I've been involved in a variety of Web/journalism education initiatives, including college courses, seminars and development of Web-based education materials.

Courses I've Taught

• Interactive News (Emerson College) - This grad-level course immersed students in Web-based journalism tools and techniques. Students were responsible for conceptualizing and planning beat-based sites, an exercise that provided them with the real-world skills needed to manage Web sites and journalism initiatives.
• Writing & Reporting Across the News Media - Lab (Emerson College) - I taught the skills-based portion of this graduate-level course. Topics included: multimedia storytelling, Web production (basic HTML and CSS), and Flash.
• Images of News - Lab (Emerson College) - The lab portion of this required undergraduate course focused on Web-based production and storytelling skills.

Materials I've Developed

• Convergence Journalism Illustrated Through Course Web Site - I helped develop the structure and content for this site.
• Online Journalism Skills I Wish I'd Learned in School, Part 1 (Poynter)
• Online Journalism Skills I Wish I'd Learned in School, Part 2 (Poynter)
• Online Journalism Skills I Wish I'd Learned in School, Part 3 (Poynter)
• HTML and the basic tools of Web publishing (The Independent Publisher)
• The basics of Web usability (The Independent Publisher)
• The basics of Web advertising (The Independent Publisher)
• Flash Journalism Tutorials (The Indiepub Blog)
• WebQuest: Blogs and Journalism (The Indiepub Blog)

Seminars

• UNC Database and Web Research Course - Guest Discussion Leader (UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Oct. 2008) - I led a week-long section on "Conversational Journalism" in professor Genie Tyburski's online course. (My introductory video message is available here.)
• Mindy McAdams Flash Workshop - Assistant (Nieman Foundation, Feb. 2008) - I assisted with this day-long Flash tutorial, presented by Mindy McAdams, author of Flash Journalism.
• Intro to Journalism - Guest Lecturer (University of Richmond, Nov. 2007) - I gave a lecture to freshman journalism students on the current state of Web journalism and future opportunities.

Research Interests

• How audio, video and text can be combined, mashed-up and distributed. What are the best practices? Who is doing innovative work in this field? What technologies/tools are most important? Which technologies aren't used?
• The rise of the "geek-journalist." How do content and programming work together? How much programming do journalists need to know?
• Web content business issues. Revenue models, the realities of advertising, pros and cons of free content distribution, and the role of naturally scarce products.
• Aggregation, curation and original content. Where do journalists fit in? Should news organizations "protect" their content from Google News, Huffington Post and other aggregators?
• The shifting relationship between digital content, copyright, fair use and digital piracy. Is piracy always detrimental? What are the boundaries of fair use?