Digital media students use skills in real world—including in The Press

By Audrey Posten

High school students in Clayton Ridge’s new digital media class are using what they’ve learned in real world scenarios—including on the pages of The Guttenberg Press.

Teacher Nicole DeGidio is certified in digital media and internet design, along with English courses, and once worked at the Clayton County Register newspaper writing stories, selling ads and laying out pages. She pitched the class to better utilize the district’s Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and manage social media, digital signage in school buildings and a new digital trophy case. 

This summer, a digital scoreboard will be installed in the gym. It will not only display scores and statistics, but athlete profiles, pre-made videos and activities to engage the crowd, like a kiss cam. Students will be paid to operate the scoreboard during games.

“All of this stuff is super cool, but it takes so much time. I don’t have time to manage all of it. This class would help me,” DeGidio said.

It could also provide students with employability skills, a point driven home by 2024 Clayton Ridge graduate Brooke Hansel.

“She’s at Iowa State and majoring in ag communications. She contacted me and said, ‘They expect me to know how to do Adobe InDesign [and other programs],’” DeGidio said. “The business world wants it. Colleges want it. But there wasn’t a class that taught that.” 

Now, she added, “these guys are like my apprentices, and I get to teach them.”

Digital media students, who are all juniors or seniors, regularly create social media posts and have learned how to use the graphic design platform Canva. They take photos, talk to staff and students, create content for the digital signs and are uploading yearbooks, school records and individual athlete profiles to the digital trophy case. They’ll be responsible for content on the new digital scoreboard next school year. 

Additionally, students have learned and become certified to fly drones, and edited video they’ve captured. After instruction on Adobe InDesign, they created their own brochures and magazines.

“They’re just learning a ton of skills they can take with them,” DeGidio said, “and they’re getting real world experience. Their Facebook posts are live, and within our school, you’re seeing lots of stuff.”

The class also partnered with The Guttenberg Press, touring the office and hearing from employee Austin Greve, who does the newspaper’s layout.

Senior Lilly Meana committed to designing and writing the weekly Clayton Ridge school page through the end of the school year.

She enjoyed InDesign and was intrigued when her teacher offered the opportunity.

“I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds fun.’ We made mock magazines using InDesign and I had a lot of fun with that. I realized I actually liked it,” Meana said.

After receiving a template, Meana redesigned the top of the school page and eliminated contact information to create more room for content. She worked with DeGidio, who receives photos and information from other staff for the school Facebook page, to fill the space.

“We want to include stuff from elementary, middle school and high school,” Meana said. “My first one, we did Joe Beckman, a speaker. So I put some pictures of him in there, and then [DeGidio] told me to write an article. So I got to write my first article for the paper.” 

“Basically, I do all the formatting with all the pictures and stuff. If I have any questions, she’s there to help me if I need something,” Meana explained.

It’s been a fun learning experience for Meana, who plans to pursue a career in nursing but said the class sparked interest in journalism and design too. She’s appreciated positive feedback from students, school officials and community members who’ve seen her work in The Press.

“School board members have reached out, teachers, kids in the hallway. As soon as she got her first page done, I shared it,” DeGidio said. “She is doing this on her own. It was kind of a training wheels moment. I did help her, but she deserves all the credit.”

No matter where her future leads, Meana said digital media will complement any career field.

“It’s definitely a very valuable class because, obviously, everything is changing. Everything’s digital. Just having a basic understanding of how to use Canva is needed. Your employers will look for that. And if you can have something like working with a newspaper on your resume, that’s huge,” she shared. “Even if I go into nursing, they’ll see that I’m able to communicate with other people outside of the school, be professional and be able to have all my work there to show them.”

Meana likes that digital media lets students work independently.  

“They have a lot of freedom to try new things and make mistakes, and then, if they want help, I’m here to help them,” DeGidio agreed. “It’s not a traditional class. It’s not the ‘read-30-pages tonight and I’m giving you a quiz tomorrow.’ It’s almost like a college atmosphere, but with the safety of high school.”

“When I was in high school, a class like this probably wouldn’t have existed because the mindset of education was you do this and this is how it has to be. Even when I worked on the yearbook, it was like, ‘You have to have this page done tomorrow, and you’re following this outline.’ Don’t try to change anything. Don’t try to think. Just fill in the boxes,” continued DeGidio.

Through digital media, students step outside their comfort zones while learning new skills, engage with their peers and teachers and get to share that with the wider community. 

“I think the cool part is they get to see their results,” DeGidio said. “I think that’s the way we kind of unite our community and make people care about what’s happening in Clayton Ridge. It’s not just this class, but I’m saying classes like this where the community sees the kids are thriving. It’s the perfect recipe for success, I think.”