The publications program launches itself into students’ daily lives, March 26.
EHS publications is embracing the technology has made itself so indispensible in the lives of students. ehsbugle.com, the online foundation of The Bugle newspaper, will soon be transformed to EHS-hub.info.
Besides the name change, anyone who walks outside by the publications room 704 will notice five monitors displayed in the lower windows of the back room. Each of the five lower windows on the wall opposite the exterior of Gym A will feature new information: an EHS-hub Twitter stream updated through the day, the EHS-hub facebook fan page also updated through out the day, a photo slideshow updated weekly, the EHS-hub.info updated daily and video promos for future video broadcast on EHS-hub.info.
The newspaper and yearbook staffs already had fan pages but those sites weren’t reaching a wide audience.
“I knew the program was falling behind by not utilizing social media, and our attempts this year have so far been uncoordinated,” Mrs. Elisha Strecker, publications adviser, said.
All journalism students will tweet at least once throughout the day feeding the live Twitter stream and bringing the events of the day to life for the community.
“More people are going to be informed on the news around EHS because most people aren’t going to newspapers now,” Nick Hoeflinger, future online community editor, said. “They are going to Twitter and Facebook and medias like that.”
The new publications program will train students on the latest technology.
The relaunch introduces a whole new world for the publications program and EHS community.
“I’m excited but scared,” Mrs. Strecker said. “I personally don’t like to have a digital presence, but our students have them and need to learn how to control them. So I feel out of my depth. I’m worried about what we’re unleashing. Online represents a limitless amount of work. I have to place faith in the training of my staff members because I can’t possibly preview everything they post every minute. It’s intimidating to empower students with that level of expression.”
EHS-hub.info will bring together the efforts of what have previously been separate classes and staffs: Video Production 1, Journalism Writing and Reporting, Multimedia Yearbook, Newspaper Production and Yearbook Production.
“At first, I think people will just walk by the monitors and not really pay attention,” Hoeflinger said. “Once it starts to get going and people start really reading the monitors and passing the word on, I think they will realize it’s a lot easier way to get involved with what is going on in our school.”
The EHS community is coming together over digital sources.
EHS-hub is the new way of getting involved with the school using media students already use and launching the publications students into the future.
