Former students speak out on EDAD 692

EDAD 692, an online course offered by Ball State’s Teachers College and J-Ideas, is an asynchronous course for principals and administrators on the First Amendment in schools and media literacy. The course features discussion boards, readings, and online videos. EDAD 692 was once again offered in fall 2007, and some of the course’s students shared their thoughts with J-Ideas.

“I feel now I have a deeper, more meaningful understanding of First Amendment rights and school journalism. I’m not sure as an administrator I would’ve allowed as much creative freedom (from my students) at the outset of this course—but I do think now, that if I were ever in a position to make such decisions, I would let creativity reign and rely on my journalism supervisor to be not only professional in his/her judgment, but reflective and facilitating with the students.”

Bruce Smith
Assistant principal, Northview Elementary School

 “I found this course to be very reflective and it had me think about some things I had never really thought about before. As a non-journalist and someone who has significant distrust of the media, it was a positive challenge for me to really think about the First Amendment, as honestly, I had never really given it much thought.”

Stacy McGuire
Principal, Westfield High School

 “Thumbs up for this educational opportunity … I think this course was exceptional in the amount of material shared with us…I became much more open-minded and understanding regarding student rights to express themselves once the course started.”

Ron Owings
Principal, Northwestern Elementary School

I felt the video presentations added significantly to content and the discussion board was a new experience for me.  The threads often followed directions I had not originally thought of…the ability to access course material 24/7 had advantages at times. It was easier for me than meeting at a regular time each week or commuting to a campus…

Garry Watson
Principal, Rushville Consolidated High School

“The course was very thought provoking and will help any administrator or faculty adviser come to grips with potentially serious issues and solve them before they occur.”
Everyone was allowed to speak his mind.  I didn’t see a put down the entire time. We didn’t always agree with each other and the free flow of information permitted by the discussion board was healthy.”

Dick Daniel
Principal, Muncie Central High School

“Yes, I would recommend the course to others.  I really felt like many useful and thought provoking topics were covered, even in areas I thought I was a ‘practicing expert’ in.  I still learned new ways to look at things…I enjoyed expanding my knowledge base and really being forced to think more about the digital age and how the First Amendment applies.”

Susie Coleman
Dean of Students/Student Activities Director, Greenfield-Central High School.

“I just wanted to let you know that I have learned so much. I will use the resources from this class.  WOW!”

Marie Kellam-Cook
Principal, Indiana School for Deaf (middle school)

>>previous testimonials