Fall 2012
Faculty Spotlight - Multimedia Texts
By Michael McVey, Teacher Education Department
To be an excellent teacher who uses educational technology, a professor needs to find that sweet spot where
knowledge of content and pedagogy merge with technology skills.
Two EMU professors have found that intersection through similar projects involving iPads and the creation of
interactive multimedia texts. Using the free iBook Author software from Apple, as well as a variety of video
creation applications, Professor Mary Rearick (Teacher Education Department) is engaging undergraduate
students in the creation of electronic texts on global issues. Just down the hall in the Porter Building, Assistant
Professor Amanda Allen (English Department) is working with honors students to develop a collection of
documents focusing on Children’s Literature as field of study.
The task of developing collaborative materials in these two classes demonstrates teamwork and a highly refined
work process. In both cases the students work together to receive informal peer feedback as well as formal
evaluations to revise, develop, and then publically share their digital resources.
By developing digital stories around issues of global concern, Mary Rearick’s students in The Reading and
Writing Connection not only investigate global issues such as poverty and resource depletion but they also
develop many of the skills outlined by The Association for American Colleges and Universities through their
values rubrics.
In Amanda Allen’s class, students take on different topics for their text as they examine the unique aspects of
both adolescent readers and the role of Children’s Literature in the academic world. In both classes, they share
the production roles necessary to build their electronic artifact. By the end of semester, they hope to share their
work, perhaps on iTunesU. At the end of Mary Rearick’s class, she hosts a celebration of their texts and a panel
of librarians formally evaluates them.
In both classes, students receive coaching in the technological aspects of creating the book including audio and
video recording. One of the difficulties each professor has faced is to find a computer on campus with the minimal
operating system requirements. For iBook Author, you need a Mac with OS X 10.6.6 (Mountain Lion). This has
provided only a slight hardship for students who have networked to find where they can find computers with these
basic system requirements both on and off campus.
Rearick hopes that faculty members will do far more collaboration on projects such as this, and encourage
professors, librarians, and educational technologist to integrate new and exciting technology into their teaching in
ways that develop new learning communities.