Making Mojos: How iPads Enhance Mobile Journalism Education

Making Mojos
How iPads Enhance Mobile Journalism Education
Nicole Kraft
Assistant Professor (clinical)
@nicole_kraft
Natalee Seely
PhD Candidate
University of NC-Chapel HIll

Main Points
• The college
classroom must
train students like
an entry-level job
• Technology can
augment student
learning if incorporated
into instruction.
• Don’t assume
students learn like
you did.
@Nicole_Kraft

McMillan & Dwyer (1989)
• As a result of educator/student interactions within a
particular course, both parties anticipate that some
learning will occur, some change in behavior will have
taken place and some personal growth will be evident.
• To facilitate such change, educators should ask, to ask
'Do I need to change my style of teaching to match the
learning needs of these students?'
• Investigate the possibility of matching teaching style
with the students' learning styles.
@Nicole_Kraft

@Nicole_Kraft
• Find information
This is where students

• Become engaged
@Nicole_Kraft

Journalism students can no
longer focus on being just
writers or photographers or
videographers. They must
leave college with a
multitude of media skills to
have the greatest potential
for career success.
@Nicole_Kraft

iPad and supporting apps have
created a “one-stop shop” of
journalistic that enable students to
develop those skills, including
notebooks, recording devices,
research platforms and writing.
@Nicole_Kraft

We conducted a yearlong study of
beginning journalism students
utilizing one-to-one iPads to
examine the impact of iPads and
appropriate apps in a “flipped”
journalism classroom environment
(where lectures are homework,
and skill development and
execution are done in class.
@Nicole_Kraft

@Nicole_Kraft
OBJECTIVE
Our goal was to identify how the iPad could be used to augment journalistic
training and determine if use of such technology would accelerate student
learning.
@Nicole_Kraft

• A $25,000 impact
grant was used to
purchase 30 iPads
and iPad cases,
wireless keyboards,
microphones and six
tripods for two news
writing courses during
Autumn/Spring
semesters,
2013/2014.
@Nicole_Kraft

@Nicole_Kraft
Students had a
course developed
for them that was
navigated through
the iPad in iTunes
U.

iPads were configured
with several apps,
including Pages,
Twitter, GarageBand,
iMovie, iTalk,
iTunesU, Evernote,
Dropbox, Storify,
USA Today,
Instagram, and AP
Stylebook.
@Nicole_Kraft

Students were assigned five different types
of articles during the course of the
semester, including news and features,
and each assignment contained a
multimedia (video, audio, photo) and social
media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook)
component.
@Nicole_Kraft

Students completed five online surveys—a
pre-assessment, three post-assignment
surveys, and one post-assessment—
throughout the semester-long course.

In addition to the surveys, interviews were conducted, and
additional data on students’ experience with the iPad was
gathered from student blogs.

And the research showed…
• Student confidence in the iPad as a tool did significantly
increase at the end of the semester.
• Most students utilized all the tools included in the device, from
the video and audio recorder and camera, to note-taking apps,
word processors and the AP stylebook.
• Initial feelings of confusion or doubt seemed to dissipate as
students became more familiar with the device.
@Nicole_Kraft

• Most students fulfilled our goals for the course by fully utilizing
iTunes U and the iPad, and student work improved.
• Both the number of items students published and their grades
reflected an elevated and expedited learning environment.
@Nicole_Kraft

• Used as both educational platform and multimedia tool, iPads
engaged students more deeply than conventional classroom
interactions and enabled future journalists to learn and
execute concepts faster in a “real-world-like” environment.
@Nicole_Kraft

• Students reported higher perceptions of their writing and
reporting abilities at the end of the semester. Student
knowledge of how social media is used in journalism,
personal experience with social media, and knowledge of
journalism technologies also increased by the end of the
semester.
@Nicole_Kraft

• Students reported positive experiences with the device’s
portability and the convenience of having multiple tools in
one.
• Camera/video quality and note-taking resources were also
commonly reported as advantages.
@Nicole_Kraft

Challenges
• Digital native is, in part, a fallacy.
• Students increased their iPad use for the second
assignment, but iPad use dropped for the third assignment.
We believe this was a result of increased difficulty of
assignments, prompting students to go with the technology
with which they were most comfortable.
• Some students reported that the device felt bulky and
awkward when shooting photos, and a few had difficulties
getting used to the digital keyboard. A few comments were
made about difficulties multi-tasking and a general sense of
unfamiliarity.
@Nicole_Kraft

Making Mojos: How iPads Enhance Mobile Journalism Education

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Making Mojos: How iPads Enhance Mobile Journalism Education