All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College

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resources that provide superb step-by-step
instructions in video and with screencasts
using a wide range of the very tools students
are learning to master. In addition, digital
media online courses have a student café in
which students help each other learn some
of the more difficult aspects of using Twitter
and other social media tools.
Students typically enroll in this popular
study with a wide range of skill sets. Some
students start the course with excellent
writing skills – superb writers, expressing
an interest in writing and storytelling,
but tentative about their limited digital
skills. Other students begin stronger on
the technical side, with less confidence
in their ability to write a good story. The
shared student spaces in this study provide
them with the opportunity to express their
concerns and share their work with their
peers. This highly supportive environment
allows students to share strategies and
provide feedback on the development of
each other’s projects, which is a wonderful
preparation for peer critique.
One way to foster critical analysis,
evaluation and thinking is through the
implementation of carefully designed rubrics
that allow students to participate in peer
critique and evaluate digital media artifacts.
For example, in the Digital Storytelling
course, students apply a digital storytelling
rubric to the review and evaluation of
professional digital stories, as well as those
of their peers. The rubric used in CDL
studies was adapted from a tool created
to evaluate digital stories at the University
of Houston. 2 A wonderful side effect of
applying this rubric to the analysis of
different story projects is that students
gain a strong grasp of commonly accepted
criteria for the creation of digital stories as
they evaluate them. It helps them understand
where their own stories fit within the
spectrum of other digital narratives.
This type of course, which has a focus on
both storytelling and digital media mastery,
provides all levels of students with the
opportunity and skills to gradually acquire
competency and literacy as the study
evolves. In my experience, even the student
with the least technical skill among her peers
has been able to create a blog; learn Twitter;
review, research and evaluate digital media
resources; and create digital stories that
combine elements of written narrative, audio
commentating, visual resources, moving
images and music. All of these skills form
the building blocks of digital media literacy.
Digital Art and Design, Introductory and
Advanced. These courses have been revised
to include a stronger emphasis on applying
social responsibility and ethical principles,
peer critique, blogging (as a platform
for portfolio development and artistic
statements) and close analysis.
Information Design. This course has been
substantially revised to include all of the
recommended practices of digital and media
literacy education, along with stronger
theoretical foundations and emphasis on
contemporary mixed media practices.
History and Theory of New Media. This
was a guided independent study using the
now defunct Google Wave (incorporated
at the request of the student, when Wave
was in its early experimental stages). This
was a very successful study in which the
student communicated privately with me
using Google Wave, a rich and flexible
environment that supported integration
with most types of media, and allowed
for both simultaneous and asynchronous
dialogue. Students included their preliminary
reflections, research, experimentation and
dialogue in the Google Wave environment,
but selected a number of other tools to assist
with their study. Once refined, research
and reflective statements were published
on student blogs. This study is now being
proposed as a CDL course using alternative
media environments to create personalized
learning experiences.
Studies in Mobile Media. This is a new
set of guided independent studies open to
students across the college. Current students
are working on independent projects using
a variety of mobile media. For example,
one student is focusing on the medium for
artistic expression using photography and
video. Another is applying the study to
create the research foundation for a business
application. The text for this course, Mobile
Technologies: From Telecommunications to
Media (Goggin, 2008), provides a critical
analysis for the use of mobile media in
global contexts, thus applying the principles
of teaching digital and media literacy
described above.
V. Danger Zones
The flip side of digital and media literacy
is that access to unfiltered information
puts the student at risk of encountering
compromising content, behaviors and
practices. Staksrud, Livingstone, Haddon,
and Ólafsson (2009, p. 18) and Hobbs
(2010, p. 29) wrote a comprehensive report
on research of children’s use of online
technologies in which they categorize
associated risks in three areas: content,
contact and conduct (see table below).
Content Risks
This includes exposure to potentially
offensive or harmful content, including
violent, sexual, sexist, racist or hate
material.
Contact Risks
This includes practices where people
engage in harassment, cyber bullying and
cyber stalking; talk with strangers; or
violate privacy.
Conduct Risks
This includes lying or intentionally
misinforming people, giving out personal
information, illegal downloading,
gambling, hacking and more.
suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring 2011