MMP proposal: Developing 21st century students.

Multimedia Montage Project Proposal: Developing 21st Century Students

Background/Rationale:

 I have been teaching high school for 8 years now and each day, week, month and year that

passes by I see the need amongst my students for 21st century skills that would help them survive in this world global citizens. The technology has evolved, we need to evolve to; and much as I have been doing some work in line with this development even though my knowledge was shallow as far as technology is concerned, undertaking this course is opening my horizons the more. In this project I will be looking at how I can build more on these skills through involving students in activities that help them develop the 21st century skills like team work, problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking, Information Communication & Technology (ICT) and communication. Students will work in groups of 10 and will be guided every step on the way. They will use different multi media tools like photography, Videography, Audio, Animation, Blogging, etc.  Students will create presentations as well as share on the class blog to enable peers and wider community to give feedback.

Purpose/Goals: 

The main objective for my Multimedia Montage Project is to develop a generation of students who  are tech savvy and are able to exhibit 21st century skills. It will promote digital citizenry and an empowered learner since the students will use a variety of digital tools to come up with their presentations and postings on blogs. It will facilitate collaboration among the learners and promote team work, problem solving, critical thinking, Information Communication & Technology (ICT) and communication skills which are needed in the 21st century.  The students will create a collection of media work that can act as a library for the future students. 

Rationale & Summary of Project:

The world is evolving and we ought to evolve along. As teachers with the task of shaping the next generation, its our duty to equip our students with the right skills to become global citizens. This multimedia montage project will engage students in the use of media tools and use of ICT to share with peers and the wider community. The students will be taught photography, videography, blogging, animation, and web searching which will hopefully develop their media literacy and improve their visual communication. This will quip them with the right skills to share and participate in a multimedia community.

Audience: 

This project will be geared towards equipping the students with 21st century skills. It looks at high school students in particular grade 8 students. It will however take in any teachers willing to walk the journey of a 21^st global citizen and those parents whose aim is to supplement the work of the teacher in creating a generation of technologically compliant citizens.   

Overview of Your Instructional Plan and Your Learning Objective/s:

The proposal I have for the delivery of my learning skills is grouping the students in groups of 10 and to help build on team work. Initially the whole class will be trained in how to take good photos, make audios, create videos and simple blogging.  The groups will then be assigned different activities like taking photos, shooting videos, editing photos and videos, blogging and other digital activities to help them practice and develop the skills along the journey. The students will then converge in class for different groups to share their work with the whole class and thereafter allow for constructive discussions and feedback. The students in their groups will then share the work through blogs on a class website on google sites or wix where other classes can visit and comment. This would also give an opportunity to interested teachers and parents to give comments and suggestions. In this way we shall develop a community that has one mission of developing the 21st century skills. 

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this project, participants will be able to;

   1.  demonstrate some level of digital citizenry and learner empowerment since the students will be exposed to variety of digital tools.

 2. demonstrate collaboration, team work, problem solving, critical thinking,

Information Communication & Technology (ICT) and communication skills which are needed in the 21st century. 

Technological Tool/s & Rationale:

I will be designing a class website with Google Sites or Wix and integrating different collaborative tools such as forums and/or blogs to engage with resources and instruction on how develop as a global citizen through doing activities that are geared towards gaining the 21st century skills. I will introduce the class to education resources such as communities via Google+ in the hope of alerting them about the boundless possibilities to their learning. 

Learning Theories/Principles: 

I am a firm believer of learning by doing. As such the project will be about different team doing work that helps them gain the necessary skills along the way.  They will be introduced to design elements like color, texture, value size;  principles like balance, contrast, unity;   and theories like proximity, similarity, closure which include s among others. The student will also learn how to edit using movie maker or imovie. The audio element will be done using Vocaroo which I believe is a good source.  The information shared and designs made should be accessible and easy to use by the wider community. I want to provide different ways for different learners to learn and share using technology. I will provide other educational community links on the website for further research to those students who move out of there ways to do the extra ordinary. 

Timeline:

Week 2 – Proposal

Week 3 – edits to proposal using peers/instructor’s comments and suggestions. Begin on    

                 project

Week 4 – Use peer/instructor feedback to revise.

Week 5 – Complete project

Week 6 – Submit final project plus reflection