Already Registered? | Login


Using Digital Media to Enhance Learning

 

Course Description


Digital media can provide highly engaging access to knowledge-particularly when students are the makers of that media. Research suggests that incorporating multimedia into instruction extends students' critical and creative thinking skills and increases their motivation and self-esteem. Concurrently, they develop skills essential to the 21st century, including technological expertise and productive collaboration. Participants will learn why and how to use a range of tools and strategies to empower their students to express themselves through digital media and to develop their learning of curriculum through such projects as creating slideshows, screencasts, audio, and video projects. Presenter Rushton Hurley's screencasts walk participants step-by-step through the essential stages of such projects; student projects provide models of good practice; and interviews with teachers who have incorporated these projects into their curriculum highlight the benefits for students and provide inspiration for participants ready to embark on their own.

Syllabus


Course Presenter


Rushton Hurley

Rushton Hurley earned his B.A. in history and religion at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and two master’s degrees, in education and East Asian studies, from Standard University, where his research included using speech recognition technology with beginning students of Japanese in computer-based role-playing scenarios for developing language skills. Hurley has been a Japanese language teacher, a principal of an online high school, a teacher trainer, an educational technology researcher, and a school reform consultant who has worked and studied on three continents. He is now director of an educational nonprofit called Next Vista for Learning, which he hopes may someday preclude ignorance. In the late 1990's his work with teenagers at a high school in San José led him to begin using Internet and video technologies to make learning more active and engaged, helping him reach students who had struggled under more traditional approaches.

In addition to his regular work, he devotes time to the community as a Rotarian and in Santa Clara's international exchange efforts. In early 2005, he was awarded the Baha'I Unity of Humanity Award in San Antonio, Texas, for his work developing online and international programs for at-risk students.

Partner Profile


Public Consulting Group, Inc. (PCG) is a leading public sector solutions implementation and operations improvement firm that partners with health, education, and human services agencies to improve lives. Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, PCG has nearly 2,000 professionals in more than 50 offices around the US, in Canada and in Europe. PCG’s Education practice offers consulting services and technology solutions that help schools, school districts, and state education agencies/ministries of education to promote student success, improve programs and processes, and optimize financial resources.

Have a Question? Let's talk.