Update

Some schools innovate, build momentum

Some journalism and mass communication programs across the country are innovating. Examples:

Morgan State University has created the Urban Digital Journalism Program.
Florida International University has the Knight Innovator in Residence Program, encouraging collaboration between students and faculty on innovative digital media projects, new courses and research.
The University of Florida College of Journalism has a two-year speaker’s series, “The Innovators.”
“Back in the Newsroom” is a summer fellowship program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities’ journalism faculty that keeps their skills up to date.
Arizona State University created a Public Insight Network bureau on their campus. Students in the bureau help media organizations engage communities in innovative ways.
Northeastern University is piloting the Media Innovation Track to train graduate students to apply design, data and technology skills.
Hampton University is creating a pilot of the Center for Digital Media Innovation to expose minority students to new journalism practices.
The New School is piloting a Journalism + Design bachelor’s degree and minor program that will teach journalism through a design mindset.
The University of Texas at Austin is developing Massive Open Online Courses, this one on Investigative Journalism for the Digital Age.
The City University of New York is developing an MA Degree in Social Journalism.
Columbia University is speeding up its offerings in data journalism and computational journalism.
University of Missouri’s Reynolds Institute is creating new types of innovative fellowships, including some fostering partnerships with news organizations.
West Virginia University’s innovator-in-residence program includes both virtual and campus visits and is designed to solve real-world problems.
Syracuse University has an endowed chair in Journalism Innovation.
The University of Nebraska has a drone journalism lab.
The University of Southern California’s many experiments include a technology incubator and augmented reality.
Student newspapers at the University of Maryland (The Diamondback) and Columbia University (Daily Spectator) will use software and other digital tools created by The Washington Post.
American University is applying game design to journalism and journalism leadership.
New York University was an early innovator in digital journalism with Studio 20.
The University of North Carolina has two endowed chairs focusing on digital media economics and digital marketing and advertising.
A dozen schools from coast to coast won the first round of the Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education.
Northwestern University’s Innovation Projects classes create teams to solve current journalism and media problems.
At the University of Oregon, professor Ed Madison works to teach digital skills not just to college students but at the high school level.

Assignment for students: Read through Education Shift on PBS Media Shift, College Media Matters and Poynter’s training section to discover what journalism innovation projects have taken place at universities in the last month. Is your school keeping up with the pace of change?

Extra Credit: Professor Katy Culver of the University of Wisconsin is curator of EducationShift, where journalism educators and students share innovative ideas. At a University of Missouri event to celebrate the “green shoots” of new growth in journalism education, she grouped innovations into nine categories. They include such topics as innovation centers, data and social journalism. The author of Searchlights and Sunglasses offers four groupings: connecting to campus, innovating, open collaborations and community engagement. How would you group the innovations you’ve discovered?