Volume 3 Number 1 , Podcast
Tome 3 numéro 1 balado

Nana aba Duncan, Andrea Hunter, Roger Martin, and Winston Sih

ABSTRACT

Forced change: Technology and changing course delivery through the pandemic

Educators around the world know well how stressful it was to be suddenly forced to migrate their courses online during the COVID-19 pandemic. This episode of the Forced Change podcast explores how Canadian journalism instructors teaching radio, television and multimedia courses at post-secondary institutions adapted to moving to virtual environments from in-person environments, which often rely on replicating elements of physically collaborative newsrooms. An academically diverse panel of educators from Carleton University, Concordia University, and Toronto Metropolitan University discuss their initial difficulties in adjusting to the circumstances, how they simulated studio environments while working remotely, shifting their pedagogical approaches and uses of digital tools, and managing student mental health. The episode serves as both a record of how we managed things in the past as well as a roadmap for how we might approach another pandemic.

Keywords: journalism, podcast, COVID-19, radio, television, online, pandemic, multimedia, virtual learning, podcasting, sound, technology, audio

Changement forcé : La technologie et l’évolution de l’enseignement à travers la pandémie 

Les éducateurs du monde entier savent à quel point il était stressant d’être soudainement contraint de migrer leurs cours en ligne pendant la pandémie de la COVID-19. Cet épisode du balado Changement forcé explore la façon dont les professeurs et professeures de journalisme canadiens qui enseignent la radio, la télévision et les cours multimédias dans des établissements d’enseignement postsecondaire se sont adaptés au passage à des environnements virtuels à partir d’environnements en personne, ce qui implique souvent de reproduire des éléments de salles de rédaction en coopération réelle. Un panel d’enseignants de l’Université Carleton, de l’Université Concordia et de l’Université métropolitaine de Toronto, issus de milieux académiques divers, discutent de leurs difficultés initiales à s’adapter aux circonstances, de la façon dont ils ont simulé des environnements de studio tout en travaillant à distance, de la modification de leurs approches pédagogiques et de l’utilisation d’outils numériques, ainsi que de la gestion de la santé mentale des étudiants. L’épisode sert à la fois d’archives sur la façon dont nous avons géré les choses dans le passé et de feuille de route sur la façon dont nous pourrions aborder une autre pandémie. 

Mots clés : journalisme, balado, COVID-19, radio, télévision, en ligne, pandémie, multimédia, apprentissage virtuel, podcasting, son, technologie, audio

Download the Podcast

Forced change: Technology and changing course delivery through the pandemic

Nana aba Duncan, Andrea Hunter, Roger Martin, and Winston Sih

The immense pressure of being forced to suddenly migrate the instruction, discussions and activities of an in-person course to a functioning online format which serves students well – in the wake of a dangerous airborne disease – is a stress understood by educators around the world. For Canadian and international post-secondary journalism educators working during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, this stress included the re-evaluation of pedagogical approaches, concerns about technological instruction and the use of digital tools for media-related practices, and managing fluctuating states of students’ mental health. As examples, Audette-Longo and Crowther (2021) refrained from their regular practice of instructing students to conduct interviews in person for safety reasons, prompting a re-examination of their constructivist pedagogical approach of guiding students to act as professional journalists. Weeks after the pandemic began, Wilcox and McLean suggested (2020) instructors use their skills as journalists to adapt to the unprecedented change. In Wilcox’s podcasting course she delivered key concepts in the form of a short podcast including raw files, scripts and mixes in order for students to understand the elements of its production. Finally, some students found their journalism instructors to be lacking in compassion during the pandemic, and others felt their stress was due to being unduly pressured by instructors (Olsen, Olsen and Røsok-Dahl, 2022, p. 12). Due to challenges like these, UNESCO published a guide (2023) to assist instructors on how to manage teaching online with “whatever resources they have at hand”, including strategies for designing audio and TV production courses.

Topics of reimagining course content, adjusting delivery methods and rethinking relationships with students are all featured in “Technology and what we changed in the pandemic,” the second episode of the Forced Change podcast. Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, it is important to look back, discuss and analyze the impact of the disruption in journalism education from multiple angles. This episode serves as such a reflection, focusing on the academically diverse perspectives of post-secondary journalism educators who teach radio and television. Most importantly, this episode simultaneously represents a record and a roadmap, highlighting both how we managed things in the past as well as how we might approach another pandemic.

“Technology and what we changed in the pandemic” features four Canadian journalism educators who teach radio, television and multimedia courses as they discuss the process, difficulties and mindset shifts of adapting to a virtual environment. In response to this issue’s call for proposals, three of those educators submitted questions and comments related to technological change. As such, the editorial team decided to combine their contributions as a focus for an entire podcast episode. The fourth educator served as the host and moderator.

Looking forward

Two other episode treatments should be considered in future discussions. First, we should consider an episode focused solely on what to do the next time we have to endure another disruptive period that forces us into virtual environments, including how we might address technological inequities and the heightened stress of emergency conditions. Secondly, it would be instructive for journalism educators and practitioners alike to hear an episode featuring students speaking to students about the impact of the change in instruction, as well as approaches to mental health. In this particular treatment there is high value in the podcasting format as a contribution to original knowledge (Agrba, 2022). Scholarship presented in written words can be “limited in their ability to register the visceral experience of suffering and resilience” (Harter, 2019). Hearing, for example, the inflections and emotions of students describing psychologically difficult periods they experienced during their studies will inform educators in a way they might not understand in text. 

Watch the full panel discussion

Find the entire Forced Change podcast here.

Nana aba Duncan is an associate professor and Carty Chair in Journalism, Diversity and Inclusion Studies at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication. She is the host and senior producer of the Forced Change podcast, the episode’s moderator, and a member of the editorial team on this special issue of Facts and Frictions/Faits et Frictions.

Dr. Andrea Hunter is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Journalism at Concordia, and worked for many years as a journalist with CBC Radio One. Her research focuses on inclusive journalism and pedagogical practices. Her question was, “How do you teach a live radio class online?” Hunter wanted to “explore the challenges of taking a radio newsroom class, so entrenched in the physical realities of space, into the online Zoom room” (2023). In the podcast she also focuses on how she managed student stress inside and outside the classroom.

Roger Martin is the IT coordinator at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication and the senior producer for capitalcurrent.ca, the school’s flagship student publication. His question explored how journalism educators can acknowledge the close integration of technology and journalism and learn to embrace technology so students can graduate as journalists who are ready to thrive in the digital age (2023). In the podcast he also describes the approach he thinks journalism educators should take when integrating technology into their teaching and curriculum as well as the realities of inequitable access to equipment and high-speed internet. 

Winston Sih is a lecturer at Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Journalism, and a multi-platform broadcast journalist specializing in technology and travel. In his submitted commentary, he aimed to explore how technology changed the way he teaches broadcast news in the classroom through the pandemic, as well as tools that have endured or failed (2023). In the podcast he also discusses the direction of technology shifts and how they are mirrored in the industry.

REFERENCES

Agrba, L. (2022, November 15). Extending scholarship to oral traditions through podcasting. Maclean’s Education. URL: https://education.macleans.ca/feature/extending-scholarship-to-oral-traditions-through-podcasting/

Audette-Longo, T. and Crowther, C. (2021, October 14). How COVID-19 has expanded journalism education toolkits. J-Source. https://j-source.ca/how-covid-19-has-expanded-journalism-education-toolkits/ 

Harter, L. M. (2019). Storytelling in acoustic spaces: Podcasting as embodied and engaged scholarship. Health Communication, 34(1), 125–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2018.1517549

Hunter, A. (2023). Radio Newsroom: How do you teach a live radio class online? Unpublished manuscript.

Martin, R. (2023). Production skills and technologies. Unpublished manuscript.

Olsen, R.K., Olsen, G.R. & Røsok-Dahl, H. (2022). Unpacking value creation dynamics in journalism education. A COVID-19 case study. Journalism Practice (online) DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2022.2043767. 

Sih, W. (2023). Adapting broadcast technology. Unpublished manuscript.

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2023). Teaching Journalism Online: A Handbook for Journalism Educators. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000384475

Wilcox, M. and A. McLean (2020, April 2). COVID-19 and the end-of-semester pivot: 5 tips to help you change on the fly. J-Source. https://j-source.ca/covid-19-and-the-end-of-semester-pivot-5-tips-to-help-you-change-on-the-fly/