Jingwei Viola Liu
Excellence in Professional Practice Indicator C
Indicator C: Promote and model effective communication and collaboration among stakeholders using digital-age tools.
Artifact:
Artifact & Course Description:
Course Title
GDIT 705: Courseware Design
Course Description
This course taught the courseware development process, focusing on the analysis, design and development phases. Focus was placed on using emerging interactive technology for more engaging classroom teaching and research.
Project Description
This project involved developing and publishing an online digital storytelling course aimed at educators. The course is published online and is accessible by clicking on the above link, choosing “self-learning”, and entering the code GDIT705. The course has an associated lesson plan which is also provided.
The use of multimedia in teaching helps students learn, but teachers do not always know how to incorporate multimedia in their curricula. This lesson plan was designed with the focus of providing instruction to help teachers use different online multimedia to communicate their lessons. Teachers taking this public online course would be shown how to develop a script via a storyboard platform, and employ iMovie to create storytelling instructional content. Also, those in the course would learn how to evaluate digital storytelling for instructional purposes.
Reflection
As I proceed through my courses, it is more and more apparent to me that learners of all ages respond more to multimedia-based learning than material that is presented in a traditional way, such as in a book or lecture. But I also observe that some individuals take naturally to developing multimedia more than others. Some people do not use social media at all, and others use it all the time, and even incorporate it into their work. Teachers are challenged to always adopt new ways of communicating to improve learning, but teachers also have diverse personalities and interests. Not all of them can immediately adopt new technology and easily apply it in the classroom.
This course is aimed at teachers who want to maintain effective communication in their classroom. It empowers them to use digital-age tools that other teachers are using already in their classrooms. By developing this class, I am promoting the use of digital storytelling in the classroom, which I believe can be an effective way of teaching. Also, digital storytelling naturally allows collaboration between teachers and also teachers and students. With a course like this, teachers who feel they do not know how to incorporate new technology into the classroom can take this course and get up-to-speed.