On April 8, 2020, Mike Reilley a SPJ digital trainer who has taught Google News Initiative tools to more than 4,500 journalists and educators taught a virtual lesson on digital tools training.
His lesson covered everything from Google Earth Measure Tool, Fact-Check Explorer, Data GIF Maker, and many more. His goal is to help students and educators become more advanced by teaching them more efficient ways to research and communicate.
In his meeting he stated, “so many new tools have moved out of beta during this time and we are beginning to see new stuff.” It was interesting to see him work with so many new tools that have just been created. One search engine tool that he showed was Fact-Check explorer which was one of the newest in the presentation, only being a couple months old.
The work he is doing is fundamental to journalist and other media professions. My biggest takeaway from the lecture was how he is clearly invested in making research resources easily accessible and easy to understand which is shown through his countless hours spent teaching educators and students on the matter.
After learning about so many new tools it made me excited to do more research and broaden my horizons through using tools like Dataset search. He talked a lot about how you can research polls, crime rates, etc and how the possibilities are limitless with what you can do on these platforms.
His dedication to spreading knowledge has truly impacted my interest in the journalism field. I certainly feel more compelled to use these tools, and I’m sure many other students and educators are too now that we have gained the knowledge.
Caroline's Journalism Blog 