A group of students from Living Sky School Division have left their desks and books behind to become reporters, camera people, videographers and social media experts March 29 – 31.
About two dozen students from McLurg High School in Wilkie, Cando Community School and Maymont Central School will be reporting live from the National Congress on Rural Education in Saskatoon, covering everything from keynote speaker Joe Clark to delegates, sessions and related events.
They are working creatively in teams to learn and practice almost all aspects of e-journalism. There will be a live Internet radio broadcast alongside a running blog of writing, photography and video from the Congress. Students are learning the full cycle of skills required to do this.
The goal, according to Educational Consultant Donna DesRoches, who is leading the project, is to learn to work collaboratively in groups to process critical information and opinion regarding rural education, and share it with the world through all forms of electronic media. There will be audio clips, video clips, interviews, articles, delegates’ points of view, music, and live broadcasting from the Rural Congress, all accessible through the website they are setting up. A great deal of work was done in advance of the event, as the students were receiving training around these skills from a team of teachers and coaches, including Shawn Whyte, Judy Enns and Ryan Nickell.
Tweeting and Facebook, now in common daily use by many people, especially youth, will be updated in real time throughout the conference, both for those who cannot be there, and even for those who are. It will be possible for delegates to experience every session, even the ones they are unable to attend, and gain perspective from all the presenters and participants.
In the end it is the students themselves who will gain the most from this experience, as they develop skills, both technical and interpersonal, to bring the Congress on Rural Education to the larger world in a 21st century way. Follow their journalism journey on their blog at http://lskyejournalism.blogspot.ca/. You will also be able to access their Facebook page, Twitter feed and their live radio broadcasts from their blog.
