Today I am going to address the benefits of owning my own iPad in regards to my multimedia class verses having to check one out. Students who have to check out iPads only get them for 24 hours unless they request extended permission. Therefore, these students have to set aside a large amount of time in their busy busy schedules to do all parts of their project in 24, maybe 48, hours. That includes doing interviews, gathering sound, taking pictures, maybe some video, then turning around and editing on the same device and exporting it and finally uploading it to our blogs. It’s a lot of work and its very time consuming.

Because I own an iPad, I have a small advantage over these students. Unlike the other multimedia classes, after we gather everything on our iPad we can’t dump our work off on our computers and edit it a different day. Given that we have a week to work on these, but only 24 hours with the equipment, it almost creates a deadline within a deadline. If you have a big test to study for the next day and a couple busy days to follow, but your interviewee is only available the day before your test, you have to figure out how to get your assignment done despite your own hectic schedule. I personally think that takes away from producing quality assignments. However, with journalism time can be your friend and it can also be your enemy. I guess you could say it is preparation for the real world. Unfortunately though for the students who have to check out their iPads, when they return them, their work is removed for the next student who uses it.

For me, I went and gathered my pictures Tuesday, I did my interview Thursday, and I edited it and uploaded it Friday. I took the entire week to my benefit. I also used Nat sound that I gathered from the previous audio assignment, which I decided not to use for it. For students who have to check out their iPads, they couldn’t have done that. Granted, I still have to check out other accessories, such as mics, but it’s a lot more convenient to have an iPad, because I can work on my assignment when I have the time and I can also be more flexible with my sources schedules. All in all, props to the students checking them out because I don’t know how you’re doing it!