North Students Publish ‘3D’ High School Yearbook
North High School’s high tech yearbook comes alive when mobile devices hover over certain images.
Last September we dropped in on the journalism class at North High School that was assigned to create the state of Iowa’s first 3D high school yearbook. It was an exciting concept but a bit of a misnomer. The more precise term for what they set out to produce is “augmented reality.” North students are all equipped with their own iPads and AR is a technology that embeds triggering mechanisms in images. When an iPad equipped with a free app called Aurasma hovers over them the images come alive and unlock videos.
Limitless was chosen by the class for the yearbook’s title and if ever a book could be fairly judged by its cover this is the one. It’s visual and musical. Watch it and listen to it and there’s no way you’re not going inside.
Journalism instructor Ben Graeber worked with Brad Hempstead, sales rep for yearbook publisher Walsworth, to arrange for a spring delivery of Limitless instead of the traditional fall deadline. He thought it would be important for the seniors to have the yearbook in hand by the time they graduated. But he also wanted it to include commencement. What to do. Voila! An image was included that triggers a video of the ceremony. So when the books were delivered they essentially included coverage of an event that hadn’t yet happened.
This is not the Class of ‘14’s parents’ yearbook.
Other images scattered throughout the groundbreaking edition trigger videos of homecoming festivities, the Bears’ Den student pep section and the perfectly timed storybook season enjoyed by the boys’ basketball team, among other subjects.
The project was undertaken by Graeber as the catalyst for a rejuvenated journalism program at North. More students enrolled last year, a trend that continues into 2014-15 now that Limitless has hit the streets. Besides compiling the book last year’s staff had to promote and market it. Sales were up dramatically but there would have been even more if orders could still have been taken when the final product came off the presses.
“Once kids saw it everybody wanted one,” said junior Dori Polk. “People couldn’t believe how cool it is.”
“We wanted it to be something that will last a lifetime and this really will,” added senior Reagan Clay.
The technology costs participating schools nothing thanks to Walsworth’s partnership with Aurasma, a mobile app that’s rapidly going mainstream and is already in use by clients ranging from Coca Cola to the United States Treasury (if you want to hear money literally talk give a listen to the back of a dollar bill).
Hempstead had North’s Limitless on prominent display this week at the annual conference of the School Administrators of Iowa and it drew a crowd of prospective copycats. Locally, Hoover High School is considering following the Polar Bears’ lead.
“These kids were the first group I’ve worked with on something like this and I think they knocked it out of the park,” Hempstead said.
Returning staffers are brimming with ideas that arose on their maiden voyage into territory where no Iowa school had gone before. “It was awkward at first to interview people with our iPads,” said junior Kelsey Ambrose, “but not anymore. We’ll do more this year.”
Junior Taj Milton’s focus was on covering the fine arts program and she helped design the yearbook cover which she describes as one that “will blow your mind.”
Another returning junior, Michaela Fischer, recalled maneuvering herself and her iPad out of the way of referees at wrestling matches she covered. “And we had an idea to capture everybody coming toward the cafeteria from all directions at lunchtime that didn’t work out,” she said. “I think we can make it work this year.”
Like the book says, the possibilities are Limitless.
*Check back for video of the yearbook in use.
