A 21st Century Internet Based Multimedia
Production Course
Presented by
Mark Springston
State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego
A 21st Century Internet Based Multimedia
Production Course
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Focuses on strategies for teaching students to create and
publish multimedia to the Internet. Course goals, instructional
resources, and student work examples will be presented.
My presentation today will include the following topics:
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Two high schools with strong graphic/multimedia production
programs.
Current and planned curriculum offerings in multimedia
production at the SUNY Oswego Department of technology.
Strategies I have developed for teaching multimedia design
and production with college technology education majors.
– Student multimedia portfolios
Course content that I think needs to be included more
purposefully in the future.
There are two high school teachers that have
developed media production courses that I think are
exemplars in our field.
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Bill Mulvey at Geneva High School, Geneva, NY
http://ghscomlab.genevacsd.org/index.html
Dave Faux at Hamilton High School, Chandler, Arizona
http://davidfaux.com/
http://davidfaux.com/MOVIEs/Graphic%20Design%20Intro%20
mov.mov
The School of Education is receiving 23 million dollars
to renovate both of their current buildings.
– Our department has been working on revising our curriculum
so the design of new laboratories delivers the curriculum.
In our revised curriculum, there will be 3 courses that
directly relate to multimedia design and production.
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TEL 1XX Computing Technology and Information Systems for
Technology Careers (Also meets a SUNY General Education
requirement)
TEL 3XX Communication and Multimedia Systems (the only
required course that we currently offer)
TEL 4XX Gaming Simulation Virtualization and Animation
(elective; hopefully dual listed as graduate)
The course description for: TEL 1XX Computing
Technology and Information Systems for Technology
Careers
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A foundational laboratory-based course for students aspiring to
work in fields that require advanced knowledge of computing
technology and information systems. Skill development and
conceptual understanding are emphasized. Topics include
editing graphics, desktop publishing, organizing data,
configuring operating systems, preparing technical
presentations, posting web pages, and researching/synthesizing
information from multiple sources.
TEL 3XX Communication and Multimedia Systems
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An intermediate course in multimedia design and graphic
production with emphasis in creating content for the WWW. The
course provides knowledge, skills, and experience in five areas
of Communication Systems: Graphic Production; Audio/Video;
Optic Systems; Animation Systems; and Multimedia Systems.
The spiral curriculum is one designed to help students
create organized knowledge structures in a field or
area. There are several principles:
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“Reinforcement: Once learned a topic or subject is reinforced if there is
continuing exposure to it. A common complaint of teachers is that
topics learned by students early in the curriculum are forgotten later. In
the spiral curriculum students are continually looking back on subjects
previously learned.” (Harden, R. M. & Stamper, N., 1999)
Moving from simple to complex, building upon prior knowledge.
Integration of content from different courses and disciplines, instead of
creating meaningless boundaries.
Creating a logical sequence that the student is challenged, but not
overwhelmed.
Higher level objectives that require an application of knowledge and
skills, instead of recalling facts. (Harden, R. M. & Stamper, N., 1999)
Some course goals are being written so concepts are
revisited in increasing depth in the course sequence.
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TEL 1XX: Create a basic web page with a consistent menu
system by producing, editing, and structuring HTML or similar
tags. Knowledge, Practice, Authentic Learning
TEL 3XX: Create a web-based portfolio and/or client web site
using industrial web authoring software, while considering
accessibility issues. Knowledge, Practice, Authentic Learning,
Social Justice
TEL 4XX: Create a dynamic, web-based or multimedia site that
is designed for user tracking, interactivity, and accessibility.
Knowledge, Practice, Authentic Learning, Social Justice
Teaching Strategies: What will it take to build a
knowledge structure in a technical area?
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Syllabus – Ken Bain’s Workshop: What the best college instructors do
(show course examples before going over course expectations)
– Create an appetite for the feast, before going into how to prepare
the meal
Expectations help to get to the bigger picture
It is important to communicate time and effort
expectations. From the course syllabus:
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This is a 300 level course, and the content area being both
technical and creative is inherently time consuming. You will get
out of the course what you put into it. The average student
should expect to work consistently on class related items
approximately 3.5 hours per week. If you do not orient yourself
to the course, procrastinate on your designs, or do not have
basic computer skills in organizing your work, you may require
more time. This is not necessarily a negative item, if you put in
the necessary time and effort, because you will be bringing your
skills up to date. Once again, you will get out of the course what
you put into it.
Note that students are in class for 5.5 hours per week.
Create and organize instructional resources that are
sequenced around key concepts. I’ve created four units:
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Design – designing and creating a mockup of the web site
using Photoshop.
HTML – using a simple text editor to make a site that includes
media.
Produce – using Dreamweaver to produce a functional portfolio
web site based on the Photoshop mock-up made in the design
unit
Motion – using Flash to make simple motion graphics and a
navigation system
See interface of how they are organized
Focus on groupings and seeing tools and concepts in
varied contexts.
Exercises help prepare students for the
assignment, and can take different formats.
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Exercises (easy access to start and finish files)
Some individual
Some collaborative
Some teacher demonstrated
Some tutorial based
Some discussion based
Assignments allow students to extend/apply what they
learned in the exercises
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Balance team and individual work
Include requirements that help student encounter the key
concepts, principles, skills and attitudes
See the assignment sheet
Critique and have access to past student work
(composite, photos, eFolios, videos)
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Critique and have access to past student work (composite,
photos, eFolios, videos).
Use web hosting services or other avenue (e.g., school
intranet) to display student work.
After this semester, I will have over 200 student portfolios
on-line with a web hosting subscription.
Always keep a back-up of student work locally.
Let’s take a look at a few portfolios.
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http://www.springep.com/tedfolio09/brand
http://www.springep.com/tedfolio09/gleason
http://www.springep.com/tedfolio09/ranalletti
http://www.springep.com/tedfolio09/fromm
In the Communication Systems course the web-based
portfolio is the integrative project. See examples.
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“Growth and learning progress portfolios, like other assessments, work
best when integrated fully into your teaching. Some writers advocate
making the portfolio the center of you instructional planning and
teaching activities so you and your students will interact intensively with
the portfolio contents. This is called the portfolio culture model of
conceptual change” (Nitko & Brookhart, 2007 citing Duschl &
Gitomer, 1991).
From Communication Systems (TEL 363) syllabus:
For most of your work in this class, you will display it in a web-based
portfolio. The portfolio should look and function well, and describe the
tools, materials, techniques, principles, and processes you used to
create each assignment. The purpose of the web-based portfolio is to
develop and demonstrate your web working skills, and by describing
the process you went through to create your work, reinforce and further
your learning.
I show students some of my work. I try to model how I
considered different design factors and trade-offs.
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HD touching lives: http://www.springep.com/HDpublished3/
TECA East site: http://www.tecaeast08.com/
In one case, I had students develop some course
content through a video assignmet.
Customize your course resources/course atmosphere
for student success
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Comm Lab Computer Set-up (shortcuts)
– Shortcut menu states what the software is for: Flash for creating
motion graphics
– Can make a lab workspace for each Creative Suite Product
• Can highlight items or even remove items from a menu for
younger students (look at in Photoshop)
Course web site embedded in a course management system
Conceptual/instructional videos to enhance some
content. Better if you can place on reserve in the library
or on-line.
Math skills are important in multimedia design and
production.
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Geometry
– For example working in a 3 D-space
– Show the example in Flash
Algebra for creating functions and variables
– Calculating needed resolution
– Show simple ActionScript
Some scripting ability is important in advanced
multimedia design and production.
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Custom Scripting (show button instance example and random
star example)
Object oriented programming
Understanding key concepts is important. Some
selected examples are:
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Resolution for different purposes
Designing for multiple output devices and accessibility issues
Styles and their emphasis in different software. What are the 2
main reasons to use styles?
Workflow and productivity tools
It is important to focus on key skills, and not let too
many step-by-step instructions block more general
understandings. Below are selected examples:
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Knowing the different tools and how to use them effectively
– Selecting the right tool
For example, using Photoshop to resize images for different
devices or print
– Not driving up file size when bandwidth is an issue
– What is sufficient ppi for a print
– Why doesn’t ppi equal dpi
Creating designs based on a percent of the device
The following are my conclusions.
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Every classroom situation is different, so each teacher must
develop strategies for meaningfully allowing students to engage
the content.
Organizing course resources so that students are exposed to
the content so it helps to build a knowledge structure.
Multimedia creation can provide students with a meaningful
experience going through the design process and technical
production.
Custom (not pre-designed templates) made electronic portfolios
have the ability to teach many skills and concepts related to
multimedia design and production.
Discussion and questions
References
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Duschl, R. A. & Gitomer, D. H. (1991). Epistemological
perspectives on conceptual change: Implications for educational
practice. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 28, 839-858.
Harden, R. M. & Stamper, N. (1999). What is a spiral
curriculum? Medical Teacher, 21(2), 141-143.
Nitko, A. J. & Brookhart, S. M. (2007). Educational assessment
of students (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Person
Education.