MediaNumeric: the first test was successful!
Of course, you have not bypassed the news about the MediaNumeric project and its first training in Paris! Iris announced our participation in this event a month ago. Later the students Nina van Acker (ICB Haarlem) and Mihaela Buica (BI Diemen) shared their impressions of the lessons via Twitter and Instagram. The same did our colleague Susannah Montgomery. If you still overheard this information, here is our summary of what happened in Paris.
The project MediaMumeric (leading lector Joke Hermes), which started about a year ago, after a thorough analysis of the needs (published here), emerged in the next phase – implementing the insights gained through the research (50 expert interviews) to the learning practices. Once we knew what should be included in the course about telling stories with data, we (all partners of the knowledge alliance) developed the prototype of the training course. Out of about 50 students from the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (host, INA) and other HEI of Paris; University of Social Sciences and Humanities (SWPS, Poland) and Inholland, who replied to the call for participation in the Data-Driven Journalism, Creative Storytelling & Fact-Checking course, 16 students from France and four from Poland and the Netherlands were selected for participation.
An experience to never forget
Nina van Acker: “MediaNumeric was honestly an unforgettable experience. I’ve never learnt as much in a week as I did in Paris when following the MediaNumeric program. Since journalism, creative storytelling and fact-checking are not my fields of expertise; I was able to gain a lot of knowledge on topics I didn’t have much knowledge on. Furthermore, the experience overall was amazing: the students, the lecturers, and the organisers. It was definitely very intense, but I would do it again without a doubt”.
Intense but rewarding training programme
Indeed, it was very intensive! The trainers with impressive experience and skills tried to let the students sense what could data offer to those who know how to use it. To name a few, how to scrape when you need specific information, understand what a spreadsheet is telling you, visualise your story, check facts, and what ethical dilemmas you will encounter while working with data. Even this shortlist of topics should imply a lot of learning hours and exercises. We only had full six days.
However, our goal was not to make data scientists from our students but give them a consistent idea of what data-driven possibilities are there for one who wants to tell stories. If later our participants will decide what data skills they would like to develop for the future and will attend specific professional courses, which are a plethora, I (Natalia Berger, the INH project leader and researcher) will think that our mission is accomplished.
Case-study project
Following the expert's recommendations, nearly half of the training time was given to the case-study project. Together with her colleagues Kuba Piwowar (SWPS) and Jacqueline Pietsch (AFP), Susannah Mongomery assisted the students' teams.
Susannah: “The first testing phase was finished with the evaluation. The lessons learned we will apply very soon – in June, Inholland will host the Second training in The Hague. You will hear about it! Here you can meet the teacher who will give the lecture in June in The Hague.”
Click here for a day-by-day recap of the MediaNumeric students’ week in Paris. You can see here some pictures of the week in Paris.