Above: A previous meeting of Knight Chairs and foundation staff in Austin, Texas.

This weekend, the Knight Chairs in Journalism are meeting in Miami to discuss what they’ve done this past year, what they’re planning to do, and why. These are accomplished professionals with university tenure at two dozen campuses in the United States.

They teach innovative classes, do interesting experimental projects, build university-based programs and write or speak as “thought leaders” who help point the way to journalism’s best 21^st Century future.

Here are some highlights about what they said at last year’s meeting on teaching journalism in the digital age.

Just a few examples of recent work:

• The Investigative News Network, co-founded and chaired by Brant Houston, has grown from 25 to more than 60 nonprofits and raised more than $1 million. The group helps its members develop editorial and business strategies that will sustain nonprofit investigative reporting.
• Both Steve Doig and Michael Pollan joined top faculty nationally on the award-winning student investigative project, News 21, which focused on food safety. UC-Berkeley’s nutrition label redesign contest was one of the most popular websites in News 21 history.
• Sarah Cohen created a tech review group called Reporters’ Lab, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Freedom of Information and created a new class focused on accountability in government programs.
• Mark Goodman completed the most detailed and definitive picture of the state of American public high school media, the Scholastic Journalism Census.
• At the 2011 Online Journalism Awards, Rich Beckman’s students captured six finalist nominations, more than any other professional or academic organization except the L.A. Times.

In a future post, I’ll cover some of the projects the chairs have in the works.

By Eric Newton, senior adviser to the president at Knight Foundation.