I was happy to see this Canadian singer-songwriter whom I’ve been a big fan of since the late 1970s. When I first learned he would be in Reno this month, I bought a ticket, then spread the word to the other fellows.

After the others confirmed, I bought tickets yesterday morning and had my original ticket at seat no. 288 cancelled. When we went to “will call” desk outside the Celebrity Showroom, I learned that two tickets had been cancelled, my original and one from the five purchased that morning. That left four at a six-top table (no. 212), at which the other two had since been sold. No seat for me now? I had a small outburst, then checked my anger. We ended up with one of the closest booths (no. 15), where there had been a cancellation, which you can see in the seating chart here. I wanted one of those booths from the start, so it all worked out.

It was a great concert. Afterwards, we all had legendary “Awful Awful Burgers” (Awful big, Awful good) at Rosie’s Grill in the casino. The restaurant has been serving them since 1955, according to the menu. Most of us finished them.

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Thursday night was enchilada night, with food cooked by Dennis Joyce. A fine slide show of that evening in our apartment can be found at blog of Kimiko Fieg-Peterson. Thanks, Kimiko.

I’ll recap some classes from last week, and what’s ahead for our final week, soon. For now, we’ve got river trip planned today and possible cookout tonight at our apartment.

Before Wednesday’s exercise, I barely knew which side was up on my new iPhone. Having now worked with it in the field, I understand how powerful a tool it can be: it works well, it’s with you always, it’s inconspicuous, and there are many equipment add-ons and visual editing programs that can enhance it even more.

Here’s a video I shot with my iPhone during Wednesday’s simulation exercise. I sent it back to our producer team in the lab, where it was edited by Amity Paye, who added a voice over to it.

So, we’ve had several leaders in their fields visiting this week. I’ve mentioned Pat Andrews and Dennis Joyce, who led that continuous news cycle simulation on Monday, and then again yesterday, with the producer teams from the computer lab out n the field and the field reporting teams in the lab. That put me in the field covering the Reno Rodeo– with my iPhone alone– and sending text, photos and videos to my producer team, which reviewed, editing and posted to this blog.

Jack Rowland of the St. Pete Times, aka The Gadget Guy, was in the house Tuesday and Wednesday. He updated us on a galaxy of cool gadgets, new and old.

Yesterday we received a helpful presentation on “how adults learn” from Michael Roberts, project director of NewsTrain, followed by an effective exercise in which two-person teams began developing a training module for their newsrooms back home. Those lesson plans will be completed and presented next week. The six modules focus on Liveblogging, Maps, Search Engine Optimization, Soundslides and Basic Video. The result will be that each fellow will take home six ready-to-go training modules on some essentials skills for the multimedia journalist-in-training.

Sheryl Marsh, a fellow Alabamian with the Decatur Daily, and I are designing an SEO module, focusing on headline writing for the web.

The go-to blog for “All Things Multimedia” noted in an earlier post has changed. The new location is found at Multimedia Editing. The blog is produced (and edited!) by program co-director Deborah Gump. You will find there the latest program schedule, links to blogs for all fellows, and a range of excellent research resources, plus some hilarious video clips. Don’t wait, visit that blog now. It’s an excellent addition to our program experience, as a resource now and for the future.

Roommate Scott Waltman and I agreed yesterday to host tonight’s get-together dinner of faculty and fellows, where Dennis will roll out his culinary expertise with a much-anticipated Mexican feast. It will be the first time we’ve all been together outside of class that I can remember and should be a lot of fun. Thanks in advance, Dennis.

The two teams of reporters covered the Reno Rodeo for hard news and feature aspects of the event and sent their reports and visuals back via mobile reporting devices (cells and smartphones, pads and laptops) to the studio, which the producers reviewed, edited and posted to a Reno Rodeo blog. A final story was written and posted by each team.

Yesterday’s work can be found here: http://www.maynardmultimedia.org/renoroundup/.

In truth, I cringe now at the final story, which I had main responsibility for writing. I’m glad that only my byline is carried at the top of the story. We’ll get a content critique of our work later today. I tried to go into the blog just now to make some edits but was locked out. Darn it.

I followed a suggested online tutorial to set up my “blogroll” and kept forgetting one step along the way and now have what you see. I’m sure it’s simple to fix, but, well, it’s often the problem that it takes a long time to figure out that simple thing–time I don’t have right now. If I can get some help before, during or after class this week, I’ll try and make a few improvements to the appearance of this blog.

The video shows the UNR classroom where much of our multimedia editing work gets done– or, in my case, tries to get done. Here you see my fellow fellows during a working lunch with Fogarty. She talked about her unexpected journey on the road to becoming the Grammar Girl.

Editor Rob Holbert, in his “Media Frenzy” column, also notes Curt Chapman’s third-place award for Best News Feature. Curt is Baldwin Living editor for Gulf Coast Newspapers, which owns the Courier and five other twice-weekly newspapers in Baldwin County. Reporters and editors of those papers all post stories to baldwincountynow.com.

Thanks, Rob.

So, in order to make the most of this experience, I’m thinking of ways to upgrade my current laptop’s capacity, as well as learning some of the multimedia possibilities of my new iPhone, so that I can practice at night and on weekends.

We only get a  few hours each day at the computer lab, and that’s proving not enough for this slow learner.

* * *

Here’s the schedule for today, the end of Week Three:

1. Morning Drill: “Game Time” with Merrill Perlman, adjunct associate professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and former director of the copy desk at the New York Times. Through Merrill Perlman Consulting, she offers consulting and editing services to such clients as the New York Times, Pro Publica and the Poynter Institute.

2. “The Big Type: Heads and Cuts on Display” with Perlman and Deborah Gump.

3. “Better Know a Maynard Fellow”: Michael Thompson, assistant editor, Portage Daily Register.

4. “Disruptive Innovation: Leaving Your Great Ideas Behind” with Larry Dailey, professor, UNR Reynolds Chair of Media Technology.

5. “Editing Rim” with Perlman and Gump.

Kelly Scott described how the Reno Gazette-Journal manages its newsroom during large breaking news events, including its multimedia coverage. The paper uses an annual training drill to make sure all news staff are prepared for such events. She emphasized how such hands-on training and planning in advance are key to covering breaking news effectively.

James Ku gathered the class at the front of the room, so we could see up close his presentation of analytics data from RGJ. He showed how the paper’s readers most often visit its website, including its mobile device version. He explained how the newsroom has responded to that data– e.g., by having a staff member arrive earlier to post relevant stories in time for when the largest numbers of those readers visit the site.

We also had a working lunch with Reno resident Mignon Fogarty, aka the Grammar Girl, and heard of her rapid rise to fame five years ago, after she posted some grammar tips on the web, leading to a book deal, creation of the Quick and Dirty Tips website and books, a waterfall of podcasts, and other ventures. From doctoral student to grammar media sensation, almost overnight, Fogarty still can’t believe it all happened, she said.

I shot video of Scott, Patel and Fogarty and uploaded a short clip of Patel asking Fogarty a question to You Tube, which I was to include in this post. I couldn’t find it last night or early this morning, so I will try and get it posted here from campus before classes start.