Media and the Curriculum

Topic 3: Programming and Learning

The material included in this topic aims to assist you with developing both an informed approach to the teaching of media and your media teaching/learning program (Assessment 2). James Paul Gee examines how the design of computer games can shed light on effective design of teaching and learning. Bill Green and Jo-Anne Reid describe the powerful learning based upon an interactionist/constructivist model of curriculum and learning. They describe five sequential activity types: engagement, exploration, transformation, presentation and reflection. You will also begin to prepare your Assessment 2 (website creation).

On successful completion of this topic you should be able to describe key principles for planning a teaching and learning program.

Resources

1. Below are some notes on programming a media teaching and learning program (3 pages). Below this is a video on planning lessons, which is covered in more detail in Topic 6 (which you can skip to if you wish).

Open publication - Free publishing - More learning

Lesson Planning

The kind of lessons you plan will vary according to your purpose, content and context. However, there are some sound principles to follow or consider when you do create a lesson plan. These include:

Be clear about students' prior knowledge and experiences, which may relate to their prior learning broadly defined, or specifically to their learning in your prior lessons;
Have a clear purpose to your lesson and ensure that students are aware of what that purpose is and how it relates to the work they have been doing;
Link the purpose of the lesson to the curriculum (curriculum documents), the overall objectives of your program, and the learning experiences of the lesson;
Be mindful of any informal assessments you could or may conduct in the lesson, which may guide further lessons or the targeting of specific students for additional support;
Have a clear sequence to your lessons. The sequence should support the acquisition of students' knowledge and skills. A common lesson sequence is:

a phase of introduction/engagement/objective setting
a phase for shared teacher-student knowledge or capacity building
a phase for independent/applied work and
a concluding/reflection phase
ongoing review phases.

Break your lesson up into smaller, manageable blocks - sometimes the longer the time spent on a single task increases student disengagement. You may punctuate a lesson by stopping the class and asking a question, having students share where they are at in their task, clarifying questions students have, etc.
Ensure that you properly guide or scaffold students when you introduce new concepts, ideas or skills. Effective scaffolding strategies include:

modelling a skill or task for your students,
engaging in substantive dialogue with your students,
co-constructing with your students,
thinking aloud for your students (sharing your thinking as you engage in a task),
providing handouts or frameworks that clearly describe a concept,
take students through the process of conducting a process or learning a skill.

Provide a range of student-teacher interactions and activities;
Have contingencies to support students that require additional attention and support.

2. A video to help you create your website.

3. Information about copyright and the internet can be found at creativecommons.org.

4. For more videos on copyright, search TheOnlineTutors channel on YouTube.

Student Presentations

Richardson_Topic3

More PowerPoint presentations from Brad Gobby

Readings

Gee, J.P. (2005). Learning by Design: Good Video Games as Learning Machines. E-learning, Vol 2(1), 5-16.

Reid, J. & Green, B. (1988). A Curriculum Framework: Teaching for Powerful Learning. Perth: Murdoch University.

Programming notes.

Sample program overview: Provided by Sarah Morris.

Readings Feedback

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Activities

Focus Questions

1. List the 13 principles of design that Gee identifies constitute effective learning design principles.

2. Briefly describe each phase of Green and Reid’s Curriculum Framework.

3. Do you think you can predict the success or otherwise of a media teaching/learning program by whether it integrates all of these principles and phases? Explain.

Activities for External Students

1. Complete the above reading focus questions.

2. Complete the Creating Tasks Scenario (download below). This scenario follows our new Media teacher, David, as he creates his media task. Having determined what parts of the curriculum he is focusing on, this scenario gets you thinking about what makes an effective task sheet for your students.

3. Create a lesson using a visual text of your choice, or a text that you may use for your Media program. A lesson plan template is provided below. Feel free to post these on our Facebook page (a demonstration video of lesson planing will be posted next week).

4. Take a look at the Course Outline Sample file below. This includes a course outline, assessment outline (with audit), and instructional pathway over 6 weeks for a real Media class. Choose a topic for your media teaching and learning program. Begin creating e a Unit/Course Outline that includes an instructional pathway, or how your learning/topic develops lesson-to-lesson, week-to-week. Once your ideas firm up, fill in as much detail about your program ideas HERE.

5. View the ‘Create your website’ video (see below).

6. Read Assessment 2 (about creating your website) in the Assessment section of your Unit Guide.

7. Begin creating your website. I recommend that you work on this for an hour of two and then write down some reflections on: the challenges you faced as they begin the task, what resources or processes you found useful in completing the task, and what insights about learning and task-setting did you gain from the experience of building your website.

Creating tasks scenario.doc
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Template Lesson Plan.doc
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Course Outine Sample.pdf
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Template unit outline.doc
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Workshop Activities

1. Individual workshop presentation and discussion.

2. Complete the Creating Tasks Scenario (download above). This scenario follows our new Media teacher, David, as he creates his media task. Having determined what parts of the curriculum he is focusing on, this scenario gets you thinking about what makes an effective task sheet for your students.

3. View the ‘Programming and lesson planning’ video and take notes.

4. Create a lesson using a visual text of your choice or a lesson idea you would like to use for your Media program. A lesson plan template is provided above. Feel free to post these on our Facebook page.

5 Take a look at the Course Outline Sample file above. This includes a course outline, assessment outline (with audit), and instructional pathway over 6 weeks. Choose a topic for your media teaching and learning program. Draft an instructional pathway, or how your learning/topic develops lesson-to-lesson, week-to-week. Fill in as much detail about your program ideas HERE.

6. Discussion: choosing program themes, using texts, scaffolding learning.

7. Read about Assessment 2 (Creating a website). Conduct a brainstorming of topics, layouts, designs, activities, technologies, etc. Use the workshop time to create an instructional pathway, or how your learning/topic develops lesson-to-lesson, week-to-week. Share with others. Fill in as much detail about your program ideas HERE.

8. Begin creating your website during the workshop (if time allows). As you do, reflect on: the challenges they face as they begin the task, what resources or processes they find useful in completing the task, and what insights about learning and task-setting do they gain based upon their experience of building their website.

9. Bring laptops/Mac books to next workshop.

Discussing Your Programming Assignment

1. Create a short list of questions about programming. Post below or on our Facebook page. Feel free to offer your thoughts in response to people's posting.

Have you thought of anymore possible topics for a Media program of work?

Brainstorm possible media teaching topics... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Programming Discussion & Questions