapidly brought the paper in to the 21st century by "getting" that new media literacy means vanishing distinctions between text, video, and audio. His students are "doing it all" and in doing so, preparing themselves for the new world in which connection with the community and the globe is critical.
Hard to believe it was 4 years ago that I did a podcast with our local newspaper, The Keene Sentinel to talk about changes to come. It was 4 years ago that blogger and now Microsoft idea guru Jon Udell clarified the issue:
Clearly there is no essential difference, yet somehow I hadn't thought about it in quite that way. Yes, the methods of content delivery are merging into a single stream. But more profoundly for people working in the various media professions, three formerly distinct skill sets are coming together. It's true that radio and TV people have always had to be competent writers, but print folk have not traditionally had to be competent editors of audio and video, or competent performers.
The Equinox sent a crew of student journalists each with particular expertise (audio, video, text writers, photography) to cover yours truly doing the Penguin Plunge for the NH Special Olympics. Their coverage was comprehensive, including text, jpg images (photos), and video.
I met with Julio's student staff to let them know their stories, photos, and video coverage had been viewed around the world...Mumbai, Kauai, New Caledonia, to name a few. Not only are these students getting the experience they need to build their resumes, they are learning to be citizens of the world.
I also noticed that in Hawaii medical docs are using the web to connect quickly with patients in more remote rural areas using video conferencing (link not available right now). We've been using old fashion email, but why not have our students who are being trained in autism help consult with families in third world countries (e.g., North Vietnam) to help them make intervention decisions. Supervising faculty and students can communicate with families this way (with the help of a translator) and students are empowered...sensing a valued social role which, in turn, ignites them to work harder to learn about autism.
Faculty who are ignoring new media and new technology in learning (most still rely on "chalk talk" and overhead projectors that date back to the 60's and 70's) are missing out on so many opportunities.