Lab Rats

As this year comes to a close, Mr. D-F makes it clear to us that we, his students, have all along been part of his experiment. Over 18 months he has conducted an experiment in educational technology with us as his lab rats. Through, the DC Faith in Action newspaper we have been challenged with what he says, "the line of demarcation between good news and tempting rumor or passing fancy would have to be articulated in explicit faith terms". Beginning with simple stories with a main focus on information from Catholic news services; we continued on to investigations of morality and law. With our investigations of morality and law, we created a detailed analysis of the 2012 elections which earned a place in the magazine of the Journalism Education Association. Most recently this spring, we have began stories on a broader range of topics from technology to the environment. With these stories, we follow what Mr. D-F calls our journalism compass. He states, "we built together a model, an orthogonal plane of news that pivots on an X axis that stretches from inaction to action and a Y axis that rises from dark figures to evidence of things unseen".  This compass helps us to determine the truth in a story. Mr. D-F has had an idea of what journalism should be when mixed with our faith. He tells us his hallmarks some of which include, right thinking leads to right action, be a faithful witness, and we must find our strengths in something bigger than technology. Finally, Mr. D-F brings his end of the year speech to a close, leaving us with, "You are, for better and for worse, an acting person. Act (that is listen, speak and write) in conscience".