2013 Summit Programme - The Centre for Excellence in Media ...

PARALLEL SESSION 1: Thursday 19th 14.00 - 14.40
STUDENT VOICE:
Media Students as Potential Producers of Open
Educational Resources
Geir Petter Laingen
Cantor
9132
abstracts
The paper is based on the author’s PhD research into a pedagogic practice at Sheffield
Hallam University, where Media Arts undergraduates create multimodal resources to demonstrate
the learning outcomes traditionally assessed by essay.
Drawing on theories by Dewey (2011) and Mezirow, (1991) learning is conceptualised as a
social communicative process, where knowledge is not merely transmitted and absorbed, but
appropriated, transformed and communicated by the learner. Media Arts students with their
diversity of creative skills are well positioned to create such resources, using the tone and the
formats that they and their peers find engaging. Using Weller’s (2012) typology of ‘big’ and
‘small’ OER as a point of departure, the paper evaluates the potential of student-generated
artefacts to function as open educational resources. In-depth interviews with the students
provide their perspective on the benefits, challenges, and implications for their creative and
academic identities.
The session participants will view short video-examples of student work, and discuss their
form, content and OER potential. We shall consider the extent to which such practices may
foster a participatory culture within the university, creating opportunities for informal learning
within the formal process, and ‘affinity spaces’ within and alongside the institutional structures
(Jenkins et al 2009).
Key words: open educational resources, student as producer, participatory culture,
multimodal assessment, learner engagement.
Geir Petter Laingen is currently undertaking a PhD in education and technology at
Sheffield Hallam University, where he is also Digital Fluency Advisor and AL in the department
of Media and Communication.
Media Education Summit 2013 21