MTSU Mondays: TikTok generation gets lessons on social media; AgSTEM goes on tour

Nancy DeGennaro, Murfreesboro Daily News Journal
·4 min read

Here's the latest news from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

Social media lessons

Kindred Locke of Knoxville, a senior entrepreneurship major at MTSU who also works with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Rutherford County, helps a group of club members learn about podcasting in the university's James E. Walker Library MakerSpace digital creation and design center as part of a new digital literacy and social media safety project. The project, a partnership between the MTSU School of Journalism and Strategic Media and the Boys and Girls Clubs funded by a grant from the Tennessee Board of Regents, brought about 40 middle- and junior high school students to campus last month for two weeklong programs called 'Come to Voice,”' where they wrote, filmed, edited and premiered their own documentaries' worked with a green screen; checked out podcasting; learned about drone filming; completed an interactive campus scavenger hunt; and focused on social media safety with the help of MTSU professors and students.

They’re the TikTok generation, eagerly capturing their every moment on video and sharing the results with the world.

Those results can be as life-changing, too. A 17-year-old bystander’s cellphone video that helped convict George Floyd’s killer or a high school freshman’s racist Snapchat remark that a classmate made viral four years later, canceling her college plans.

A pair of professors in Middle Tennessee State University’s School of Journalism and Strategic Media want to help tweens and teens using TikTok better understand the power, pros, and cons, of digital media.

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Using funds from a Tennessee Board of Regents Student Engagement, Retention, and Success Grant, they teamed up with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Rutherford County to bring 40 local middle- and junior high school students to campus to learn the importance of responsible social media usage and digital literacy.

Valerie Hackworth of Murfreesboro, assistant manager for library technology at MTSU's James E. Walker Library, manager of the library's MakerSpace digital creation and design center and a two-time university alumna, explains how some of the facility's 3D printers operate to a group of middle- and junior high school students from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Rutherford County as part of a new digital literacy and social media safety project.

In the inaugural pair of weeklong programs called “Come to Voice,” the students wrote, filmed, edited, and premiered their own documentaries, checked out podcasting, learned about drone filming, completed an interactive campus scavenger hunt, and focused on social media safety with the help of MTSU professors Jennifer Woodard and Ken Blake.

“Responsible social media usage and digital literacy for tweens and teens are often touted by educators and politicians as a must-have part of their education,” Woodard said. “Digital literacy means having the skills you need to live, learn and work in a society where communication and access to information are increasingly reliant on digital communication technologies."

The professors also talked to students about internet safety and how to use these media platforms in positive ways that promote empowerment.

Among the favorite campus stops for girls and boys from the Smyrna and Murfreesboro clubs was the James E. Walker Library’s MakerSpace, where MTSU students can design and work on projects with 3D and resin printers, a laser cutter/etcher, a vinyl cutter, robotics, and virtual reality gear.

The youngsters then headed to TV studios in the Bragg Media and Entertainment Building, where students used iPads to capture brief monologues each wrote about their favorite hobby or activity.

Being aware of the content of their social media, like the scripted documentaries they filmed together, makes the younger students more aware that they can — and should — control what the world sees and hears about them, Woodard said.

“Social media will follow you for the rest of your life, so you must be responsible,” said Woodard, who also serves as assistant dean of the College of Media and Entertainment.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, MTSU’s Center for Health and Human Services is embarking on an informational tour of the Southeast to take the farm into the classroom.

AgSTEM tour

In partnership with the School of Agriculture’s Fermentation Science degree program, MTSU's Center for Health and Human Services is taking its “STEMsational Ag: The Virtual Farm” project on tour across the Southeast.

“The Virtual Farm” provides both formal and nonformal educational content for K-14 students that is appropriate for traditional school settings, both in-person and distance learning, as well as homeschooled children. The content relates to agriculture and STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The project’s purpose is to “introduce children to agriculture and STEM-related topics as well as good health and healthy living. Some may even develop an interest in a future agriculture career.”

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The curriculum includes modules and audio-visual resources, projects, and assignments that are age-appropriate and tailored to each grade level. Activities are connected to National Agricultural Literacy Outcomes and Next Generation Science Standards.

CHHS received $816,000 in USDA/COVID Rapid Response funding for the project in 2020. The stipend was part of an investment of more than $10.5 million to support educators nationwide and to provide innovative STEM program delivery for the future.

Reach reporter Nancy DeGennaro at degennaro@dnj.com. Keep up with restaurant news by joining Good Eats in the 'Boro (and beyond) on Facebook and follow Murfreesboro Eats on TikTok.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: MTSU Mondays: TikTok kids get social media advice; AgSTEM on tour