Teaching FOI links
Online resources for online media law teaching exercises
Here are just some of the online resources available for class exercises for media law. Share your great ideas by sending them along to David Cuillier at cuillier@email.arizona.edu.
ASNE High School Journalism lesson plans: More than 250 teaching ideas, including a First Amendment section with titles such as Exploring the First Amendment, and Celebrating Sunshine Week, as well as lesson plans on libel, prior restraint, privacy, and other media law issues.
First Amendment Schools: Sponsored by the First Amendment Center, this site includes a First Amendment 101 Challenge (20 questions online) and lesson plans on the First Amendment.
First Amendment visual aids: Posted online by Adam Samaha from the University of Minnesota Law School, you’ll find two dozen images of actual leaflets, ads and pictures at the heart of key First Amendment cases, such as the Hustler Jerry Falwell ad, the censored page proofs from Hazelwood, and George Carlin’s dirty-words monologue from FCC v. Pacifica.
JTeacher.com Provides some helpful ideas and links for libel, ethics, and First Amendment.
Society of Professional Journalists: The Society of Professional Journalists is compiling journalism class presentations and exercises to eventually create a searchable online database. Already the group has begun posting online some exercises for educators.
Student Press Law Center: Includes resources for students, an online First Amendment quiz (30 questions), automated public records request letter generator, and media law lessons with PowerPoint files and notes (copyright, FOI, privacy, libel, etc.).
New York Times Learning Network: This site contains journalism lesson plans geared toward grades 3-12 in New York schools, but a lot of ideas can be applied to the college classroom. Keyword searchable.
Great Ideas for Teaching
Every year since 2000, the Small Programs Interest Group for AEJMC and the Community College Journalism Association have recognized great teaching ideas. About 200 of them are available for the years 2000 through 2005 online, at http://www.geocities.com/aejmcgift/GIFTscholars.html. You can order from the Web site the 2006 and 2007 years if you like. Some media law exercises include:
- News in Brief: How to teach media law creatively (Patricia Kennedy, Syracuse, 2001)
- Using Student Group Projects in the Classroom: How to diminish the dread for students and faculty (Julie K. Henderson, Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 2001)
- Dirty Words and Dangerous Ideas: How to teach the realities of book banning (Kim Landon, Utica, 2001)
- Researching, Creating and Designing a Legal Research Web Page: How to introduce media law graduate students to the world of legal research on the Internet (Sandra F. Chance, Florida, 2002)
- Beyond Schindler’s List: How to understand the importance of government in the sunshine by keeping public records/meetings open to all (Kenneth C. Killebrew, South Florida, 2002)
- Enliven History and Public Record Research – in the Cemetery: How to use the local cemetery to teach public record research and history in a reporting class (Carol S. Lomicky, Nebraska-Kearney, 2002)
- Project Access: How to provide students hands-on experience with the Freedom of Information Act (Terry L. Wimmer, West Virginia, 2002)
- Bringing the Courtroom into the Classroom: How to make libel a reality for news writing students (Juanita Darling, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 2003)
- The First Amendment Campaign: How to get students to think more deeply about free speech (Kim Golombisky, South Florida, 2005)
- Get Them Up and Moving: How to bring active learning to a large lecture hall (Amy Mattson Lauters, Wichita State, 2006)
- Calming the Seas: How to focus and engage large lecture classes (Diana Knott Martinelli, 2006)
- Finding that Dream House without FOI Nightmares (David Cuillier, Arizona, 2006)
- Bleachers of Fury: How to teach freedom of information through an interactive role-playing slideshow (David Cuillier, Arizona, 2007)