We planned that class to begin to identify news value, but Karlie already had a jump on things. She had sent me a note with the desire to write on the USA-Mexico World Cup qualifier set for our own Crew Stadium.
My response: “I love the story idea. We can definitely localize–and will start brainstorming it tomorrow. Thanks so much!”
Less than 24 hours later, Karlie had a story on its way to publication in The Lantern, and all of it had been developed on her iPad.
It all started in our class discussion, when we asked Karlie to explore her story topic, and she mentioned she had seen what seemed to be hundreds of people lined up in the Ohio Union awaiting a limited number of tickets.
“That’s a story,” we told her. “You need to go cover it now!”
We quickly familiarized Karlie with the apps she would need–Pages, Instagram, Evernote–and suggested sources to question and what questions to act. We asked she keep us posted on Twitter.
By 2:15 she was out the door and headed to the Union, iPad in hand.
By 6 p.m., she was sending me a draft, which I edited on the iPad and sent back, and by 7 p.m. we had her story and her photos sent to The Lantern editors.
When I arrived at Ohio State the next morning, there on the front page was the first story Karlie had ever written on her iPad–or ever, for that matter–complete with a photo she had taken with her iPad.
I could not be more excited or more proud of her.
Karlie, too, was pretty thrilled with her effort, as she wrote in her blog:
I just finished writing my first article on the iPad–my first article period–and it was such a rush. The way it all came together was so spur of the moment and I loved it. I can’t wait to experience this many times over this semester.
I had a theory when I applied for the Digital First grant that iPads would make my students more quickly educated in journalistic skill and more productive.
A month in, it looks like we were on to something.
By Nicole Kraft – Kraft of Writing – @Nicole_Kraft