Months go by without me picking up, much less, reading a newspaper – yet I consume more news and information than ever. This is heresy to those people who love how the paper feels in their hands. But I enjoy perusing media websites via my personal computers and mobile devices. Also, social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, etc., help me avoid the piles of newspapers that once littered my home office.

Anyway, journalism students need to keep abreast of current events and industry trends. They should view all formats – print, television, radio, online, mobile, etc. – every day. They should know well the websites of their hometown newspaper, a national media company and the major news site that covers where they attend school. They should also take in all their various campus student media and news from a community or alternative paper.

Alas, what college student has time for all that every day? Moreover, some students, if not most, will only do what's required for the best possible course grade. Not to worry, though. I have developed a solution that meets everyone's needs: Assigning each student a news media website as a semester-long beat. Every student writes a blog post each week concerning their website's successes and misfires and based on class discussions.

This semester's beat assignments for #loweclass #digital: Chicago Tribune, The Virginian-Pilot, The Arizona Republic, Los Angeles Times, Tampa Bay Times, The Plain-Dealer, NPR, The Miami Herald, The Tennessean, CBS News, The Times-Picayune, The Seattle Times, USA Today, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, ABC News and Time.

The beat for #loweclass #sports: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Los Angeles Times, Tampa Bay Times, Sporting News, The Denver Post, The Tennessean, Star-Tribune, CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports and Fox Sports. The beats for #loweclass #elections: The New York Times, NBC News, Politico, CNN and The Washington Post.

Four websites are duplicated among the #sports and #digital courses as that many students are taking both this semester. I typically don't assign The New York Times and The Washington Post as they are generally too good to not explore with all students in class. I made an exception this semester, however, because the #elections class is small and each student can have a supreme site for related coverage. Other websites used in past courses include those of The Baltimore Sun, Philly.com, The Oregonian, The Kansas City Star, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Boston Globe. I try to stay away from sites that charge visitors to view their content. Too burdensome for students.

For the first weekly beat post, each student is expected to offer first impressions of the assigned website. I'm looking for evidence of a) having reviewed the site according to the seven criteria listed on my blog post image above, and b) writing ability -- particularly as it relates to Associated Press style, grammar, spelling and punctuation.

For the most part, the beat assignments have helped my students study how media companies present and share online all of their journalism, including, but not limited to breaking news, features, sports, special reports, multimedia (photography, video, audio, data visualization, etc.), blogs and other forms of social media. I'm looking forward to how my students this semester cover their course beats. It's worth 15 percent of their final evaluation. But my students know that this effort is wasted if only done for the grade. Depending on their individual effort, there's so much potential value for their career, whether that ends up being in a newsroom or somewhere else.

OK! I have resisted for months, thinking it wasn't for me, but I just went ahead and did it. I joined Pinterest. My students introduced me in February to the fast-growing social network in which people use virtual online "pinboards" to share images and videos they find interesting. My wife, Mira Lowe, also joined the network's millions of new members around the same time – and my university colleague, Tim Cigelske, raved about its potential at the Social Media @Marquette event where I shared ideas on digital branding for university staff and administrators.

I love social media and enjoy learning with my students how to use it for journalism. But Pinterest seemed, frankly, to be a "girl thing." That's because most things I saw "pinned" on the network had great appeal to women – fashion, jewelry, cats, flowers, celebrities, etc. Clearly I wasn't alone. See "125 Reasons Why Guys Are Scared of Pinterest," "Guys on #Pinterest? Do They Need to Turn In Their 'Man Cards?'" and "A Guy's Guide to Pinterest."

I once thought real men don't eat sushi. That changed when Mira stuffed one in my mouth early in our relationship – another reason I should have known she was trouble, but let's not digress. Mira – whose pinboards are varied and impressive, I must admit – said Pinterest would help me share with others which 53 North American cities I have spent at least two consecutive nights. (She no doubt would prefer the pinboards to my using so much wall space in my home library to display coffee mugs from each city.) We agreed that other possibilities included pinning baseball, basketball and football venues where I have attended pro sporting events. You know, guy things :-)

Seriously, my independent study focusing on becoming a digital educator and digital leader offered another reason to join Pinterest. I look forward to joining my fellow educators in finding ways to use it in our respective classrooms and teaching our students how to use it as journalists – see "How Educators Use Pinterest for Curation."

In any event, figured I would quietly create an account late one night, just to see how it felt. (It didn't hurt, and actually matched my passion for organization and presentation.) It surprised me just how quickly others saw what I had done. One student tweeted that she did a new dance for the occasion. Gee Ekachai, my Diederich College of Communication colleague and renowned social media guru, weighed in via email as only she could: "FINALLY!"

Count me among those who consider the first week of the Summer Olympics as preliminaries to the main events that happen the second week. Don't get me wrong: I admire the talent, skill and dedication of the amazing athletes vying to be the world's best in gymnastics, archery, horseback riding, diving, badmitten, etc. But I eagerly await the track-and-field events – particularly the sprints – and the medal round games for men's and women's basketball.

So I wasn't paying attention to gymnast Gabby Douglas before yesterday. My wife, Mira, was beaming through the telephone each night from Atlanta about her performances. Still, I declined to watch NBC's tape-delay coverage. I did take note, though, when someone posted the other day on Facebook a digital image of Time magazine's cover featuring Douglas. I quickly shared it with others, then glanced at my autographed copy of Time's cover of figure skater Debi Thomas, who earned a bronze medal in the 1988 Winter Olympics. She's also Mira's first cousin!

Of course, when word spread across social media that Douglas had won the gold medal for the all-around competition, I knew what that meant: my night would be lost to watching tape-delay coverage. And I would be happy to do so. Any achievement by an African-American teenager on the world stage – especially a sporting event, even if gymnastics – is something I want to support. (OK, even if later rather than sooner.) I enjoyed learning about her family's bond and sacrifices and witnessing her humility and the collective joy amid Black America. As for the nonsensical matter of the athlete's hair, I'll defer to Monique Fields and her well-stated commentary on NPR.

I imagine many reporters across the country were assigned today to interview black girls about how and why Douglas inspired them, just as gymnast Dominique Dawes inspired Douglas and Thomas inspired her share. Indeed, I fondly remember telling my editors at The Press of Atlantic City, the day after the figure skater had won her medal, that should do just that story. It ran on the newspaper's front page the next morning. I'll post that story on this site later, just as soon as I find the scrapbook of press clippings packed away in storage.