Inverting JournalismiPad and iTunes U revolutionize the way we educate students

NicoleKraftAssistantProfessor(clinical)@nicole_kraft

Main Points

• The college classroom must train students like an entry-level job

• Learning cannot stop when class sessions are done.

• Don’t assume these students learn like you did.

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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.

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• Find information

This is where students

• Seek out learning

• Become engaged

Introduction

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.

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.

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.

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OBJECTIVEOurgoalwastoidentifyhowtheiPadcouldbeusedtoaugmentjournalistictraininganddetermineifuseofsuchtechnologywouldacceleratestudentlearning.

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My Courses

METHOD 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.

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

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.

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, several 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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• 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.

• While students did increase their iPad use for the second assignment, 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.

• 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.

• 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.

And the research showed…

The Results

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Students Speak

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Thank you!