MULTI-MEDIA AUTHORING TEMPLATE

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Name: Sara Dobbins
PART A: Describe how students could create and publish an original movie, audio file, podcast, or vodcast in order to achieve
required learning standards. Challenge: For an A provide an idea where the learning activity reaches a LoTi level 4a or
above. To do this you will have to design a project where students engage in higher-order thinking and publish their work to an
audience that will use or care about the results. Broad feedback for their work is also a great way to boost interest and
performance.
Grade Level: 1
st
Grade
Content Area: Science
Technology Used (check all that apply): Movie Audio Podcast Vodcast Other: (list)
Content Area/Grade/Standards/Topics Addressed:
Content:
S1L1. Students will investigate the characteristics and basic needs of plants and animals.
a. Identify the basic needs of a plant.
1. Air
2. Water
3. Light
4. Nutrients
c. Identify the parts of a plantroot, stem, leaf, and flower.

Technology:
1. Creativity and innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using
technology.
1. Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes
2. Create original works as a means of personal or group expression
6. Technology operations and concepts
Students demonstrate a sound understanding
of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
1. Understand and use technology systems
2. Select and use applications effectively and productively
3. Troubleshoot systems and applications
4. Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies
2. Communication and collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to
support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
1. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and
media
2. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats
3. Develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures
4. Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems


Brief Description of Learning Experience: What learning standards will be addressed? What will students and
teachers do? How will the project be introduced? How long will it take to complete? What audience will use/care about
the multimedia projects students are creating? How broad is this audience? How will student work be assessed and by
whom? Who will provide feedback to students about their work?
With the guidance and direction of the teacher, students will collaborate with a small group of students to create a video on one
of three topics:
1. The Plant Life Cycle
2. The Four Basic Needs of Plants
3. The Parts of a Plant
The students in the group will work together to create a script and illustrations that will lead viewers to a basic
knowledge of their topics. Students may create a story, a music video, an interview, or simply create a factual video. The
project will take approximately 2-3 weeks of in class work to create a finished product, and the teacher will need to create
a video shooting schedule so that students know when they will have access to the teacher and camera to create any live
MULTI-MEDIA AUTHORING TEMPLATE

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video that they need for their project. Student work will be assessed by the teacher and their peers using the following
criteria:
Group Participation and Collaboration
Evidence of Contribution
Accuracy of Information
Video Appearance
Audience Engagement
During the process, teachers will have students turn in drafts of scripts, attend conferences with the teacher, and submit
reports on their own evaluation of the process so that everyone is receiving feedback constantly.

The finished project could be of interest to anyone who wanted to learn about these specific topics or to elementary
school children learning about the film process. The product will be published on our classroom blog and presented at
our end of plant unit party.

Student Engagement/Higher-Order Thinking: What LoTi level would this lesson be and Why? Which indicators of
Engaged Learning are strong and why?
This lesson is a LoTi level 5. Students are assuming adult roles and publishing their materials for an audience. Learning is
student-directed and allows students to make choices about their learning.

This lesson has several indicators of engaged learning. The most prevalent are collaboration, teacher facilitator and guide,
student producer and teacher, and authentic multidisciplinary and student directed learning tasks. Other indicators are
certainly present, but these are the ones that will have the most emphasis during this process.
Importance of technology: Why is using a multimedia authoring tools critical to the project? Could the project be
completed without this technology? What would be lost without using it? What other types of technology, if any, are
going to be used in the learning experience?
In this particular task it gives students the opportunity to show what they know rather than asking them to just regurgitate
information. The use of a multimedia-authoring tool is critical because it will excite students and helps them use higher level
thinking skills to produce something of interest to someone other than themselves. The project could be completed as a play or an
oral presentation, but the groups would have to be much smaller for collaboration, and the student work would probably also be
directed toward a different audience, themselves. This learning experience will also incorporate other technology tools such as
word processing and scanners.
Inspiration (optional): If you used existing multimedia projects as a model for your project (whether in part or whole),
include the URL(s) so we can visit. Explain what concepts you borrowed from others.
I personally created this project in whole.
Internet Safety and Student Privacy: Briefly discuss some possible issues surrounding internet safety and student
privacy that could arise while implementing this learning experience and explain how youd minimize risks to
students/yourself, alleviate any fears by parents/administrators, and follow school districts Internet Safety/Use Policy.
There should not be any risks involving privacy for student information. The video will only be published to our
classroom blog, which is password protected, the school will not be identified and only the first names of students will be
used, and the names will not be directly associated with the students photo. If there are still concerns about a particular
child, they can continue to work with their group and show evidence of contribution in other areas or may complete an
alternate assignment.
Other comments about your proposed student multimedia authoring activity:
The groups need to be heterogeneous and students need to either be assigned roles within the group or provided with a list of
roles that they must divide between them for optimal collaboration.