A very large part of my background and experience is film and television, and I well know how deep an impact multimedia presentations have on an audience. An audience can remember the details of a movie or a TV episode, but that same audience cannot necessarily recall the lecture they heard or the text they read with the same detail. "Didactic" is the label once applied to stories which teach; now, as a consequence of social learning and blogging I know the contemporary label is, "edutainment." (Thanky you, Ty, who's a fellow ITEC student.)
In situ learning is a godsend. It's a powerful tool for creating knowledge in the medical field, wherein paramedics are placed in real-life scenarios to develop, test, and hone their skills before they are sent into the real world. (Thank you Dee, an ITEC grad.) This type of learning is how I acquired the skills to function as a Story Editor and Production Executive in film and TV. It was once called, "on the job training." The same can be said of my technology background. It's also the same type of learning I am enjoying during an internship with KQED and the Digital Storytelling Initiative, run by Leslie Rule, an ITEC grad.
I learn in these ways, and I teach with these methodologies. Within a traditional classroom setting with a range of students whose understanding of networking technology runs the gamut from nil to considerable, I asked myself the following:
- How do I keep those with existing knowledge interested?
- How do I teach those without any knowledge?
- What do the students need to learn about networking that will be useful to them?
The answer is that I do not "teach" anything. I ask the students to "do." Build a network. Those with more experience share their knowledge with those who have little or none. Use a multimedia presentation to show how a network is built. Use Flash animations to show how the devices on a network function. Then pose questions which are open for discussion within a live forum. What I do is guide the process by providing the tools needed by the students to explore the subject.
2 comments:
I agree what you mean by how deep an impact multimedia presentation can grab the audience's attention.I really like visual and activites. It helps me learn and understand the information. Do you think it will be overwelming if students have no technology background at all? Teach them basic computer is hard enough what more of the new stuff.
Devi, thanks for the comment. I am currently interning with the Digital Storytelling Initiative at KQED. In our workshops, a Digital Story is created by each participant (including children and teens) using iMovie. Teaching that software to the workshop participants is an element which the workshop director, Leslie Rule (an ITEC grad), has turned into an art. She teaches just enough about iMovie to get everyone started, so that the software process does not overwhelm the creation of content.
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