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Sat, Apr 21 2012 19:22:54

Education

Programming and journalism students: A conversation

One night on Twitter (or around 10 a.m. Friday at my place in Indonesia), a few people joined me in a conversation about computer programming and its place in the journalism curriculum. Here are selected tweets:

  1. macloo
    Mindy McAdams@macloo
    The thing about programming languages: If you already know one, it is very easy to learn others.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:07:21
  2. macloo
    Mindy McAdams@macloo
    I am becoming more certain that journalism students should learn a programming language as part of their curriculum.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:09:12
  3. I'm walking the walk with an online course in Python, a programming language:
  4. Baby Steps in Data Journalism
    Today I went back to Nathan's book and figured out how to do something new. I had used Python to scrape 365 Web pages to extract the maxi...
    Tumblr
  5. My progress until now
    Here's a recap if you are just joining me: I started this blog on April 8, 2012, because I am reading Nathan's book about how to make dat...
    babydatajournalism
  6. Marshall Kirkpatrick was a senior writer at ReadWriteWeb from 2007 to 2012. Now he's the CEO of PlexusEngine. He asked:
  7. marshallk
    Marshall Kirkpatrick@marshallk
    @macloo is there anything they should remove from their schedules to make time for that, or should they extend their education? I wonder
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:10:06
  8. macloo
    Mindy McAdams@macloo
    .@marshallk You make a good point. But if they had a required "data journalism" course, then programming could be included there.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:11:43
  9. mattwynn
    mattwynn@mattwynn
    @macloo @marshallk I had a lot of bunk journalism courses. Capstone = useless. Cross-cultural = Things People Already Know. I could go on.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:16:00
  10. Sam_Drake
    Sam Drake@Sam_Drake
    @debkmorrison @macloo @UOsojc As a graduating senior, I wish I had taken a programming language class. #ImportantSkillToHave
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:18:55
  11. A former journalist from South Africa and graduate student at Indiana University joined in:
  12. siyafrica
    siyafrica@siyafrica
    "@macloo: I am becoming more certain that journalism students should learn a programming language as part of their curriculum." ~ I agree
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:10:21
  13. macloo
    Mindy McAdams@macloo
    .@siyafrica More difficult to do in developing countries, but maybe even more important.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:12:50
  14. siyafrica
    siyafrica@siyafrica
    @macloo Yes. Resources are stretched and newsrooms value writing, ie dead wood publishing, over experimenting and new media.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:26:44
  15. Then this wise advice about Excel from "a journalist at USA TODAY, working with words, code and data":
  16. AnthonyDB
    Anthony DeBarros@AnthonyDB
    @macloo They should become Excel experts first. Too many students I see never get that in college.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:19:21
  17. macloo
    Mindy McAdams@macloo
    I assume that ALL journalism students today learn Excel in a required course. True or not?
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:22:45
  18. krmilligan
    Kristin Milligan@krmilligan
    @macloo So far that's not true for me. Tho I still have plenty of required classes to go before I graduate.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:24:36
  19. jfk909us
    John Kirch@jfk909us
    @macloo I don't believe so. Many of my students are unfamiliar with Excel.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 21:22:36
  20. macloo
    Mindy McAdams@macloo
    '@jfk909us Then you (or someone) needs to TEACH THEM Excel. It doesn't happen by magic. :)
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 21:40:19
  21. JustinAbrotsky
    Justin L. Abrotsky@JustinAbrotsky
    @macloo I sincerely doubt most j-school students know enough Excel to, say, get cracking on a Google Fusion Table right away.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:26:47
  22. macloo
    Mindy McAdams@macloo
    @justinabrotsky True. But if no Excel, they are even more in the dark.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:35:45
  23. JustinAbrotsky
    Justin L. Abrotsky@JustinAbrotsky
    @macloo Agreed. I took a class at UF that taught Excel, and it paid off big. I don't remember if it was a pre-rec but I didn't think it was.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:40:15
  24. The way programming is taught can make a big difference.
  25. macloo
    Mindy McAdams@macloo
    I think many journalism students are put off by programming b/c the first lessons or classes are too obscure and complicated.
    Thu, Apr 19 2012 20:55:02

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Mindy McAdams

Always doing some kind of journalism training (multimedia, online), somewhere in the world.

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