In high school and for my first year of college, I will honestly say I mostly used my iPad for Facebook and Netflix. And even though I still use my iPad for Netflix and Facebook, I now rely on it for the news as well. But the truth of why I only used my iPad as a fun device before this class is because I never really knew it could be used for much more. I always believed that the apps in the realm of learning would cost money, money I didn’t want to spend, and frankly didn’t have. But this class has opened my eyes to see a new side of the iPad. The side of the iPad marketed in commercials as the everyday and everywhere device.
Before, trying to find all my news on a computer constituted searching through New York Times, scrolling through twitter, and checking Facebook pages of ABC, CBS and other major networks. But now it’s all in the same place. Flipboard, which I believe as one of the greatest apps for news, filters my twitter and Facebook feed into one, combined with cover stories of the day and popular news. “Settle It” allows me to catch up on the political colloquy I never fully understood. While always noticing that Obama’s Health Care bill was a great debate in the presidential election, all of the news articles I came upon about it were about whether or not people were in favor of it, not what it was about. “Settle It” allowed me to comprehend what this bill was made of and how it will effect the people. Not only is the iPad great for political news, but it also allows me to compress all of my sports news into one click of an app rather than searching through endless blogs and websites. Bleacher report allows the reader to choose which specific sports and which specific teams they want to show up on their news feed. All of these apps and many more enhance my learning experience in the news today.
As a general statement, using my computer to find news always seemed like a task, yet on the iPad, apps allow me to find the news I want to find in a more efficient manner. I believe that learning an effective way to encounter news is one of the most important lessons one could give to an aspiring journalist.