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July 2001
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USA Todays Marklein studies higher education, technology Journalist seeks students point of viewAfter years of writing stories about the admissions
process, SAT scores, college drinking and trends in college curricula,
Mary Beth Marklein has gone back to school to see for herself how technology
is changing higher education. These are all things that I do stories on,
Marklein said. I do stories on how online applications are changing
the admissions process. Now is a chance to step back and say, What
does it really mean to take an online class? Marklein, who covers the higher education beat
at USA Today, is the fifth visiting scholar from the newspaper
to join the School for a minisabbatical. She is here for the summer. She plans to explore the impact of technology
on higher education during her stay in Chapel Hill a huge goal,
with an equally huge project list to accompany it. In her first week on campus, Marklein studied
the use of statistics in reporting in a weeklong seminar by the National
Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. She plans to enroll in an online philosophy class
and take a weeklong course at North Carolina State University designed
to teach faculty members how to develop online classes. I think I would know a lot more and be able to speak with more authority if I understood the students point of view and the professors point of view, Marklein said. I want to feel what its like to be
able to turn on your laptop at 11 p.m. and actually study. In addition to enrolling in classes, she intends
to sit in on several other courses. I am interested in seeing how computers
get used in classes that are not about computers or computing, she
said. In addition to how technology is used in class,
Marklein also plans to expand her knowledge of computer technology itself. I never felt comfortable writing certain
kinds of stories because I didnt know enough about some types
of technology, she said. With that in mind, she plans to take a computer
science class and wants to learn how to build a Web site so she can design
one for the USA Today minisabbatical program. Also on the to-do list are visits to the neighboring
universities and colleges to assess technology use on other campuses. Marklein said she finds herself torn between just
being a student and still wanting to be a reporter. The best thing about the sabbatical program
is that they say, Dont write anything when youre down
there, Marklein said. This is my opportunity to think
big thoughts. But there are stories she wants to write anyway. I happen to be a NASCAR fan, she said.
One of the stories I want to do is a NASCAR story. As only a true college student would, she decided
to take one class just for fun about the music of the Beatles.
She said she thinks she will be the only student in the class to have
seen the original Ed Sullivan broadcast. Marklein said she fell into the higher education
beat. After earning her masters degree in journalism and public
affairs at American University in 1988, she freelanced and taught newswriting
courses at American for almost 10 years. The stories she was assigned were most frequently
about education, she said. She got to know those editors well and eventually
developed expertise in that area. In 1997, when a higher education position opened
up at USA Today, Marklein started full-time, after previously contributing
to the paper as a freelancer. After the action-packed summer Marklein has planned,
most people would be in need of a break. But she will still be here in
August, after the summer session has come to a close. I want to take advantage of August as back-to-school time on a college campus, she said. I want to stand in the middle of Franklin Street and just see what happens. Kris Morgan is a master's student in the news-editorial sequence.
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