May 2005 — Industry Perspective
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Teaching Digital Communication to All Students
Supporting Teachers and Engaging Students With Digital Communication
I lead a team of former educators who design and build teaching and learning resources for faculty and students. We work with faculty worldwide to identify projects and test classroom content. For example, we have created K-12 assignments that help teachers begin integrating Web and multimedia projects into academic subjects. Our goal was to make the projects small enough to not be technically overwhelming, yet academically substantial enough to show how digital communication enhances subject learning. We designed them so teachers could understand the principles and could easily customize the materials for their classroom needs.
We worked for 18 months with teachers and staff from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Washington state to develop and classroom-test career and technology education curriculum for their Interactive Media Career Pathway. Teachers gave their students a broad foundation in communication tools for the Web, but often sought ideas and resources for teaching professional design principles and development practices. Effective Web communication requires solid technical implementation as well as a design focused on audience needs. We found that students were successful communicators when they followed a professional design process and applied career skills such as interviewing, peer review and team collaboration. When they designed a site for a client (a school club, local business or nonprofit), the lessons about audience goals and user experience truly resonated.
Students are motivated and engaged when they can express themselves through a variety of media. For many, multimedia communication is a first step in owning their schoolwork and sharing it with a wider audience beyond the teacher. Since students are particularly intrigued with multimedia on the Web, a class can analyze its favorite media examples — dissecting how they grab attention, persuade and even teach.
In addition, universities and schools worldwide are now increasingly requiring students to build electronic portfolios that let students demonstrate their understanding of course content and communicate reflections on their progress. They can be simple when based on Web page templates or elegant, complex designs when created by visual arts students. Yet all are relevant digital communication.
— K. Aho
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