Matching technology to visions and goals and vice versa

In the past, the journalism class I will teach next year taught skills associated with broadcast journalism, but when given the opportunity to take over the class, I decided to create a news magazine to provide students greater access to the different moving parts that make up our community. Because media often provides a unifying experience, I hope this publication will provide members of the community with the opportunity to celebrate and support one another. However, my biggest fear is an inability to facilitate this access, and I see two obstacles I will have to overcome—one short-term and one long-term—to ensure exposure of our content.

The Communicator's aesthetically pleasing front page design. 

Most immediately, I find myself struggling to decide which container we will use—whether it will be SNO or just Word Press or Google Sites (which would not be my first choice)—and to what degree what I choose will support or restrict my vision for the magazine’s design. I also wonder how the aesthetic choices my staff and I make and the multimedia, features-style vision I have will affect traffic.

I'd like to incorporate technology similar to what is used by The Muse. 

Long term, the success of any digital endeavor hinges on technology, and using what is available and cutting edge is important. Ensuring my students know how to use what is available and to become so comfortable they can create multimedia projects for publication as well. Furthermore, I am convinced that eventually we need an app to deliver content. In the meantime, I will continue to cultivate relationships with people who know more than me in the hopes that I will, one day, achieve this particular goal.

Carver Weakley
Cosby High School
Midlothian, Virginia