Kenn Tomasch is the professor behind Twitter handle @mco465; he incorporates social media into his lesson plans. Photo by Evan Triantafilidis.Quick question: Do any of your classes have a Twitter feed?
I didn’t think so... unless you are enrolled in Kenn Tomasch’s MCO 465 class titled “Sports and Media.”
In Tomasch’s syllabus, you can follow the class twitter feed at @mco465 and receive helpful class tools and the daily class necessities hours before they appear on blackboard.
“I did not come up with the course name,” Tomasch says, clearing things up. “This class is much more than the course title suggests. The title is a little bit of a misnomer, but I think if they called it something else we’d have only about 50 kids.”
With registration for the spring semester going on, Tomasch has wise words for the student body before registering for his class.
“This is not, strictly speaking, a sports class,” Tomasch says. “It’s a journalism ethics course where sports are how we inject these instances.”
Tomasch has been teaching the MCO465 class since 2008, and has not stopped adapting to the modern era of social and new media. His classes include an in-depth Powerpoint on the class’s daily agenda. Within the slideshow you can find numerous Youtube videos, articles from journalists, and Tomasch’s own touch of humor.
Part of Tomasch’s effort to stay up to date with the students was creating the class Twitter account. He did this in an effort to stay connected with the students in the time outside of class, which is a significant amount of time if you are a part of the 75-minute class meeting twice a week.
“It was only two years ago when I started the Twitter feed for the class,” Tomasch says. “I thought it was huge to add that component when everything seems to be 140-characters at a time. I’m always saying ‘how can I make this class, not only relevant, but something that the students will consume in a way is meaningful to you.”
Sports fans and aspiring journalists will flock to the class just from the title of it, but Tomasch’s goal is to teach fairness and thoughtful insight in the world of sports and media.
“I throw a lot of information on the do’s and don’ts of covering sports over 16 weeks,” Tomasch says. “But if a student can remember that they learned the situation and that they took this class, that’s what I want for the aspiring journalists.”
As for the sports fans, like myself, who take the class, Tomasch reminds them that they are the “consumer”.
“If you’ve taken this course and someone says, writes or does something fishy with a photograph, I hope that you guys (the consumer) can recognize that,” Tomasch says. “Whether it is for impressing friends, or you just are a more savvy consumer, if I can make you notice that than I feel like I’ve done my job for the consumer side of the class.”
MCO465 is a Cronkite offered class, however you do not have to be a Cronkite student to enroll. The class is offered on the Tempe campus and provides an in-depth look in the world of sports and how it is covered in today’s world.
You can reach me at etrianta@asu.edu
