Skills week, HTML and Dreamweaver

Are images like these from the 1983 movie "War Games" what some folks imagine when they realize they need to learn more about digital technology?

Today, my comrades of in Maynard Insttitute Multimedia Editing Program and I dive into the more tech-driven parts of our curriculum here at the University of Nevada, Reno. Our main presenter this week is Michelle Johnson, journalist-in-residence at Emerson College.

Johnson, a former editor for the Boston Globe and one those who launched Boston.com, teaches multimedia journalism and will be leading sections this week on a variety of subjects, including HTML, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Soundslides, Flash and video editing. I have a background in these technologies so I don’t anticipate any problems with comprehending the lessons.

What I hope to gain from this week is a stronger feeling on: what training I should make sure the journalists in my newsroom should have? Secondly, I’m looking for insight into how one structures a newsroom and balances print and online concerns to implement the new and exciting technologies we’ve learned about so far in this program.

Kenny Rogers, The Gambler

I’ve always loved technology and innovation. I took apart my remote control cars and 8-track tape players when I was a kid. I volunteered for summer school so I could learned BASIC on Apple II:

10 print “Hello, world”
20 goto 10

I’ve watched “War Games” - one of the first big movie hit focused on home computing - at least a hundred times and couldn’t wait to build my own WOPR.

This stuff comes easy to me. It’s in my veins. Now I’m faced with needing to teach and apply what comes easily to me to those to whom it doesn’t come so easliy.