I found out today that I have been selected for the John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford. I am beyond thrilled. This fellowship will allow me to work with the outstanding journalists from around the world who make up the rest of the fellowship class. My goal is to work on a program to provide coding skills to journalists, so I intend to build upon my programming knowledge by taking additional computer science and design courses. At Stanford. I know. Unbelievable. It’s the place where Yahoo and Google were founded. In the heart of Silicon Valley, it’s in close proximity to the companies that have forever changed media, including Facebook, Twitter and, of course, Apple.

I have many people to thank for getting me here. I am forever indebted to the respected professionals who supported my applying for this program, including Aron Pilhofer of The New York Times, Evan Smith of Texas Tribune and Zach Ryall of the Austin American-Statesman. I am deeply grateful for the support of my program, particularly that of my director Judy Oskam. I received invaluable advice from Rosental Alves who leads the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at The University of Texas, as well as past Knight Fellows Burt Herman of Storify, Djordje Padejski, Nuno Vargas and Justin Ferrell. And, I received strong moral support from countless students, friends and family, as I relayed the process to them throughout the semester. I appreciate all the good vibes and pep talks from everyone!

I should describe the path that took me to this fellowship, because I think it is a good exercise in connecting the dots. I first became interested in applying for the Stanford Knight Fellowship when I met Dawn Garcia, the deputy director of the program, at the International Symposium in Online Journalism here in Austin in April 2012. Dawn introduced herself to me and said she followed me on Twitter. I was flattered that she had been paying attention to my work at Texas State and that kicked off our dialogue. I spoke to Dawn about the fellowship then and at the Online News Association conference last fall. Those discussions led me to submit my application earlier this year, which ultimately led to an interview visit to Stanford in March and today’s news! So for anyone who thinks that Twitter doesn’t have value or that conferences are a waste of time, let this be an example. The ISOJ event has been particularly beneficial in terms of fostering many of my most productive and enriching professional and personal relationships, and for that, I am additionally grateful to Rosental Alves and his team who put on the symposium each year.

I am very proud of my own accomplishments. But let’s face it, no one achieves anything on their own. We are all the result of the people who support, inspire, influence and motivate us. I am grateful to have so many wonderful people who have taken notice and expressed an interest in my work and goals.

I am appreciative beyond words to the people who run the Stanford Knight Fellowship, including Dawn Garcia, director Jim Bettinger, innovation director Pam Maples and all who were involved in the interview process. I am so excited for this opportunity to collaborate with other professionals in helping move the skill sets of journalists and journalism students forward to reflect the evolving needs of the field. I will miss my beloved Austin for the ten months that I will be away, but there will be visits throughout the year and constant online connection. And, I know I will return reinvigorated from all the new experiences.

I am so looking forward to beginning this adventure.

TXST student Philip Hadley will long remember posing for this photo with keynote speaker Mark Zuckerberg at Iron Works BBQ in 2008

South By Southwest Interactive (SXSW) – I have attended SXSW since 2005 and have led a student reporting project of the event at SXTXState.com for the past six years. I have presented at or been asked to lead official SXSW events for the past five years. I can say unequivocally that there is no one event that has informed and influenced my approach to media more than SXSW. Its value to me is in my being exposed to big thinkers, big ideas and technology tools, platforms and trends. My students and I have been in the audience to hear from tech luminaries that include Craig Newmark, Jimmy Wales, Mark Zuckerberg, Internet pioneer Bob Metcalfe, Marissa Mayer (before she took the reins at Yahoo), Gary Vaynerchuk, Kathy Sierra, Lawrence Lessig, Chris Anderson of Wired (at the time) and many more. This year alone, we saw Tim Berners-Lee, Elon Musk, Chad Hurley of YouTube, David Karp of Tumblr, Matthew Inman of the Oatmeal among many other distinguished guests and attendees.

Emily Lyons interviews David Karp, CEO of Tumblr, at SXSW 2013

We were present when Twitter tipped (I first joined Twitter during SXSW 2007) and when Foursquare and Gowalla were introduced. We have seen the Interactive portion of the festival go from a manageable 8,000-9,000 attendees to more than 30,000. We’ve watched discussions on breakthrough technologies, as far back as the advent of CSS to Web frameworks to iOS programming to responsive design to the “learn to code” revolution. Journalism as a track was added to SXSW in the ensuing years that I have been attending. I have been encouraged to see people like Jill Abramson, David Carr, Jeff Jarvis, Evan Smith, John Keefe, Bill Adair, Jim Brady, Burt Herman and Brian Stelter featured. I’ve been on panels with data journalism innovators Aron Pilhofer, Tyson Evans and Matt Waite. My students used Storify during SXSW when it was still in beta. It’s been a strong confirmation that SXSW is not just a tech conference, a developer conference or a gadget conference. It’s a media conference in the broadest sense, and even in its current, behemoth incarnation, it is still the place to learn about (or more importantly, to be able to critique and assess) the “next big thing.”

We begin our interviews before SXSW. Here is Sarah Hopper previewing Bob Metcalfe’s SXSW 2011 talk.

The coverage that my students have done over the past six years is a body of work that demonstrates the educational value of attending this event. And the fact that some of them have ended up on panels themselves in the years following their SXTXState.com participation has been a surprise bonus. There is a culture and a vibe to attending SXSW. Yes, it’s bigger than it used to be. It’s not as easy to do all the things you want to do, and you may not be able to have a conversation with everyone you want to meet (although I have wonderful photos of my students talking with a range of tech rock stars). There are lots of parties and distractions. There are people who are there to only pitch their startup. But somehow in the mayhem, main themes rise to the top, and I try to write about them most years. Here are a few of my wrap ups:

• Impressions of SXSWi 2013
• SXSW 2011 Wrap Up
• SXSW 2010 The Big Picture

Sara Peralta interviews Adrian Grenier of Entourage fame at SXSW 2013

So, even with all the haters, I still feel that SXSW is a unique opportunity for me to think beyond the confines of journalism. My goal is that something about the event stays with students. It becomes part of them and that is emanated from them in all their future interactions. It encourages them to look beyond their chosen industry and seek inspiration in what might initially seem an unlikely area.

SXSWEDU is in it’s early years, but has already become an important addition. This year, the keynote was Bill Gates. And, of course, there are the music and film festivals that just add on to the hoopla of mid-March in Austin. There’s something for everyone at SXSW, it’s not a bad time to be in Austin. Plus, two words: breakfast tacos. It’s expensive for a badge, expensive to travel to SXSW, you have to plan well in advance. And some of these aspects are things that don’t apply to me as a local. But if you can make it happen, I highly recommend a visit to SXSW. If you can propose a panel when the Panel Picker opens this summer and get it accepted, that’s a great way to get you caught up in the SXSW excitement. As a matter of fact, my students’ final assignment for the SXTXState project is to prepare their own panel proposal to submit for SXSW 2014.

International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ) – I was invited to attend the very first ISOJ in 1999, the semester before I started in the Ph.D. program at UT. I remember feeling honored to be included by Rosental Alves in this inaugural event and being a bit overwhelmed by the topics of this new career field I had chosen. Since then, I have attended each ISOJ. I have presented research and moderated panels. I have accompanied students. I have watched as the conversations changed from fear of the death of newspapers to optimism about a digital future. I’ve heard talks of paywalls and advertising models and social media and news startups and non-profits. I’ve seen news executives come and go. I’ve inquired about skills we should be teaching students over the years and have watched the advice go from emphasizing the basics to gaining multimedia traction to learning to code. I have seen the research segment of the symposium spawn a well respected and disruptive journal. No other event seamlessly integrates professional and scholarly as well as ISOJ.

Here’s my beautiful TXST student team attending ISOJ this past weekend.

And, I have met and had engaging conversations with people who have had a profound influence on my career and those of my students. I have much to thank Rosental and Amy Schmitz-Weiss and all the people who put on ISOJ for the wonderful job they have done each year, identifying just the right mix of people, places and topics as they relate to journalism.

And, I am extremely lucky that both these events, SXSW and ISOJ,  happen in Austin! They are different events offering different value. They are an excellent complement as a one-two punch in the Spring. The big ideas from SXSW are honed and discussed and dissected as they relate to journalism at ISOJ. The gigantic nature of SXSW demonstrates the scope of digital media’s domain, and the intimate nature of ISOJ allows for more focused application and easier access. Plus at the $30 registration rate, it’s an incredible bargain to attend.

But I also attend other tech-related development events throughout the year, when I can. During the past academic year, I have been lucky to be able to also attend:

National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) – I have attended NICAR twice over the years, but I hope to attend it as often as possible going forward. I go to NICAR purely as a development opportunity. I was introduced to this event as I became interested in data journalism and programming. The NICAR community is unbeatable in terms of representing the people who are doing the most progressive work in news. I am talking about folks from NY Times, WNYC, Digital First, NPR, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, ProPublica, Politifact, Texas Tribune and more. And, they have great training workshops at reasonable prices. It’s a great place to get a foundational exposure to topics such as Web frameworks, scraping, programming and data visualization.

NICAR takes place in different cities each year. I attended in Raleigh and Lousiville. I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in data storytelling, expanding their skill set and becoming a part of a supportive and progressive tech community.

NICAR is a subset of the Investigative Reporters and Editors organization. I have not attended any of their conferences as of yet, but their national meeting is being held in San Antonio this year, so that’s another central Texas opportunity for enrichment.

Online News Association (ONA) – Online News Association approaches the digital revolution in a broad way, much like ISOJ, but on a much larger scale. I have attended the past four ONA conferences and presented once, on the “If I Were in Charge, …” session. Like NICAR, my attendance is mostly for development and networking. It emphasizes multimedia storytelling, social media and data journalism. I am guessing that more than 1,000 attend ONA, as opposed to 300 or so at ISOJ. They host the prestigious Online Journalism Awards. They also offer great training opportunities by providing workshops at reasonable prices on the Thursday before the main event. They host ONA in different cities each year, usually large cities like Boston, DC or San Francisco. They are progressive in their selection of speakers. I have seen Ben Huh of I Can Has Cheezburger, Dick Costolo of Twitter and prominent blogger Robert Scoble. The audiences for ISOJ, NICAR and ONA overlap, but each has a slightly different emphasis.

Journalism Interactive (JiConf) – JiConf has had two events so far, and I have attended and presented at both. For the 2013 conference, I was on the national planning committee. This event is primarily focused on journalism educators, but has attracted professionals as speakers and attendees. While some of the other events have educator subsets, this event focuses on integrating digital media into curriculum. Topics include teaching multimedia, mobile reporting and social media, and it serves as a place for teachers to begin to learn about programming and data. This group is greatly needed in making sure that journalism education keeps step with the changes in the industry. It also has a research element that continues to grow and be refined. It takes place at different universities each year, so far it has been held at University of Maryland and University of Florida.

We were lucky to get social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk to join us during MCWeek 2009 on the day his book Crush It hit the NY Times best seller list.

Mass Comm Week - I have to mention one more annual event. It’s Mass Comm Week held at Texas State University each fall. It has a long history, dating way before my time at TXST. I have been involved with it since 2008, first as the social media leader, instituting our blog coverage, live streaming and Twitter and Facebook interaction, and for the past two years, as the director of the committee who puts on Mass Comm Week. I have to admit, in the years since I have been involved, I have tried to influence the programming to be more in the realm of SXSW. We have had social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk, Internet pioneer Bob Metcalfe, Brian Stelter of NY Times, Annie Werner of Tumblr, Evan Smith of Texas Tribune, Burnie Burns – CEO of Rooster Teeth, Hugh Forrest of SXSW Interactive, Ethan Zuckerman from MIT’s Center for Civic Media, Matt Stiles of NPR, people from local organizations HomeAway, Spredfast, Blackbaud and GSD&M, and executives from news organizations across Texas. TXST alumni are prominent in our programming. It’s another opportunity, close to Austin, to be able to hear from progressive media professionals. Attendees are mostly students, but anyone is welcome. And it’s free!

So, as you can see, there are many opportunities for development and participation. There’s no need for name calling or unfair comparisons. I have selected each of these events for their unique aspects. There are others, and maybe you have favorites for different reasons. We all have limited time and numerous constraints that demand our time, so we each have to make our own decisions about which events offer the most value, whether for ourselves or our students. There are also numerous local events and meetups (like Hacks/Hackers, ONA Locals, tech and design meetups, etc.) that I encourage students, faculty and others to attend throughout the year that augment what these larger events introduce.

The only mistake is in not recognizing the vast opportunities that exist to advance one’s development and insight.

I am also someone who understands the benefits and sacrifices associated with education. I have spent more than $100k on my education, most of which was borrowed, in order to have the career I now have and love. That doesn’t include the opportunity cost of such academic endeavors, lost income I could have had working a job while I was whiling away in the classroom. So, my education – like that of millions of others – has come at great personal expense and commitment. But my educational experiences are something I wouldn’t trade for the world.

I am reading articles in which others are talking about the challenges ahead for universities in the same way they talk about the challenges for the music, publishing or other entertainment industries. They say we must adapt or face the same fate. Adaptation is an exciting reality of our time. We must constantly re-consider, re-evaluate and innovate, no matter what your field, in order to stay relevant. In this, I wholeheartedly agree. Innovation and disruption have been the cornerstone of my academic approach.

But I want to offer some words of caution as I think about the differences between what we do at a university and the problems of the entertainment industries. As someone who follows closely the challenges facing musicians, I know that the argument for them is often that the old model of mass publishing of music won’t work. You can’t go into a studio, work for a few weeks or months, deliver a product, and live off of it like an annuity as each “unit” sells while you hang out at the beach. It’s the live performance to which they must return. Musicians have to be great live, create experiences that are magical and bring people together in ways that they can’t recreate in an online situation. They must create an engaged fan base. For musicians, this involves touring, and touring is hard work. It used to be that you toured hard early in your career, with the hope that once you “made it,” you could slow down, reap the financial benefits of all those “annuities” and crank up the tour bus once every few years to keep the fans wanting more. Now, touring and all its associations (merchandise, promotion) are the main revenue streams throughout a musician’s career. It’s highly competitive, with the changing tastes, preferences and ages of fickle fans dictating who is in and who is out.

But the bright side is, you can share your music with more people over a broader spectrum. Hopefully they will come to your show when you come to town, and maybe they will share their fanatic love with their friends (probably via social media) to virally spread the word for you.

So, let’s look at how education works. Educators perform live in the classroom every day. They have to prepare, adjust, adapt. They have to try new ways to connect with students. They create magical experiences in which people come together and share ideas. They create situations that are difficult to recreate online. So, I hesitate to rally around a completely online model and move too quickly in that direction without careful thought, when our current model represents the future for other industries. It’s supposed to be what we already do best.

Part of a professor's "live performance" can be in coordinating meaningful experiences outside the classroom

Here are the differences. College students are often captive audiences for core or required classes. For the electives, you tend to find out which profs are better, more well liked, more popular (sometimes via social media), but with limited course offerings, classes fill up regardless of the quality of the experience. So, students don’t have the same choice that music fans have as to whether to attend a “live performance” other than perhaps in their selection of institution or major. There’s not the same competition for one’s time when there is such little choice. Quality varies from university to university and within universities and programs. And the definition of quality can be debated. Is it the toughest experience or the easiest? The one in which you are challenged the most, the most progressive or the one that you adapted to most easily? Course evaluations attempt to measure this, but are imperfect. There are no easy answers, and this is much like defining what is “good music” or the elements of a great “live experience.” It varies depending on the user.

College is an experience in and of itself. Legions of young people have viewed it as a rite of passage: the first time they are on their own, leaving the comforts of family and hometown, meeting new and different people, learning about new and different topics and ideas. There are many aspects of this scenario, like confidence-building, finding one’s passion, self examination, but there is also partying and fun. There is no online experience that will replace this. And, college graduates still make more money over the course of their careers in aggregate than those who do not earn degrees.

Professors moderate collaborations in the classroom that students are likely to encounter in the real world

So, here’s what we have in common with the music industry. The Internet will transform education. It already has. We communicate differently. We approach our subjects differently. Some courses, or portions of courses, are and will increasingly be delivered online. This will change the model of education and will create competition amongst and within universities. The best professors will still be able to do what they do best, delivering lectures, working in labs, meeting with students, developing experiential projects, moderating peer-led activities – creating these magical, in person experiences for students that can’t be recreated in an online environment. And those who don’t do those things will be replaced, in many cases by an online course, that is led by someone who has the skill set to make those experiences as meaningful as possible. Don’t forget, there still has to be someone grading work, communicating with students and creating the content. You can’t just post a course online once and then let it run indefinitely. It has to be effectively moderated and updated over time. I know that some subjects lend toward regular updating more than others, but I would argue that even well established fields like history and liberal arts need innovators in course development. There are always new ways to conceive and deliver.

Throughout my career, my courses have been completely open. I have public websites in which all my course materials are presented. For example, someone could visit cindyroyal.com/webdesign, download all my handouts, do all the projects and learn how to make a website. To my knowledge, no one outside of my registered students has done that. Kudos to you if you have! But the value comes in my ability to work with and assist students in the lab, helping them achieve their creative vision, getting them over particularly difficult humps, inspiring them to solve their own problems and helping them envision a future in which these skills and experiences will be valuable.

In some classes, I have experimented with various online interaction tools like chats and Hangouts. After each experience, I ask students for feedback. Most say that they appreciated the chance to avoid the commute, have class in their pajamas – but most also adamantly proclaim that they wouldn’t want to do an entire class, let alone an entire degree, in this manner.

Research is definitely a problem at most universities. The acquisition of knowledge and contribution to the body of knowledge should be a primary mission of a university. But in many places, research is a grinding process of publication in obscure journals with limited access and few readers. Unlike musicians, we don’t typically get paid for this “annuity,” but we do get the chance to keep our jobs via the tenure process. Unless we publish a textbook or, in some cases, write another type of book, we generally don’t generate additional financial benefit from our researching activities. Grants are another option, but they are typically used to directly fund the research so we can write more articles. And, if not monitored, research can become the driving force of an institution, outweighing the emphasis on teaching. This demeans what is being done in thousands of classrooms where teachers are creating valuable experiences and linking them to relevant knowledge.

There are many people who have opted out of a college education and have gone on to be extremely successful, so college is not the only route. It’s also not a system in which you enter and leave with a single goal in mind. It’s a transformative and soul-searching process that has served many people well. But it is also very expensive and time-consuming. We need to provide the strongest value to what we offer. Some of that will be online, and we can reap any economies of scale that this offers. But some of it will still need to be delivered in person – where students and faculty sit across a table and work out a problem, share ideas or just learn more about one another.

Another aspect of the “in-person experience” is the contacts one makes. I definitely encourage students to make strong connections with professionals via social media, but I also ask that they augment their networks by attending events and making “in real life” contacts. Students can gain access to the networks of their faculty as well as fellow students and others in the university community that can make a difference in their employability throughout their lives.

As I said above, I use online learning for a variety of reasons. I pick and chose what I need – a just-in-time model. This distance education model works well for someone who has a foundation, is firmly ensconced in a career and needs to update skills when necessary. This will become more critical as our workforce needs to respond more quickly to changes. But I also often sign up for in-person workshops and conferences when it makes sense, so I can gain from the benefits of the live experience. I can’t learn everything I need to know this way, but I do appreciate it when I can.

Yes, college is expensive and can come at great personal sacrifice. We should focus efforts on how to make education more accessible to more people over a lifetime. But we need to be careful to keep what we do best and improve with online methods where it’s appropriate. In an ever increasing online world, we tend to cherish the meaningful in-person experiences the most.

Several of our recent graduates have secured positions that highlight their advanced technology skills. Most recently, Ashley Hebler, who graduated with a Master’s from TXST this summer, has taken a position as a Junior Front-End Web Developer at Volusion. Doug Seliger, who graduated in May, is working as a Junior Developer at Mason Zimbler (an interactive agency). Kiana Fitzgerald has been interning at Mosak Advertising and Insights in Web Development and Social Media Analytics. And Ryan Stewart has enhanced his internship at National Wildlife Federation to be a Web Contractor for them. Most recently, due to a connection made last week at Mass Comm Week, recent grad Shannon Delaney has already begun working at Mosak Advertising and Insights, for another grad from our program – Josh Shepherd. Shannon is Digital Marketing Coordinator for Mosak.

What warms my heart the most is the use of the words “developer,” “digital,” and “Web” in these titles and knowing the level to which these students are stretching their technical muscles in taking these positions. It has been a goal of mine to transform our program so that graduates could fill roles that required higher-end programming and data skills. These positions emphasize the skills we have been teaching in the tech realm in our program. I have spoken previously about the demand for developer roles at news organizations as demonstrated at www.newsnerdjobs.com, but these placements demonstrate the demand for these skills in a variety of communication organizations.

All these students have taken most of the following courses which encompass the majority of our new media concentration:

• Online Media Design – a beginning Web design course
• Advanced Online Media (including the SXTXState.com project)
• Content Management Systems - taught by Jacie Yang, this course moves further into CMS customization with WordPress and Drupal.
• Issues in New Media – this course explores history and contemporary issues related to digital and online media.

The photos in this post of the students I mention here demonstrate the range of activities one can expect in our program – both inside and outside of the classroom.

What each of these students has done is to take what they have learned in each of these courses and run with the skills beyond the classroom. They have executed personal projects, sought additional training and secured positions that allowed them to further advance their technological expertise. Another characteristic that I should note is that all these graduates volunteered for leadership roles in our experience learning projects, serving as project editor or leading development in either the SXTXState.com or the TXStateofChange.com projects. Achieving success in today’s media environment requires commitment at this level.

These placements also reinforce the value of offering advanced technology skills in journalism and mass communication programs. While I have touted the importance in closing the gender gap in technology (due to the high percentage of females in our discipline), this shows that this approach is not merely female-centric. The men in our program, who are tech savvy but were not attracted to a computer science major, benefit as well in being able to further their programming interests.

We’ve had a good deal of success getting students into roles like multimedia reporting and social media. But Web development and digital strategy represent the next steps in preparing future communicators.

As always, I am exceedingly proud of what our students do within our program and after they graduate. They are blazing the trails that future communication professionals will be following.

Maira working with Jon Zmikly in our "office" during SXSW 2009.

Today, I have some special job announcements to share. Maira Garcia (Web, LinkedIn, Twitter), who has been the Social Media Editor at Austin American-Statesman, has accepted a position as a Web Producer at The New York Times. This is a wonderful opportunity for Maira and demonstrates the level of effort and talent that she has exemplified throughout her career during and since graduating from our Master’s program in 2009. Maira was also an undergraduate in our program, serving as Editor of the University Star and reporting with the MTV Choose or Lose campaign. As a graduate student, Maira was involved in everything, teaching classes, serving as editor of the SXTXState.com project, helping out any time we had live streams for Mass Comm Week or special guest visits – you name it, and she was there. Maira has been an active participant in the local meetup community, working with Hacks/Hackers ATX and the Online News Association Austin Local.

Jackie previewing my SXSW 2010 panel for the SXTXState.com project.

But that’s not all. Another of our graduates has recently accepted a position in the Big Apple. Jacqueline Baylon (Web, LinkedIn, Twitter) graduated with a BA from our program in 2010. She will work as a News Producer for Project Thunderdome, the Digital First initiative of the Journal Register Company headed by former WashingtonPost.com executive editor Jim Brady. Jackie was not a student in our graduate program (not yet!), but she was one of the few undergraduates that I allowed to take the Advanced graduate class and participate in the SXSW project, so she has experienced much of the graduate curriculum. Since graduating, Jackie has held positions with The St. Petersburg Times and Inside Washington Publishers. As a student, she held numerous media internships and fellowships with The New York Times, Sacramento Bee, San Antonio Express-News and NBC.

Maira, along with other now successful TXST grads Jon Zmikly and Carly Smith Hohl, working hard during Mass Comm Week 2009.

The two organizations that these recent graduates are now joining represent the vanguard of modern media. The New York Times is a legacy media organization that is pioneering in the digital space, and Project Thunderdome is a startup initiative growing out of legacy media that will test the boundaries of digital delivery. We are more than delighted that our graduates have been selected to be a part of these high profile companies. When I joined Texas State six years ago, it was my hope that we would develop and deliver courses that would allow graduates to play key digital roles in these types of opportunities. The talent of Texas State students plus a new and innovative approach to curriculum have yielded early success beyond my wildest dreams. Maira and Jackie were amongst the first groups of students who took classes with me at Texas State. These hires serve as a proof-of-concept to our digital media curriculum and demonstrate a demand for our graduates on a national level. They also exemplify success in terms of my goal to bridge the gender divide in technology delivering higher end tech skills in journalism and mass comm programs and Texas State’s mission as Hispanic Serving Institution. These two graduates are great role models for current students, embodying the potential that exists when one works hard, is driven, seizes opportunities, exhibits passion and is committed to learning. I’m not sure either of them realizes what this means to students in our program. I told my current Web design class today, and they were so excited because they could envision similar futures for themselves. Priceless.

Jackie is shown here during SXSW 2010 with UT's Rosental Alves and Jorge Sanhueza Lyon, now at KUT

I have so much appreciation for all the professionals who support Texas State students. I want to give special thanks today to friend of our program Aron Pilhofer of The New York Times for always making time to meet with and advise students and for helping to create opportunities for them.

Please join me in congratulating Maira and Jackie on their new roles. I can’t wait to hear about their accomplishments in the weeks and months to come. And I look forward to sharing many more announcements like this with you in the future.

I have taken to calling this the Hipster Method of Education (you know, “I listen to bands that don’t exist yet,” thus the above photo). We are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet. For example, Maira graduated with her Master’s in 2009. That’s the year that the Statesman first established a social media editor role. When Maira, Mairin and Carly started with us in 2003/2004 as undergrads, there was no Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. HomeAway didn’t exist as a Web company until 2006. Tools they are using in their jobs every day, like Foursquare and Pinterest, have all cropped up since they graduated. You can see where we discussed this topic during their visit below (see more from the panel here).

It occurs to me that we have not only been training students to use and evaluate current tools and skills, we are giving them the critical capabilities to continue to grow and learn and adapt to an environment that is experiencing mass change. With that in mind, I tried to articulate some of the things we are doing to accomplish this:

1. An attention to technology as it relates to media. I find it important to discuss current events in technology and help students understand the roles the major players have held over the years. This also requires an understanding of the history and development of the Internet, Web and the ensuing companies and platforms. I help them make the connections, so that when Tim Berners-Lee talks about the future of the Web, they know he’s actually the guy who invented it, or when Marc Andreesen starts a new venture, they know his first one was as a college student creating the first commercial browser (Netscape). As I write this post, Facebook is enjoying its IPO, and if we were in class, I’d be talking about the significance of this event as it relates to previous tech IPOs and the future of the company.
2. In many of my courses, I have students start off the class with a news item. Each student is assigned a news day. We spend a few minutes discussing. This starts the class off on a topic of the student’s choosing and allows us to stay in touch with current events. I have actually had students ask me if they can meet with me on a regular basis after they graduate, just to keep up with and discuss technology news. That’s one of the reasons that I set up a Facebook group that allows students from my Web and multimedia classes to stay in touch and to provide connections with students across the years. An offshoot of that group is that former students post job announcements and provide career advice. Many of them have been responsible for hiring or assisting with the hiring process of recent students. It has developed into a thriving and valuable community
3. An enthusiasm for the future of media. By discussing media in a broad sense, it becomes apparent to students that there is much opportunity to be gained as a media professional. This means helping them understand how the skills they are learning can be valuable in progressive tech companies and startups, as well as providing important insight to traditional media organizations in terms of entrepreneurship and creativity.
4. The importance of making things. Students learn to code with HTML and CSS. In our graduate program, they can progress to learn about Javascript, JQuery, PHP/MySQL and Ruby on Rails. In many cases, these are brief introductions with short exercises, but this exposure demystifies the programming realm for them. Even in more conceptual courses, students use blogging platforms and learn to embed their own media. They gain a new sense of confidence in their tech skills and begin to appreciate the need to do your own troubleshooting and problem solving. They can communicate well with people in technology roles, clients and customers, and management.
5. The value of interacting with technology professionals and becoming active members of the tech/media community. Our SXTXState.com project is one example. You can see where Maira, Mairin and Carly discussed their participation in that project below, and I was encouraged by the enthusiasm they still display when talking about that activity. But I also recommend to students that they attend local meetups year ‘round and stretch outside their comfort zones. My opinion is that you get more value by attending an event where you are the least knowledgeable, than if you regularly frequent those in which you are one of the most knowledgeable. Austin has a slew of technology meetups around different platforms like Ruby, Python, Drupal and WordPress. The members are very welcoming and helpful. And, it’s also a great way to meet people from different roles within companies that ultimately may be able to assist you in employment.

These are just a few ways that come to mind quickly. Somehow we are igniting passion and building confidence and that seems to be something that lasts long after students graduate. Maira, Mairin and Carly are just a few students who have been successful in moving into new roles and organizations. We’ve had students working at Convio, Spredfast, Gowalla, Mosak and more. They get hired as Web designers and social media managers at new and established companies. I’d be interested in how others are preparing students for the future. And, I’d be interested to hear from recent graduates as to the things that most help them prepare for jobs, responsibilities and companies that don’t yet exist.

Update 5/31/12 – On my Advanced Online Media course site, I did a post on my experiences with experience learning throughout the semester with our SXTXState.com and TXStateofChange.com projects. It occurred to me that experience learning opportunities are also an important part of preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet, and that I should add it to the list above. Students need the opportunity to practice and be creative and innovative. I think we have additional opportunities in our curriculum to add valuable experiences, beyond recommending internships or encouraging participation in student media.

(Photo above from Threadless – get your Hipster T-shirt there)

I’ve been thinking about this concept for a while. Maybe you’ve heard me talk about it. I wrote about it in OJR after attending SXSW in 2005 http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/041304royal.

I also had some “dangerous” ideas that I presented at ONA last year, for the session, If I Were in Charge. Take a look at my “7 Things Everyone in Your Organization Should Know” presentation.

What’s your dangerous idea? The deadline is today, so get on it!

I did a little gardening this weekend, can you tell?

And, now, since I am still feeling a little dangerous, I am going to go run with scissors