Meet the learning lab shepherds: @k88hudso @lingshahu and @PippinLee

We’re in the final days leading up to the learning lab. We currently have more than fifty-five people registered and expect the last few registrations to come in today and tomorrow.

Alex is hard at work setting up the course on P2PU and putting the finishing touches on the first assignments.

If you are registered for the learning lab, keep your eye out for a welcome e-mail on Friday that will provide instructions on how to join the live lecture and your first assignment.

With roughly sixty participants attending lectures and submitting assignments, there are going to be a lots to review each week. To make sure that every participant’s work is read and to ensure that quality feedback is provided, and – generally – to help make things go smoothly, I’m excited to announce the following additions to the learning lab team:

• Kate Hudson is a Toronto graphic designer, managing editor of York University’s student newspaper, violist, and co-founder of www.openjournalism.ca. From data visualization to live studio recordings, she’s thinking big about making unlikely connections between design and other creative fields.

• Lingsha Hu is a second year business student at Schulich School of Business, York University. As a newbie to the world of journalism, she is interested in entrepreneurship, design and technology.

• Pippin Lee is making ideas click as photo editor of Excalibur Publications by day. Long distance runner, app-developer-in-training by night. Co-founder of www.openjournalism.ca (@openjo on Twitter)

I met this power trio at a local Hacks/Hakcers meet-up, and was taken with their passion for the idea of reinventing student journalism. They’re putting that passion into practice through the www.openjournalism.ca project:

“OpenJournalism.ca was created to help bridge a growing gap we saw between potential and practise in online student journalism. Most of us know that the online newsroom is changing the way people tell stories, but we’ve encountered many barriers to being able to innovate. Our goal is to create a platform that encourages discussion and idea sharing between students, professionals, and educators, so that every student journalism organization around the world will be able to work in an environment that pushes the boundaries of journalism. The first version of OpenJournalism will be launched in the coming weeks, but in the mean time, check out OpenJournalism.ca to see a little more about our vision, or tweet @OpenJo to get involved in our research.”

I’m excited that Kate, Lingsha, and Pippin have agreed to join the team as ‘lab shepherds’ – if you’re in the lab, you’ll be meeting them on P2PU, so please take a moment to say “hello.”

That’s it for today.

P.S. Please bug @benrito if you have any questions about the conclusions of the challenges, or the invitations process – both of which should be wrapped up today, or tomorrow at the latest.