For the first time, a collaborative program created by Amy Schmitz Weiss, Associate Professor at San Diego State University's (SDSU) School of Journalism and Media Studies, brought Bloom's technology into the classroom with journalism students and professional journalists. The semester-long program helped initiate discussions and educational exercises for gathering location data in news and using it to engage with local communities.
Between February and May 2019, fifteen students enrolled in the journalism course and were assigned to independently choose a news topic to report about in San Diego. With the assistance of journalists from NBC 7 San Diego, the students planned their coverage and proceeded through the reporting and publishing processes to form their story. The students were then guided with Bloom to geotag the location where their story took place, allowing them to easily gather geographic data and to position the story on an interactive map. The map collectively showcased all stories from students and was embedded on NBC 7 San Diego’s website for their readers to explore.