In the spring of 2011 I participated in the Teaching with Technology Institute. The title of the project was Producing New Media for the Web. I was able to apply the technology and methods I learned in TTI to a course that I taught in the Fall 2011 term titled SAC 404 Collaborations in Media Projects. This was essentially a new course in which the focus was on producing Video News Packages (VNPs) for the student newspaper, the Michigan Daily. This was a very specific course with a pre-determined goal and purpose. In the future I hope to adapt the techMy purpose in applying to the TTI was to find ways in which internet technology could be used both as a tool for production as well as distribution of video programs. The Internet has well-established systems of distribution and archiving video such as You Tube, Vimeo, Hulu and Netflicks to name a few major web sites. Using the Internet for web-specific video programs is an area that has only begun to be developed. Here I am thinking of a range of uses – creating VNPs for media news sites is an example. Course DesignSetting out to design this course I attended the series of TTI seminars/workshops that helped to clarify and create strategies to incorporate them into a media production course. It became clear that one of the most useful tools would be blogging. While this is not a new idea for teaching, blogging did become central to the course design. Another aspect of this course was creating video production assignments that would be web-specific and line up with the course objectives. BloggingBlogging was a new tool for me and ITT’s support was critical to get up to speed. Lauren Atkins, one of my TTI mentor was patient and very easy to work with. She gave me the basics of designing and using a blog in general and specific to the course I was teaching. In addition to learning the interface of Word Press we discussed a variety of issues around the use of a blog for teaching. These included privacy – should other students be able to see all of their colleagues postings, should the blogs be private; should there be one class blog or individual blogs; etc. These issues are inherent in the use of blogging technology and had to be taken into account. One concern was to design blogs that would be both attractive and that would have compelling contents. There was the class blog itself that contained course materials, links to sites and relevant postings from other blogs. The class was broken down into small working groups that set up their own blogs that were linked to the class blog. The postings of their class projects were, in turn, linked to the Michigan Daily newspaper web site.The Michigan Daily web site already has a series of blogs where there were numerous postings with video. Another problem for the class was how to incorporate the class assignments and class blog content into the Michigan Daily’s already existing blogs. Surprisingly this took a good deal of strategizing in order for it to work. Video ProductionThe second technology component of SAC 404 was teaching the video production techniques for short VNPs which would be appropriate content for the Michigan Daily news articles – either as stand alone segments or as supplements to written articles.Since this is an area of expertise I did not need as much help as I did with blogging software and design. However some unanticipated issues arose with regard to the widely varying video production skills that the students had. Some students who enrolled were Department of Screen Arts and Cultures who already had skills and were interested in going right into making projects. Most of the members o this latter group dropped the class when they realized that the class would be, in part, a class in basic production techniques. Ralph Franklin and LSA Media Services were helpful in helping me set up short assignments using the Flip-style cameras and support equipment. Many of the students had no experience in preproduction or editing video production. Preproduction was especially foreign to them and was the hardest to implement given the short-term deadlines of the news assignments. It seemed most students were very weak when it came to editing. A good number of class sessions were spent teaching Final Cut Pro. Critiques in ClassAn important part of the class was the critique process. Students were broken into small production groups and were assigned to produce VNPs. The VNPs were posted to their group’s blog these were shown in class and students were instructed in basic critique technique to assess the effectiveness of their work. Students were also asked to post comments on the class production postings. The students also had to post links on their group blogs to VNPs on other media sites such as the New York Time and the Guardian. Each member of the group had to post at least one of these along with comments on the VNPs effectiveness. Other students were required to post comments on each other’s postings. Criteria for critiquing ranged from purely aesthetic to effective storytelling.