Just come up with this idea for the team - we need to get up to speed on multi-media skills and have smaller issue sizes through the summer. SO plan is to have a programme of sessions (mostly an hour or two long.
Like the idea of calling it summer school, as it has a non-work feel to it - hopefully will be more engaging.
Here are some more thoughts.
Aim of summer school
We need to get the team up to speed with multi-media skills and ways of working. We have smaller issues in the summer which means we have time to work with the team on what we expect from them in terms of attitude and capability and teaching new skills which will enable them to become more effective multi-media journalists.
By branding it a summer school we are
a) saying to the team learning this new stuff is critically important for us to succeed
b) making learning a sound a bit different, show we think it is important and gives us an umbrella term to put our training
1 What does a multi-media journalist look like and what are the skills and attitudes expected of our journalists
- I will look at changing media and effect on way journalists work
- work with the team to agree the core competencies we need to demonstrate to be a successful multi-media team and to agree the attitudes we all need to demonstrate - this will feed into annual appraisal tasks
2 Tools to help journalists save time - this will look at RSS readers, Google news alerts, how to better manage emails
3 SEO training and writing for the web
4 TV/media training - how to use video ahow to be good on video
5 Blogging workshop - for all our bloggers to look at how to improve on what we they are doing
6 Media law refresher – half day for whole team with online focus
The key to this is engaging the team in what is expected of them and getting them to think about and agree the new skills and attitudes that are needed to be a successful multi-media team.