Sports Broadcasting: Theory and Practice (I hope!!)

So today I went to a faculty development seminar (kudos to the three outstanding professors who hosted our training) in which I learned about Course Preparation Assignments.  It was an hour long, so I won't go into detail, but basically it was a strategy detailing how to encourage students to read before class so class time could be spent on higher order learning and deeper discussion, as opposed to strict lecture where the professor discusses what the students were supposed to read (I'm not chiding; I often didn't do all/any of my reading either).

This got me thinking about an article a colleague shared with me that considered how media production courses often take on more of a "trade school" feel as opposed to the liberal arts curriculum so often associated with higher education.  In her opening statement, Edwards (2001) said, "Caretakers of classical liberal arts curricula have historically considered media production courses as one more area where the liberal arts have caved in to the pragmatic vocationalism and careerism often demanded by students and their parents" (para. 1).

As a professor who teaches primarily production courses (two sports broadcasting courses, a writing course, print and broadcast news production courses), I can see where Edwards' trepidation comes from.  We are encouraged to provide experiential learning opportunities for our students.  And so often our students' parents ask what our job placement rate is.  Our students beg to get their hands on equipment early and often in their careers.  And admittedly, I am much more comfortable with high-impact learning in a "laboratory" setting.  What fun is it to teach students how to write a broadcast news script but never put them in front of a camera? Why teach students the difference between producing a webcast of a football game vs. a tennis match if you are never going to let them sit in the director's chair?

I've found, though, that there has to be some balance.  We ARE a university, after all.  And no matter how WE teach them to produce a documentary or design a magazine or lay out a website, their future employers may have other software, equipment and procedures.  We HAVE to teach the history, evolution and theory behind our art.

So what do I do? I believe step one will be learn more about CPAs and how to apply them in my classroom.  Step two will then be to see how the improved "book-learning" can improve our productions.  And step three will be to write a paper to share my new-found wisdom!  So, if you'll excuse me, I have some course revamping to do ...

Edwards, E. (2001). To Be Rather than to Seem: Liberal Education and Personal Growth through Documentary Production. Journal of Film and Video (53)1: 9-19.