Krause Innovation Studio – Learn Lab Proposal
Course: LLED 480 – Media Literacy in the Classroom
Semester: Summer 2012
Students: 6
This is a proposal for the use of the Krause Innovation Studio space during the first
summer session for my course, LLED 480. In addition to the fact that the content of the
course connects well with the mission of the innovation studio (i.e. innovative
pedagogy), I am interested in the research component of how students in our
secondary English education program are making use of their notebook computers as
part of EDUCATE. The following information provides a rationale for the use of the
Learn Lab for my course.
Innovative Pedagogy
In LLED 480, I focus on collaborative learning and group tasks. Much of what my
students will be doing will be collaborative and small/large group discussion based
work around the topic of media literacy. The Learn Lab is designed in a way that
provides opportunities to explore how students share and construct knowledge
about what it means to be a teacher and how these understandings of the field
evolve as they work with peers in a collaborative way. Students will be collaborating
and interacting on a daily basis, from working together to come up with definitions
of media literacy terms using video and Internet tools to holding small group
workshops where students are in charge of introducing some digital technology tool
(like Prezi or Glogster). The Learn Lab enables students to work together in small
groups or come back together in a large group discussion. The Learn Lab will
provide an opportunity for me to extend my understanding of how students share
and construct knowledge through collaboration, and contribute to our
understanding of innovative pedagogy.
The students will work well in the BYOD atmosphere as they all are part of the
EDUCATE initiative. The affordance of the Learn Lab to project from the tables to
one or all of the projectors in the room enables our class to share and work together
in a student centered format, instead of one where the students or myself have to
stand in the front of the room in a transmission style orientation.
Research on Innovation
The focus of my research is how beginning teachers utilize digital technology to
share and construct knowledge about what it means to be a teacher and how these
understandings of the field evolve as they work with peers in a collaborative way.
Through working in the Learn Lab, I am hoping to gain a better understanding on
how teacher education students use the tools (i.e. notebook computers) and
instruction they receive at the university to (1) share and construct knowledge
about teaching and (2) work with peers in a collaborative way. My belief is that
students’ use of digital tools to construct conceptual understanding
affects/transforms the way in which they see their future K-12 students interacting
with digital tools. As a result of using the space, I would like to contribute to the
intellectual work of the Krause Innovation Studio by providing a guest blog post on
the Krause Innovation Studio blog site. If other outcomes seem to make sense at the
end of this course, I would be willing to explore those as well.
Description of the Course
The 480 course is designed to support and enhance pre-service teachers’ knowledge
of media literacies, teaching, and learning in a diverse society. Students will engage
in various media, and participate in critical discussions of media text effects,
messages, representations and production.
By the end of this course, pre-service teachers will know and understand:
1. How to access technological resources that can be used to generate
teaching/learning workshops.
2. How to develop and use classroom-ready materials in an English education
class that focuses on media literacy.
3. How to organize and lead a workshop on a critical topic/concept/issue in
media literacy.
4. What is meant by “critical” media literacy?
5. Ways to identify media manipulation, controversial representations and
messages.
6. The relationships between word, image, reality and ideology.
7. Some degree of the impact media has on the construction of human
perceptions, prejudices and lived experiences both locally and globally.