My first Online Project Workshop: A review

I cannot tell how much I enjoy the practical workshops of my second year at the University of Westminster. Last year I was rather disappointed ending up with five theory modules, which equals ten essays, which equals 20,000 words, which equals just too many books to read. Don't get my wrong. I love reading books. But I would prefer writing articles while doing a journalism degree. Instead, I ended up spending four hours a week in the newsroom writing articles. That is not fair.

However, that all changed in the second year. Some students were horrified when they found out that they have to spend half the thursday and the full friday in the newsroom as they got used to being at university twice a week. For me, it is heaven. I don't mind being in the newsroom from 10 to 5 every day, writing articles. That is going to be my job - so why not stick to the reality and skip all that theoretical stuff?

Okay, okay - a bit theory is surely a must, at least when doing an academical degree, but you have to find the right proportions. Today's workshop was something between a practical lesson where we started our own blogs and compared newspapers to their online versions. We also had a lecture on the development of the internet and web journalism. That is what I thought university is like.

The rest of the module promises to be as interesting, useful, practical and fun as the first week. Pitching ideas, developing a group blog and a Q&A with Neil McIntosh, the editorial director of The Guardian Unlimited. I am very much looking forward to that.

Review of the Guardian Unlimited

The Guardian’s website Guardian Unlimited is a perfect example of how a newspaper can use new technology to improve their services to the readers. The written articles are not only published on the website “for free”, but there is often an option to listen to an audio that might be a cutting of an interview or the writer’s thoughts on the topic presented. What is more, The Guardian provides short videos, often taken from News Agencies such as Reuters and Press Association, to establish a multimedia coverage of stories. Podcasts are also available.

Through quiz, polls and comments the reader can interact and have a say.

Since the newspaper is written at night and cannot be updated until the night after, the online version of this paper offers more immediacy. The articles are up-dated constantly and much faster than the news on the internet, which has obviously much to be said for it.

Not without reason the website is called the Guardian Unlimited. It offers a wide range of news, features and comments – even a lot of web-only material. The articles itself are pretty much the same as in the paper, but they are up-dated and sometimes a backstory is included that could not be published in the print version.

Anarchy in school

photo taken from indymedia

Thousands of German school students skipped their lessons and went on the streets of the country's big cities to protest against the school system, BBC revealed this Wednesday. In Berlin 5000 students were striking, in Hamburg even 6000 this Wednesday alone. Pupils from the age of 10 onwards voiced their anger with overcrowded classrooms, the lack of teachers and huge exam pressures in Germany.

Well, they have a point there. In Germany's Eastern part you have an unemployment rate of up to 20 per cent. Even people with an Abitur (similar to A-level) have difficulties to find a job or even to get into university. Moreover, students are even attending lectures at university for years and years, but when they finish - they just cannot find a job. This is really depressing.
People who do not even get into the Gymnasium (grammar school) have little or no chance to make a living. If you miss the chance to get good marks in the first years of your school career, you will be stuck in lower educational schools, called Gesamtschule or in the worst case, the Hauptschule, a school, where teachers are scared of their students and struggle to teach them anything at all.

Once stuck in such a school, it is very hard to catch up. Because of the three different education systems you cannot swap to different schools easily, even if you turn out be more intelligent than you proved to be in the first couple of years while attending school.

Therefore it is understandable that students make a big fuss and go on strike.
What is out of proportion is that they run into universities and devastate and smash up everything that is on their way.

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported on students rioting in Berlin's Humboldt-University. They burnt toilet paper, torn fire extinguishers from walls and even destroyed a Holocaust exhibitionin in the university's foyer.

Now, that's a thing you just can't do. Voicing your anger in public is all right when necessary. But anarchy is not the answer. Even the Nazis discovered that you don't get any respect by beating up people and smashing things.

When I heard about people striking against the current education system, I thought: Yay, finally someone is actually doing something against it. But with violent action the whole story just loses its serious angle. Concerned students became bad revolutionists who vandalise in public institutions. Guys, seriously, your message won't be heard through vandalism. Calm down and most of all, grow up.