Towards a situated media practice: Reflections on the implementation of project-led problem-based learning

In the field of media practice education, project-based learning is utilized as a major pedagogic paradigm with the aim of mirroring professional practice within the curriculum. However, if the use of project-based learning is to be considered as more than just a way of administrating student activity, then educators need a critical understanding of how problem encounters order practice within the life cycle of a project. The drawing together of practice-based, project-based and problem-based approaches allows us to see the overlapping nature of these approaches and also differentiate them as unique pedagogies in their own right. It is argued here that this tension between similarity and difference requires a new way of thinking about mirroring professional practice within higher education, one which offers a theory of project-based learning as a productive pedagogy which places problem encounters at its heart

Leveraging video annotations in video-based e-learning

The e-learning community has been producing and using video content for a long time, and in the last years, the advent of MOOCs greatly relied on video recordings of teacher courses. Video annotations are information pieces that can be anchored in the temporality of the video so as to sustain various processes ranging from active reading to rich media editing. In this position paper we study how video annotations can be used in an e-learning context - especially MOOCs - from the triple point of view of pedagogical processes, current technical platforms functionalities, and current challenges. Our analysis is that there is still plenty of room for leveraging video annotations in MOOCs beyond simple active reading, namely live annotation, performance annotation and annotation for assignment; and that new developments are needed to accompany this evolution.Comment: 7th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU), Barcelone : Spain (2014

Video in development : filming for rural change

This book is about using video in rural interventions for social change. It gives a glimpse into the many creative ways in which video can be used in rural development activities. Capitalising on experience in this field, the books aims to encourage development professionals to explore the potential of video in development, making it a more coherent, better understood and properly used development tool - in short, filming for rural change

Social Justice Documentary: Designing for Impact

Explores current methodologies for assessing social issue documentary films by combining strategic design and evaluation of multiplatform outreach and impact, including documentaries' role in network- and field-building. Includes six case studies

Teaching Queer Cinema With Independent Media

In lieu of an abstract, this is the article\u27s introductory paragraph: One of the most exciting dimensions of teaching film (and popular culture) is learning what students already know and then generating an informed and critical epistemology from the familiar. Teaching LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) representation in film and media presents rich opportunities to build on student familiarity — with such mainstream breakthroughs as Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2006) and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (2003-07) — and to formalize the knowledge and challenge the assumptions that students have about LGBT history, lives, and struggles for representation. With the commercial success of gay-themed work and the acceptance of such out celebrities as Ellen Degeneres, the recent past is a teachable moment of both social transformation and market logic, and students of diverse backgrounds have illuminating perspectives on and important stakes in making sense of it. By focusing on film and media by and about LGBT producers, teachers can connect questions of political and aesthetic representation and expose students to independent media sources

Designing the Teacher: Applying \u27Design Thinking\u27 to Improve Composition Pedagogy and Practice

College composition courses have conventionally relied on alphabetic, print writing as the primary method for constructing meaning, but contemporary communication practices are increasingly multimodal and media-based (Palmeri, 2012; Yancey, 2011). While many teachers and scholars advocate that students benefit from engaging in the production of multimodal texts, fewer educators create digital and new media products themselves. Through a meta-analytical approach, this project explores the potentials that the act of design offers teacher-scholars for improving their pedagogy and practice. Utilizing a design thinking framework, the generative analysis of established scholarship, primary research, and authentic experiences provided significant insights into the cognitive, physical, and social processes that make up design, which suggest a need to contemporize language and adapt approaches to suit modern materials and methods for composing. For instructors, the fruitful knowledge gained through design is not limited to a single product or person but should be applied to classroom practices to improve the teaching of multimodal projects. Further, teacher-scholars are encouraged to share their media products through digital platforms to serve as accessible resources for other educators, which might encourage and improve the instruction of design and cultivate change in the culture of the writing classroom by fostering an inclusive and innovative space for composing

Teaching, learning, and assessment activities used in additional language courses offered in blended contexts to promote the development of learners’ language skills in higher education

Abstract : This master’s dissertation explores the teaching, learning, and assessment activities that higher education instructors use in additional language courses in a blended format from an instructional design perspective. The types of activities that instructors use in order to develop learners’ language skills and the design of blended language courses have been under-researched in the literature, even though blended learning approaches in language learning have been used approximately since 2000 (Grgurović, 2017). Given the fast technology development, particularly web 2.0 technologies and other digital tools, and the possibility of learning an additional language, it becomes highly important to understand how additional language teaching and learning take place in these contexts. Moreover, the COVID¬ 19 pandemic has accelerated how technology is used by higher education institutions (Skulmowski & Rey, 2020). Therefore, in this study, the focus is on the language activities performed in the different types of blended courses, such as blended courses, blended online courses, and blended synchronous courses, as well as the mode in which they are performed: asynchronous, synchronous and face to face. The general objective of this study is to describe the additional language teaching, learning, and assessment activities used by instructors in blended courses to promote additional language skills development in higher education. To attain this objective, I formulated two specific objectives: 1. Describe instructors’ choices of teaching, learning, and assessment activities, and digital tools used in additional language blended courses. 2. Describe the complementarity between asynchronous, synchronous, and face to face activities’ modes. This study uses a qualitative methodology that is aligned with the objectives of the dissertation. The selected sample consists of three additional language instructors who taught English, French, and Spanish in a blended format at a university in Quebec province. The data collection methods include a semi-structured interview and the use of course documents. The data analysis methods consist of a descriptive thematic analysis and a documentary analysis. Moreover, the results and discussion are presented in the form of an article that has been submitted for publication to the Japan Association for Language Teaching Computer Assisted Language Learning Special Interest Group Journal (JALT CALL journal). It should be highlighted that this study uses secondary data from a larger study called “Élaboration et validation d'un modèle explicatif de la persévérance et de la performance dans les cours hybrides en enseignement supérieur” (Lakhal et al., 2019) which was subsidized by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The results of this study show that the activities performed in the blended courses for additional language learning are varied and are influenced by the affordances of technology and the blended courses’ modes. Generally, in these courses different skills and areas are developed: speaking, listening, reading, writing, subskills (i.e., grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation), digital competency, metacognition, and content transfer and consolidation. The participants used the asynchronous mode for doing content transfer activities, developing learners’ digital competency, developing their comprehension skills, and preparing them for synchronous and/or face-to face modes. When it comes to synchronous and face to faced modes, the participants selected them to promote interaction and collaboration among learners, thus it involved the development of productive skills such as writing and speaking. Nevertheless, the four skills are spread in the different course modes, so they are not specific to only one mode. Concerning the digital tools used in the courses, they were diverse and mainly linked to the licenses available to the university. However, the study specifies a range of digital tools and the activities they support, some are specific to language teaching and learning. Finally, these results are relevant to the field in that they contribute to filling a gap in the scientific literature concerning the intersection between additional language teaching and learning and blended learning, they add knowledge to the discussion available in the scarce scientific literature about this intersection, and finally, they provide insights to language instructors in higher education teaching in blended formats about the different activities available to be taught in blended courses and reasons to implement them

Composing on the Screen: Student Perceptions of Traditional and Multimodal Composition

When college composition teachers carefully consider the role and function of multimodal composition in their classrooms, they can enhance the teaching of writing and communication, engage and empower students, and better prepare students for the challenges and possibilities of life in our rapidly changing digital age. To meet this teaching challenge and study the impact of multimedia on student writers, I designed this mixed-methods case study to examine how video documentary essays function as a form of multimodal composition in first-year composition courses and how these types of texts may enhance the teaching of traditional composition skills, as well as contribute to the academic and professional communication skills of students. The study was designed to determine how students react to multimodal composition and how they view the benefits as well as pitfalls of composing new kinds of texts in their first-year writing courses. This teacher research was conducted at a mid-sized, urban community college located in southern Tennessee. I used surveys, interviews and reflection essays to collect the data from student participants. I then analyzed the collected data for this project. My conclusions are that students learn valuable skills in the multimodal composition process, such as organization and time management, in addition to learning how to use movie-making software. Students also develop a keener sense of audience and purpose when they compose video documentary essays. Multimodal composition can be used to teach traditional writing and rhetoric. Multimodal composition can be used to enhance the teaching of writing and communication, engage and empower students to participate in convergence culture, and better prepare them for the challenges and possibilities of life in our rapidly changing digital age