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| Photo Credit: Isabella Balandran/Scarlet Scroll |
When it comes to reading the paper I still love the feel of
newsprint in my hands. There is something about the grey that is left on my
fingers after reading the Times that feels like a badge of honor. Swiping right
of left on my iPhone just doesn’t feel the same, but the digital consumption of
information is a fact of life. While I could continue to wax nostalgic about my
love for print (don’t get me started on ereaders and books, trust me we don’t
have enough time in this post), this past year as a journalism adviser I had to put
my love of print aside and embrace the digital news world.
Mater Dei’s student newspaper, the Scarlet Scroll, is
currently a digital publication. As a first year adviser, and a former
journalist whose stories all appeared in good, old-fashioned print, this year
was eye-opening to say the least. I spent many hours on Wordpress working with
my students to tweak the look of the site. I told my students we had to
consider the experience the reader has when they visited the site. After few
months of working on the computers in the lab and my laptop I realized I had
made a grave error; I had only considered the digital experience from the
perspective of a desktop and laptop. This is not how most us receive our
information. So while the Scarlet Scroll
looked great online from the view of my MacBook, it was a jumble on my iPhone.
Just about every one of my students has a smart phone, and
Mater Dei has a one-to-one iPad program. Students need to be able to view the
publication on their iPads and smartphones with ease, and in a way that is
visually appealing. I’ve started spending more time looking at how major news
outlets present their information on tablets and smartphones. Creating an app
for the paper may be the next step. While my fingers may be missing some of the
grey, newsprint residue, I’m making up for it with the number of swipes on my
iPhone.
Jill Cavotta
Mater Dei High School
Santa Ana, California
Jill,
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the experience of reading on a variety of devices: laptop, smartphone, and tablet. Our on-line newspaper is only 2 years old and while the school is 1 to 1 laptops, the kids prefer their smartphones. So, I had to jump on the bandwagon and came to realize that while the website is accessible on my phone and looks appealing, navigating was a challenge. We have too many drop down tabs and scrolling from one end to the other makes a reader want to quit. I also want to look into creating an app for our site because I think it will generate more viewers.
Sharon Fonzo
Poston Butte HS
San Tan Valley, Arizona
When he was 2, my son would try to swipe pages of my Sports Illustrated. It's amazing how things have changed. I love so many things about smartphones, tablets and laptops, but having access to email, sports scores, apps aplenty, etc., etc., through them makes it very difficult for me to truly engage as a reader. So my fingers remain ink-stained, at least in the morning.
ReplyDeleteSteve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix