I just read a great article about engaging K-12 students via game creation. The key word here is engage. Game creation does necessarily engage students, and game development involves cross-disciplinary teamwork - you have programming, art, video design, sound and music, etc. Yet another example on the power of games for education!
Reading through the article led me to a great video on USC's Institute for Multimedia Literacy. These folks get it. At PSU we may never have a specific degree in Multimedia Literacy, but a certificate program is a possibility. USC has that, and it's working. By taking students from any discipline and working with them over a four-year period, the students obtain skill sets that will give them a leg up in the workforce.
Holly Willis, Director of the IML, has great vision and I'd love to hear her in person describe the development of the IML. For example, instead of using Second Life to replicate the real world, she's investigating how we can build unique learning environments in SL that truly utilize the affordances of the environment. Imagine a living syllabus, where each week you enter it to experience that week's content and interactivity. Wow. That's one thing IML is working on. Maybe we can invite her to PSU in the future.
Another thought that came from my explorations here is how the PSU Digital Media Commons would be a big part of any multimedia certification program. If we were to take the knowledge Chris Millet and others from the DC have gathered over the years, combine that with our efforts in our Teaching With Technology Certificate, we could really build a great certificate program in multimedia literacy.
Is this possible? Certainly! I'd love to engage in dialog on this topic.
Reading through the article led me to a great video on USC's Institute for Multimedia Literacy. These folks get it. At PSU we may never have a specific degree in Multimedia Literacy, but a certificate program is a possibility. USC has that, and it's working. By taking students from any discipline and working with them over a four-year period, the students obtain skill sets that will give them a leg up in the workforce.
Holly Willis, Director of the IML, has great vision and I'd love to hear her in person describe the development of the IML. For example, instead of using Second Life to replicate the real world, she's investigating how we can build unique learning environments in SL that truly utilize the affordances of the environment. Imagine a living syllabus, where each week you enter it to experience that week's content and interactivity. Wow. That's one thing IML is working on. Maybe we can invite her to PSU in the future.
Another thought that came from my explorations here is how the PSU Digital Media Commons would be a big part of any multimedia certification program. If we were to take the knowledge Chris Millet and others from the DC have gathered over the years, combine that with our efforts in our Teaching With Technology Certificate, we could really build a great certificate program in multimedia literacy.
Is this possible? Certainly! I'd love to engage in dialog on this topic.
It is a really interesting idea. I've not read the article yet, but I am intrigued by the sound of a MM Literacy certificate that could be offered alongside the TWT. How would that take shape? I know we are looking to expand the TWT in new directions and this could be something that could be a part of it.
IMO, we need to leverage the process we've developed for the TWT Certificate with the tangible products we'd expect someone earning the cert to develop. Coming up with a list of deliverables would not be too difficult; the tough part would be identifying where individuals could receive the instruction needed to develop materials and where they would have access to development resources. The Digital Commons is a strong possibility, and we know certain colleges have other resources available to tap.
We should start by nailing down the purpose of the cert and the list of deliverables. Again, pretty easy to do and not much time to invest. We can benchmark against others to round that all out. Then we step back and assess if we proceed or not.
The long-term benefits here are exciting. We'll have some students and hopefully some staff and faculty that earn the cert. The students have a bump on their portfolio, something they can share on an e-Portfolio. Staff will be better equipped to help in decisions for teaching, learning, and administrative efforts. I doubt we'll get many tenure-track faculty, but the tenured and adjunct market may surprise us.