New London HS Yearbook goes digital

NEW LONDON - Students at New London High School are taking charge of the yearbook and giving it a modern twist.

The yearbook class is getting a makeover as the focus shifts from producing a physical book to creating a digital archive for the photos. Although they will still produce a yearbook, it will be much smaller and only contain pictures of classes, teams and school-sanctioned activities. The purpose of the class is to give students a chance to practice their photography and eventually, to have a place to upload and show their pictures continuously throughout the year.

Previously the class was offered as an English credit, but due to a shift in faculty, it is offered as a fine arts endorsement. Yearbook teacher Joe White explained he would like to change the name next year and call the course digital archive, an explanation for the work the students are doing.

While a traditional yearbook will still be produced, students in the class are taking pictures with the hope of uploading them to a digital platform to be shared with more ease. He explained that the school is trying to keep up with the times and with the implementation of social media, pictures are shared through other mediums and yearbooks are not as in-demand as they once were.

During the last school year, New London reportedly sold around 30 yearbooks although there were 280 students in the sixth-12th grades. The school recognized that they were losing money from the venture and sought out a new way to capture the history.

'The statement you will hear around here all the time is, ‘Is it good for kids?'” White said. He explained that the previous class, although good for kids, was not in tune with the direction of society. The new class will focus more on photography and the art of the trade than putting together a yearbook.

Instead of solely relying on the yearbook for publication, the students take pictures to be posted on the eight large screen TVs the school has mounted around the building. The logistics of this are not yet worked out but White said the idea is to give the yearbook a modern twist while still giving students a course they can enjoy and learn from, and that also benefits the history of the school.

Through a grant the school received last year, most of the cameras are provided by the art department. Students with their own cameras are allowed and encouraged to use them as well. White says the whole point of the program is to encourage students to get involved and learn to work together to problem solve and troubleshoot.

'They really please each other,” he said. 'The nice thing about being in a small school like this is these kids have known each other forever so they can be brutally honest.” The students help each other to critique the pictures and find the best way to produce the most high quality photos. 'We stress quality over quantity but to get the quality you have to have a ton of photos,” he said. 'If you're not shooting you're not contributing.”

Principal Scott Kracht said a recurring goal at New London is creating 'employability”; that is, giving students the opportunity to do and try things that can help them with future employment. Once the technology side gets worked out, he hopes to make the course cross-curricular with the business students to teach them a new task as well.

The hope is to get the pictures onto the screens so they are available for purchase and the business students would be in charge of the orders, printing and delivery. Kracht says that by having the two departments work together, they are keeping up with the demand for pictures but also teaching the students about running a business and the importance of teamwork.

'Not only is there a photo side, but there's also potentially a business side,” he said. 'It gives the students real-life opportunities and shows that you're always part of a team.”

White says he is very proud of his students who have risen to the challenge and are taking their roles very seriously. The responsibility of taking all the pictures and producing them for a greater purpose motivates them to do their best work. 'There's a huge thing with the work ethic side of it (because) they have to be at things outside of school,” he said. 'But they make it a priority and they shoot everybody, not just their friends or certain people. I'm just so proud of them.”