| About The Site This information comes from our ThinkQuest entry form. Description
Ink - Internet News Knowledge, is an online resource for high school journalism. Built with an efficient, easy to use design, the site has five sections presenting educational information on journalism and news. Students can learn about history, freedom of speech, careers, and issues in today's news media industry. There are also extensive resources for high school journalists, including an article exchange "wire service", and forums for students and educators alike to post messages, files, and links to related web sites. The entire site was designed with collaboration in mind; there are many ways users can submit their own content and communicate with others. Educational Objectives
This Entry, Ink: Internet News Knowledge aims to help students improve in school and to prepare for the real world by educating them about media and journalism. It acts as a supplement or even a replacement for in-class learning, and helps students co-operate to build their publications, such as High School newspapers. Because journalism incorporates so many skills-writing, researching, public speaking, editing, creativity, and more-we feel it should be a bigger part of a student's education, not just for those destined to become reporters or anchors, but everyone, and Ink goes a long way to accomplishing that goal. For the curious, or those with a paper to write, our Times section will improve the general knowledge of journalism history of most students, and is fun and easy-to-use with its short events and multimedia clips. Ink hopes to improve the journalism skills (and marks!) of High School or would-be journalists by providing articles and tools in a friendly, easy-to-use, ever-growing, user-driven environment. Schools are already interested in utilizing this resource, which, with their use and input, will expand. The "Street" section, where professionals will submit information about their jobs, will help students plan for their future careers. Ink will also help students to create their projects, collaborate, and meet deadlines by providing a free "wire" service for article exchange, and informative articles on all aspects of journalism. About Collaboration
Frustrated by the "static" state of most ThinkQuest entries from previous years, we were determined to make our site a constantly evolving resource, built in the true style of "Internet Learning". First, the front pages features regular updates to inform users of new content submitted by others, as well as invitations to join in current Ink community activities, such as discussions on the week's top news story or journalism issue. Then, just for fun, users can submit their own entertaining "tidbits" of information in our Did You Know? and Soapbox features. One user's submission will randomly appear every time a user visits select pages. Next, we discuss such issues as free speech, censorship, and journalism ethics in our Voices section. Users are encouraged to express their own opinions, and tell their stories. Following this is The Street, our section on the journalism industry and related careers. Professional journalists are encouraged to write about their careers, letting students know what it's like in the "real world", helping them to make important career decisions. We will also encourage users to submit stories on such topics as their first internship, applying for college or Journalism school, etc. One of Ink's most important Features, PressBase, is a constantly growing resource for high school journalists. It starts in Features, where editors write about their school's publication, providing ideas on how to improve yours. Then it's the Resource Book, an "interactive textbook" of high school journalism, where users write the content - so it's always up to date and relevant to your needs. Finally, our HighWire article exchange service lets students post and share their general interest newspaper articles, improving the diversity and perspective of every publication involved. Finally, users can interact with one another in The Forums area. Sections are built for educators, journalists, and those interested in current events. They can discuss topics on message boards, post files, and access and edit a special web page directory. About Educational Resources
The main OBJECTIVE of our web site is to be used by students and teachers for educational purposes. -Topics and information in the Times and PressBase sections can help teachers with their lesson plans. -The Resource Book and Times Section contain a wealth of information for students, who have the added excitement of seeing their own work published on-line, which will in turn help other students learn. -The Voices section lets students speak out about what is on their mind to the world, developing their writing, debating, and researching skills. -Our Forums, designed for interaction between students or between teachers, are a fun and useful way of learning new information, asking questions, or just "chatting". -Articles we've written focus on issues that would affect High School-aged journalists and their teachers. -News items can be published, exchanged, and shared through our wire service, allowing users to 'fill out' their publications with articles submitted by others to our database. -Our web site is user-friendly and not intimidating, which should contribute to an enjoyable experience by all. In fact, at least two High Schools are eagerly awaiting Ink's final publication so that they can begin to use -- and contribute to-the site. Questions
Please contact us using the Feedback page. Sources
All of our sources, as well as copyright notices, are posted on our credits page. Requirements
The site is formatted to use tables. For better accessibility, we chose not to use frames. Most browsers will view the site fine. JavaScript is recommended for the Times section. For some multimedia content you'll need RealNetwork's RealPlayer, and QuickTime Player from Apple. |
