Description
Student-centered teaching and learning has gained tremendous popularity among faculty and students during the last two decades. Furthermore, the emergence of new and very innovative learning technologies has also contributed to this process with a plethora of academic courses that make use of such technologies in the teaching process. Finally, Higher Education is also acutely cognizant of the importance of the various new skills required by students in order for them to secure rewarding employment after graduation. Thus, along with the conventional skills of literacy and disciplinary knowledge, communication, skills such as digital literacies, digital design and familiarity with WEB 2.0 tools have become additional requirements. Joan Lippincott*, for example, argues forcefully that for such skills to be acquired by students they need to be integrated into the syllabus and enable students to acquire them while preparing multi-media content as part of their assignments.
With Lippicott as the key note speaker faculty from different universities met in a 2-day workshop to discuss these innovative teaching strategies. Organized by the author, at the American University in Kosovo, in March 21&22, 2014, the workshop was entitled ENGAGE STUDENTS IN CREATIVE MULTIMEDIA CONTENT PRODUCTION – A NEW MODEL OF FACULTY-IT-STUDENT COLLABORATION IN A LEARNING INTENSIVE WORLD, and included faculty, IT staff, Librarians and students. This presentation, intends to communicate the key conclusion reached at the workshop to the broader ALT membership. Furthermore, it will bring to the attention of the conference audience a resolution for further ALT action regarding “Student Multimedia Content Production” that was produced by the Kosovo workshop participants. Thus, ALT audience will be informed of an important and rapidly developing teaching strategy that is likely to have an important impact on Higher Education teaching practice.
The workshop focused on the benefits to be derived from faculty collaborating with, Multimedia IT Professionals and Librarians when implementing such teaching strategies. It acknowledged the fact that learning through the use of multimedia content production combines academic content, multimedia skills and the identification of appropriate resources as well as proper copyright procedures. Furthermore, and since such multimedia content is likely to also become the potential sources for future historians and scholars the multimedia content has to achieve high quality standards as well as academic rigor. The production of such a multimedia content by my students at the American University in Cairo in the fall of 2012 is an example of what can be produced by students when supported by a faculty member, IT professional and a librarian. The web site produced is entitled ARAB AWEKENING: A VIEW FROM THE INSIDE, available athttp://www.youthvoicesrise, which has already been recognized by four international awards** This could not have been achieved by myself and the students alone. We needed the expertise of an IT professional and the librarian to ensure high quality academic and multimedia output as well as assurance that images and other resources used adhered to international copyright guidelines. As such this is a student content product which will certainly be of value to scholars and historians who study the Arab Spring as well as enhancing critical thinking and 21st skills for my students. Thus the 2-day workshop concluded that henceforth faculty mayl be teaching in collaboration with colleagues from IT and the Library, who will be actively contributing to the learning process in the classroom.
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* Joan K. Lippincott, Student Content Creators: Convergence of Literacies, November/December 2000, EDUCAUSE Review pp 16-17
**The Awards:
- College Media Association (CMA) Pinnacle Award for Best Multimedia Feature Presentation;
- 2013 Communicator Award of Distinction in the Student Website category given by the International Academy of Visual Arts;
- 2013 Best Practices in Teaching With Tools and Technologies by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).
- A Prototype for Global Student Journalism: Covering Conflict Without Going There” for the Scholarship of Application Competition organized by the Research Committee of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC
Authors
Name | PANDELI MICHAEL GLAVANIS |
Affiliation | PROFESSOR, DIRECTOR OF ACADEMIC COMMUNITY ENGAGMENT & ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR CENTER FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO CAIRO EGYPT |
Country | Egypt |
Participants
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Sarah Sherman
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clairechambers
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Louise Woodland
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tamsyn
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alexfurr
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miravogel
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traceymadden
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catherinemclean
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