iPhone Journalism

Everyone has heard the phrase, “It’s the quality or expense of your camera, it’s how you use it.”  This has always rung true.  Some of the greatest photos I have ever laid eyes on were taken on a phone, not on a $6,000 DSLR.   For years I have saying the same thing to my media production students.  When they are concerned about the lack of equipment, or the fact they do not own a DSLR, I simply say, “that’s fine, use your phone.”  In fact, one could argue that a phone is a better camera in many situations.  When in a “run-and-gun” scenario, it is much easier to whip out your phone, shoot the b-roll, reverse the camera and shoot your interview and send the footage, then the standard fair of hauling a multi-pound camera and tripod, setting up a shot, being a target of bystanders, and then hand delivering the footage.  It finally seems the news stations are getting the idea.

Swiss newspaper Le Temps reports that the TV station Léman Bleu made the major switch this past summer when it outfitted each reporter on the field with an iPhone 6 kit for shooting pre-recorded stories and for shooting live shots.

In terms of cost savings, flexibility, and the use of apps such as Periscope for live reporting, the switch to mobile phones is a no brainer.

Of course many issues may arise, but that is something for another post. 

Full Report and source HERE

FLIPBOARD Conference

I am a big fan of Flipboard.  I use it as my primary bookmarking service, in class, as my news service, my RSS reader, research, and for just wasting time.

What many people don’t know is that Flipboard can be a great tool in the classroom, as well as used for collaboration between educators across the globe.  A few uses for Flipboard in education:

• Using animation, photography, video, and gifs to help bring a subject to life.
• Curating content by subject to create reading plans.
• Creating shared Magazines for students to share research.
• Lesson planning and curriculum research.

Flipboard is putting togethor a virtual conference to help with professional development.

It starts on Saturday Oct 3rd @ 9am PT.

I will let them explain the rest:::

Hello, educators! Please join us and The Flipboard Club on Saturday, October 3, 2015, for a free half-day conference broadcast over Google Hangouts on Air. Learn how Flipboard can be used in the classroom, from pioneering teachers on our platform.

We’ll get started at 9am PT / 12pm ET with some basics about what Flipboard is and how it works, followed by a message from our CEO and co-founder Mike McCue. Then the really good stuff—the sessions—begins. Each one is 30 minutes long, and there will be time for Q&A at the end.

Here’s what we’ll be discussing:

— Curriculum Guides, Independent Study & More: The Teacher’s Guide to Flipboard Magazines  (10am PT / 1pm ET)

Marcelle McGhee is a K-12 education advocate based in Pennsylvania. In this session she’ll give an overview of all of the ways Flipboard Magazines can be used for lesson planning and learning. If you’re an educator who’s new to Flipboard, this is a great place to start.

— Maximize Your Toolbox: Using Multimedia in Classroom Magazines  (10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET)

Linda Bernstein is a professor of social media and journalism at Long Island University, as well as a teacher in the Masters of Professional Writing Program at NYU. She’ll show you how Flipboard Magazines can bring learning materials to life through photography, video, sound and even GIFs. Linda’s approach is effective and fun.

— 5 Ways to Foster Collaboration in Group Magazines (11am PT / 2pm ET)

Amy Vernon is a journalist, digital news consultant, and CMO and co-founder of Predictable.ly. In this session she’ll reveal the magic of collaborative magazines, which allow teachers and students to create “textbooks” together (among other things).

— Extracurricular Activities: Magazines for Clubs, Sports, Newspapers and Beyond  (11:30am PT / 2:30pm ET)

Josh Allen is a technology integration specialist, EdCamp Omaha organizer, President of NETA (Nebraska ISTE affiliate) and co-host of Dads In Ed. He’ll take Flipboard Magazines out of the classroom and show how they can showcase all the great activity that goes on after school.

Head over here to tell us you’re coming and to add a reminder to your calendar. We can’t wait to see you there!

Original Source: https://about.flipboard.com/educators/engage-every-student-flipboard-in-the-classroom-a-virtual-conference-set-for-october/

ET 705 Assignment 5.5 - Digital Story

For my graduate degree in Educational Technology we are currently learning various technologies to supplement classroom learning.  One of these technologies is digital video.  For our assignment we were instructed to create a digital story that is compelling and meaningful, between 3-5 minutes. Here is the prompt: The purpose of this project is for you to create a multimedia presentation in the form of a digital story.  A digital story is the result of a narrative that is written, recorded as audio and amplified with a sequence of images. This story should be compelling and meaningful and may also be personally relevant.  The story should be 3 to 5 minutes in length.

Below is the video I submitted for the assignment.

https://vimeo.com/140542322

The surprising thing about schools with lots of technology

The surprising thing about schools with lots of technology "More time spent on technology in the classroom doesn’t necessarily help kids do better in school, a new study has found."

Uh oh..

This report came out of the LA Times.  It claims that the LA school district conducted a study and found that students who use computers in school "at least once a week perform more than 20 points below students who don’t do this."

Lets keep in mind the current problems that the LA school district is having with technology though.  The LA Unified school district just put the kibosh on a $1.3-billion program to provide students with iPads.  The issue was not necessarily the technology, but it was found they all had faulty software.

I also want to point out that despite the growing use and popularity, iPads are probably not the best piece of tech for 1:1 programs.

Original source and article: http://flip.it/63K3N