Multimedia projects are a sure way to make learning fun. But he benefits don’t end there.
Use of multimedia engages digital
natives while enhancing meaning for
both visual and audio learners. Creating multimedia products allows students to construct their own meaning,
and the process of researching topics,
evaluating resources, synthesizing core
concepts, selecting appropriate media,
and making products develops higher-order thinking. The latest generation of
multimedia tools even adds social networking capabilities for peer feedback
and practice in collaboration.
If all this weren’t enough reason
to incorporate multimedia into
your classroom, consider this: The
new Common Core State Standards
(CCSS) require the use of digital technologies, and multimedia fits that bill.
Of course, as fun and effective as
multimedia projects can be, they also
leave a lot of room for distraction.
Students can spend hours tinkering
with details that are more decorative
than they are integral to the skills
they’re supposed to be building. How
do you make sure that your multimedia projects meet the standards?
The answer may surprise you:
Use a rubric!
Time for a Change
Digital storytelling guru Bernajean
Porter warns that simply incorporating multimedia into project-based
learning will not “change the intellectual work of the content …. Teachers must develop rigorous tasks and
an assessment process that would
increase student learning rather than
just monitor it” (“Where’s the Beef?”
L&L, September/October 2010). With
that in mind, we have found that one
of the most effective tools for guiding
instruction and increasing student
achievement with multimedia is a
well-designed rubric.
Many rubrics for digital products
are available on the internet. Some include criteria such as content knowledge; use of images, voice, and diction; text communication and word
choice; as well as elements for design,
navigation, and oral presentation. Unfortunately, although these elements
worked well for web 1.0 resources and
PowerPoint-type oral presentations,
they fail to address web 2.0 resources,
such as videos, podcasts, and student
commenting. What’s more, most of
these rubrics fail to push students to
evaluate the many resources available
for text, images, video, etc., as they
develop their projects or to ask questions such as: Why is one image better
than another? Why should I select a
specific link? What is the purpose of a
video? What is the central concept of
the topic?
A multimedia project in author
Jeff Royer’s high school biology class
inspired us to design a rubric that ad-
dressed current multimedia tools and
standards. We realized that, not only
have the tools available for creating
multimedia projects changed in recent
years, but instructional standards have
changed as well with the development
of the CCSS. Because most college and
workforce reading is informational
in nature, these new standards take
an integrated approach to literacy by
including reading and writing bench-
marks for all subjects, including his-
tory, science, and technical subjects,
with an increased emphasis on critical
reading of nonfiction texts.
Aligning with the Standards
The CCSS for reading and writing are
at the heart of the rubric we designed
for use with multimedia projects. If
students are to learn from the process
of creating a multimedia project, they
must do more than just cut and paste
text and graphics or add the links that
appear at the top of a list of search
results. They must use informational
texts—both print and nonprint—to
read, summarize, synthesize, preview,
examine, evaluate, select, and explain.
As an introduction to the science
of biology, Royer’s class examined
the subject’s universal themes, such
as evolution, diversity, structure, and
function. He had the students work
in pairs to create multimedia projects
using EduGlogster ( edu.glogster.com),
a platform that allows students to create multimedia posters using audio,
video, text, hyperlinks, and graphics in
a secure online environment. It even
provides a social aspect, as students
can view and comment on their classmates’ products in a safe and teacher-controlled social environment.
The assignment for each pair was to
research a topic and use EduGlogster
to present an overview to their classmates in a meaningful way. The task—
and thus our rubric—would require
multiple reading strategies to support
comprehension and achievement.
Each element of the rubric is aligned
with a College and Career Readiness
(CCR) Anchor standard for reading
informational texts (RI) and writing
(W) in the content area for students
in grades 6–12.
