Join AAJA NY Chapter President and journalism tools trainer Frank Bi for a series of hands-on workshops focused on free digital tools that you can add to your toolbox and make a difference in your newsroom right away. Sponsored by the Google News Initiative.
Trainings will include using Google tools to cover the election as well as resources for covering immediate topics, such as COVID-19. Trainings will be conducted via Zoom and will require pre-registration on Eventbrite. The Zoom meeting link will be sent to all registrants.
All attendees will receive a tipsheet as a Google Doc upon the conclusion of each training. Virtual certificates will be awarded to participants who either 1) complete all of the trainings in one level (Entry, Intermediate, or Expert), or 2) take one training in each level (Entry, Intermediate, and Expert).
Trainings are open to all but priority is given to AAJA members; we may add trainings if needed.
REGISTER FOR A TRAINING NOW
ENTRY
RESEARCH AND VERIFY FACTS, IMAGES AND VIDEOS LIKE A PRO
June 14, 2020 at 5–6:30 p.m. ET and June 15, 2020 at 5–6:30 p.m. ET
Everyone knows how to use Google, but how do you advance from being an “everyday” user to a power user? In this hands-on session, you’ll learn how to research and verify facts, images and video using a suite of free Google tools. Attendees will learn how Google’s reverse image search works, tips on finding exactly the file you want, as well as how to try and authenticate a video. This course will leverage hands-on small group demonstrations as well as discussions through examples.
Required: attendees must have a free Google/Gmail account set up in advance.
ENTRY
HANDS-ON WITH GOOGLE TRENDS
June 16, 2020 at 8–9:30 p.m. ET
Google Trends is a free tool that allows you to see what everyone is searching for on Google at any given time. Its applications can be used for a variety of purposes, from SEO improvements on your website to satisfying your curiosity with regards to a search query. Attendees will leave with an understanding of how Trends works behind the interface, as well as best practices and tips on how to use the tool to your advantage.
ENTRY
PROTECTING YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT AND ONLINE SECURITY
June 18, 2020 at 8–9:30 p.m. ET
Whether you’re a journalist covering a sensitive topic or not, taking steps to protect your online footprint is as important as ever. In this session, we’ll start by talking about why it’s necessary for everyone to take the extra step, before familiarizing attendees with the most common attacks to individuals as well as organizations. Finally, we’ll walk through steps that everyone can take to protect themselves online.
INTERMEDIATE
MAKING INTERACTIVE MAPS ON THE FLY
June 20, 2020 at 5–6:30 p.m. ET
Maps are often an effective method of storytelling, because as data visualizations, they’re easy to read and understand. But making interactive maps isn’t an initiative process to start. In this hands-on course, we’ll start mapping by first looking at the data behind the geography before diving into how Google’s free mapping software works to take this data and plot it for you. By the end of this course, attendees will know the basis of how all mapping software work, in addition to a set of terminology that defines the different types of mapping techniques that one can quickly utilize in their own newsrooms.
Required: attendees must have a free Google/Gmail account set up in advance.
INTERMEDIATE
BECOMING A GOOGLE SHEETS POWER USER
June 23, 2020 at 8–9:30 p.m. ET
Spreadsheets are ubiquitous in newsrooms and most journalists know the basics. But beyond tabs and formulas, there’s a host of functionality to make organizing easier and more effective with Google Sheets. Whether it’s a dataset for a story, a budget or even a task list for your team, learn best practices and advanced techniques to get the most out of your spreadsheets. Attendees will learn about A1 notation, macros, data validation, third-party apps as well as highlighted formulas to achieve efficiency through organizing data in spreadsheets. Participate in this hands-on lesson and leave with the knowledge of a Google Sheets power user.
Required: attendees must have a free Google/Gmail account set up in advance.
INTERMEDIATE
MASTERING GOOGLE SHEETS FOR DATA JOURNALISM
June 25, 2020 at 8–9:30 p.m. ET
Google Sheets is more than just a free spreadsheet software to organize and store data. In this hands-on session focused on data journalism with Google Sheets, attendees will start with a quick primer on specific journalism-focused formulas before advancing to understand (once and for all) pivot tables, conditional formatting, geocoding and more. We’ll also touch on scraping data without code.
Required: attendees must have a free Google/Gmail account set up in advance.
EXPERT
SCRAPING DATA WITH GOOGLE SHEETS (AND WITHOUT CODE)
June 28, 2020 at 5–6:30 p.m. ET
In this hands-on session, attendees will learn how to automate the process of copying data from a webpage, without having to write any code. This deep-dive into Google Sheets’ native data scraping capability will cover not only the utility of scraping most webpages, but also how to scrape a webpage based on an interval. By the end of this session, attendees will have worked through several scraping examples and will understand the mechanics of scraping any website.
Required: attendees must have a free Google/Gmail account set up in advance.
EXPERT
AUTOMATING TASKS WITH GOOGLE APPS SCRIPT
June 30, 2020 at 8–9:30 p.m. ET
Add versatility to your Google Sheets by accessing the script editor, a transformative feature that allows you to write your own custom formulas, automate tasks and even send emails on your behalf (think FOIA requests). This session will first cover enough rudimentary Javascript to write Apps Scripts before diving into a few examples with custom formulas and sending emails. With just a little Javascript knowhow, you can make Google Sheets work exactly to your specifications and needs as a journalist.
Required: attendees must have a free Google/Gmail account set up in advance.
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