There’s a new way to keep tabs on what is going on at De Soto High School. The student-led Dragon News Network debuted on YouTube in mid-December, and plans call for new episodes to be aired weekly.
Instructor Julius Rotter said his students in the social media class are behind the Dragon News Network. The class was introduced at the high school this school year for students who had taken prerequisite computer classes.
“We started doing the Dragon News Network broadcast where the kids have different roles: set anchors, camera people,” said Rotter, a 2010 De Soto High graduate who is in his second year of teaching and is pursuing a master’s degree in teaching. “Then there’s producers, people who are in charge of the graphics, people who are in charge of script writing. They all have their own specific roles.
“They’ve taken a little bit of ownership in it, which was the idea. And they can take turns. I kind of left it up to them, like these are the roles that need filled and I created a signup sheet.”
Rotter said the students are collaborating this semester with the brand-new broadcasting class taught by Jennifer Kidwell.
“It’s kind of cool being able to collaborate with different classes to strengthen our numbers and be able to do more because she has more equipment and lighting and that kind of stuff,” he said.
Rotter said the group will try to create and air a news broadcast each week, typically on Fridays. However, snow days and the changing semesters delayed the first episode of the new semester, which aired Jan. 30.
He said many teachers play the broadcast for their students the morning it airs. You can find the broadcasts on YouTube by searching for De Soto Senior High School.
The first two episodes of Dragon News Network aired before Christmas break. Seniors John Brown and Ryan Ventura served as the hosts of the show.
In the first episode, which is less than five minutes long, field reporter Aaron Shelley interviewed Joshua Phipps, assistant superintendent of school operations, about the football field bleachers being replaced.
“It was cool to see (the students) come up with those questions on their own,” Rotter said.
Reporter Allana Bachmeyer interviewed band director Darrell Boyer about the De Soto Bands Dessert Auction, Shane Hubbs provided the weekend weather update and Damien Miller updated students about sports.
The second episode focused on how students were spreading holiday cheer. Senior Kris Pyrtle interviewed members of International Thespian Society Troupe 5087, who adopted a family for Christmas.
Rotter said right now the group limits each episode to three stories.
“Because trying to get footage, interviews and editing everything … these kids have four days technically before we post … Right now, we’re creating everything, but once we have a template, then hopefully, we can get more stories covered,” he said.
After the recent semester change, five seniors from the fall semester stayed on with the social media class, and the remaining 18 are new. The students who stayed with the class are Brown, Pyrtle, camera operator Eli Edgar, scriptwriter Taylor Pirtle and Miller. Pyrtle, who was the show’s producer last semester and hopes to co-host the show with Brown this semester, said he would like to pursue a career in investigative journalism.
Rotter said one story for the latest broadcast was on the hard work custodians put in to clear ice and snow while the students had a week of snow days.
“It’s going to be an appreciation post of the hard work they put in while we were all on break,” he said. “That was (the students’ idea). I thought that was super cool they came up with that.”
Another story focused on the video board that was installed in the high school gym over Christmas break, as well as the video board that will be installed on the football field this spring.
Rotter said running those video boards will be a part of the social media class curriculum, which also includes creating social media posts for the high school’s Facebook page “about game announcements, game results, club announcements, anything graphic-wise for social media.”
He said teachers, coaches, club sponsors and administrators tell him what needs to be posted and the students create it.
“The video boards will tie into the curriculum because the kids are now going to be in charge of creating graphics for these video boards – teaching them how to get the dimensions, how many pixels, creating advertising for local businesses, making video segments, putting graphics together to highlight students and athletes” he said.
Rotter said he eventually would like the students to create commercials for local businesses to appear on the video boards.
Rotter is excited about the district providing these opportunities for students.
“I’ve always thought it would be cool if we had a newscast that was student led,” he said. “Coming back to where I went to school and then putting together some of these programs that I wish we had when I was in school is kind of fun, kind of cool.”
Principal Jon Roop said he, too, is happy to see the Dragon News Network take off.
“Mr. Rotter has some really neat kids in that class who have truly found their niche in his class,” Roop said. “They produce all of the graphics for the sporting events and are now growing it to start producing videos for the DNN.”