The Yearbook World of Scott Geesey
from Jostens Yearbooks of central/northern Pennsylvania
ARCHIVE - NOVEMBER 10, 2019
A GREAT ERA IN YEARBOOK STORYTELLING: A Jostens Yearbook and the ReplayIt Mobile App
Hello! Just two weeks to Thanksgiving break? Sure enough, where has fall gone? And real snow is in the forecast this week along with possible record breaking COLD. Yikes, I still have leaf raking to do!
Did your photographer students get great views of the fall foliage? Better hurry, the leaves are falling fast. The autumn colors weren't the best this year, maybe because of the summer dry spell, but I've seen some beautiful views on my travels.
Good luck to all of those high school football teams still alive in the playoffs this week. Unfortunately my local team, the Penns Valley Rams, dropped out of the action with a loss but not before quarterback Aaron Tobias set a new PA state record for passing touchdowns in a season with 54 total in just 11 games. Congratulations Aaron! I've been honored to be the Rams PA announcer for the last several years, what a great season!
Jostens Yearbooking has a great extra tool - the ReplayIt mobile app. Are you using it?
We at Jostens have always prided ourselves in being the innovators in the yearbook industry. Our Jostens YearTech software came out with the Picture Placer tool in 2001, the first easy to use way to place digital images on a yearbook page. Before that it was fairly difficult to place digitals on a page - Picture Placer made it simple. Our yearbook competitors quickly scrambled to copy us.
Then several years later came Jostens Yearbook Avenue and YearTech Online, which began as a rather rudimentary website tool to create yearbook pages but quickly grew into a robust source to easily create an entire yearbook on any computer without special software. We referred to it as our own "moon shot."
YTO took the yearbook world by storm as thousands of schools saved a ton on software charges and were able to work on their book from any computer, anywhere, anytime 24/7. Again, our yearbook competitors quickly scrambled to copy us but still haven't. Little known fact - YBA is the only yearbook creation tool with its own official U.S. patent.
And the entire Jostens Yearbook Avenue website with all of its many tools and services is still unchallenged, highlighted by the amazing Digital Classroom and its extensive list of video tutorials on demand. And then there's the fantastic Seven Minute Starters classroom education series, now with around 200 lessons on many yearbook and journalism topics and all with tie-ins to the new Common Core, 21st Century Skills and ISTE standards. It's everything a yearbook or journalism teacher needs.
But we have another tool to help us with our yearbook storytelling (yearbooking) - our Jostens ReplayIt mobile app. The idea with the app is to get your entire school audience engaged and involved in your effort all year long. How?
First, we know that most students, especially at the high school level, are toting a smartphone or other mobile device. And most of them LOVE to take pictures with it. That means we have an army of photographers out there who can take pictures of most anything at anytime - let's put them to work for your yearbook effort with plenty of fresh images.
With the ReplayIt app, any user can upload multiple images at one time instead of just one at a time. It's a huge timesaver that should help you and your staff get a LOT more images for use in your book this year, or just to view and enjoy on the ReplayIt app.
And one amazing feature of ReplayIt is our exclusive Jostens moderation team. These folks work 24/7/365 examining every single image to make sure they are appropriate for viewing by your students (if you so choose.) EVERY image, one at a time, and they do this in under five minutes, incredible. They have a strict set of guidelines so there are no surprises for you. This is a Jostens exclusive - to my knowledge NO other competitor offers this service, which would make me rather nervous working with them.
But it's not all still pictures. Jostens schools have been able to upload videos to display on their ReplayIt.com website and the mobile app. I know from experience and observation that most students love watching videos on their phones or tablets - now they can watch YOUR videos on your ReplayIt app. We're adding sound and movement to your storytelling. If you have a broadcast team or AV group at your school, here's a chance for them to display their work for all to see now and for years to come.
The one major key for ReplayIt is that there are no limits - you can display as many images and as many videos as you wish, only YOU are the limiter. And at year's end we'll save everything in your annual digital Time Capsule so students can enjoy watching this material on their mobile device or computer for many years to come.
Let's put this amazing tool to active use with your entire school community now and through the rest of the year. And oh yeah, it's FREE - yes, really, free. There's even a feature to display business ads you sell in your book - give your advertisers another outlet for folks to see their message..
I know our Jostens competitors are scrambling again. They have their own apps but they aren't as extensive as ReplayIt. Now you know for sure that Jostens is the true technology leader, and we plan to stay that way.
Just wait to see what we have coming in the future, starting with the new "Flash-less" Layout Pro page creation tool in the spring. Testing is continuing this fall and all is going well. For my Jostens advisers stay tuned for more updates via my weekly email channel...