Students use cluster of tools to assemble online publication
Michael Neary/Herald-Standard
Tammy Marzano, digital media arts instructor at Uniontown Area High School, helps students to create the online publication Tomahawk Talk in one of her classes.
Michael Neary/Herald-Standard
Malcolm Patton, a freshman at Uniontown Area High School, is serving as the editor of Tomahawk Talk this term.
Roebuck
Galadriel Roebuck is well-accustomed to technology, but something about the written word – even when it’s transmitted online – fires her imagination.
“It kind of lets people imagine characters their way,” said Roebuck, a junior at Uniontown Area High School. “So if you have a character you made, you can put that in, but people can also imagine it their way and come up with their own things.”
She’s working with friends on what she calls the “Hunter Series.”
Roebuck, who likes to write action and romance, enjoys noting the numbers of readers she sees popping up online.
“It’s fun to think that people are reading and enjoying it,” she said.
Roebuck is among the students in Tammy Marzano’s digital publications class, devoted to preparing the students’ online publication, Tomahawk Talk. Along with the other students, Roebuck draws on a host of digital tools to create modern media expressions – all the while saving a place, in her imagination, for the written word.
Marzano, digital media arts instructor at the high school, described the emphasis of the work students do in her digital publications class as they prepare Tomahawk Talk, which can be found at http://uhstalk.org/.
“Whenever the Pittsburgh news stations show up here, it’s never for good news,” she said. “And so I’ve made it a point for us to highlight the great things that our students are doing, and the great things that are happening inside our classrooms.”
Marzano said she wants students to “Use all the tools that we have available to us to communicate well, whether it be a video story, or telling a story in print.”
She described a video interview that students did with Benjamin Wilson, a Uniontown Area High School alumnus who attends Penn State University. The presentation ultimately took multiple forms: video, photographs and the written word.
Marzano said the students communicate through social media channels, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
For students, the work can interact with interests they have in other fields. Malcolm Patton, a freshman, is serving as the editor of Tomahawk Talk this term. He participates in the organizations Academic League and Math Team at school, and he writes about the competitions. He also edits student work.
He noted the importance of peer editing.
“A peer is more likely to see where the writer is coming from, and could maybe make better judgments (than adults) about what’s important.
Andrea Gurtner said that “sharing people’s stories” is especially important. She finds these stories “by interviewing them, and figuring out their feeling – all the details.”
“Some people do some cool stuff, and they deserve to be recognized for what they’ve done,” she said.