Gannett Collaborative Classroom
When three JMC professors did a national survey of newspapers and magazines a few years ago they found that many publications were interested in using creative teamwork in the production process.With this information in hand, the collaborative hour was born at Kent State University in order to prepare students for the new work environment.
The collaborative hour is a 50-minute class where a team of students made up of a photographer, a reporter and designer combine skills to create a dynamic story package.
The class was started when the program still was in Taylor Hall. But Ann Schierhorn, one of the researchers and leaders of the initiative -- along with Fred Endres and Carl Schierhorn -- said that building didn't have a classroom conducive to the collaborative process.
A different type of room and configuration were needed to allow teamwork to be truly integrated into the JMC curriculum. The School took this idea to the Gannett Foundation.
“We have a very long tradition of working with [Gannett] so it made sense for us to talk to them about a significant gift,” said Jeff Fruit, director of the School.
The result of the Foundation's $250,000 grant may be seen in the Gannett Collaborative Classroom in Franklin Hall.
“Gannett wanted something that fit their goals and the collaborative space did that,” Fruit said.
The spacious room on the third floor has all the tools for a flexible collaborative environment — movable tables, fully loaded MacBook Pros and projectors to display student work.
Future collaborative hour initiatives will include cybermedia design, magazine writing and editing, and information graphic classes.
“I think (the technology) is going to be a factor in our teaching,” says Schierhorn, “because we’re trying to teach more multimedia.”
Fruit said the mission of the room is critical to the school’s emerging learning environment, which focuses on team collaboration.
“One of the keys to learning now is that students need to work in groups,” Fruit said.
Schierhorn said she wants students,
”to walk into that room and have a feeling that
something different is going to happen.”
— Tim Magaw, The Co-Lab
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