Knight Center offers “Journalism 2.0” course for Brazilian professors

Carlos Castilho, an experienced Brazilian journalist and professor of online journalism, believes there is a shortage of qualified instructors to teach digital journalism in Brazil.

“Students who conclude a course that specializes in digital media are being rapidly absorbed by the market. That leaves schools unable to replenish their teaching staff quickly,” he says.

Considering this need and the objective of training even more professors to teach digital media, the Knight Center is holding for the second time the course “Journalism 2.0 for Teachers.” It will be conducted entirely online in Portuguese by Castilho from Oct. 11–Nov. 7, 2010.

Participants will be charged a nominal administrative fee of US$50, which will cover a portion of the cost of delivering the Knight Center course, and a certificate of participation when the course concludes. (The Knight Center is funded mostly through donations from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.) Fees are paid online through a credit card. However, a limited number of scholarships are available to students unable to pay the administrative fee.

To participate, professors must have at least two years in the classroom and basic knowledge about online searches and programs such as IrfanView, Audacity, MovieMaker and Dreamweaver. They should be able to dedicate 10–15 hours a week on the course and must have the ability to put into practice the knowledge acquired. Students work at their own schedule, at their own pace but will be expected to complete assignments by weekly deadlines.

The course addresses issues such as the challenges posed by digital journalism, teaching techniques for online journalism, digital tools for journalists, and controversies over the transition of journalism from traditional formats to online platforms. It also provides a space for discussion, collaboration, and exchange of new ideas about the teaching of digital media.

“During the first offering of the course, we noticed a great interest by the students in experimenting with the collective production of texts,” Castilho says. “For this reason, we’ve decided to go into more detail about the question, especially with regard to practical exercises that will be executed by the students.”

Details about the course can be found in this information page about the class.

The class will also seek to create an ongoing network for collaboration, Castilho says.

“The Knight Center’s courses offer not only the opportunity to update knowledge, but the possibility of participants to create networks through which they can stay in contact even after the end of the classes.”

Carlos Castilho has 35 years of experience in newspapers, news agencies, TV and radio. Since 1995, he’s been dedicated to producing journalistic content for the Internet. He currently teaches online journalism in Brazilian universities and conducts research in the area of digital media. He will be assisted in the course by multimedia journalist Eva Menezes.

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin was launched in 2002 by professor Rosental Calmon Alves. Thanks to generous grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the center has assisted thousands of journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean. For more information, contact the Knight Center’s program manager, Jennifer Potter-Miller at jpottermiller at mail.utexas.edu or +1 512 471-1391.