Learning with digital media: Bringing 21st century skills to the natives

Today’s learners are often referred to as “digital natives” because of the ease with which they interact with digital media and tools. Yet most of them are not digitally “literate” and do not have the necessary critical thinking, visual and information literacy skills necessary to prepare them for today’s media rich environment. This presentation will focus on innovative uses of digital media in different courses at AUC. Special attention will be given to the multimedia essay, in which image and video annotations are incorporated into a “critical essay” providing the necessary evidence to support an argument. We use “Mediathread”, an innovative open source platform developed by Columbia University which allows the “exploration, analysis, and organization of web-based multimedia” while offering the collaborative features of social media. Other collaborative tools that foster media literacy skills will be discussed in the context of a multi-disciplinary team taught course on “Creative Thinking”. These include blogs, “Tumblr” and “Edcanvas”, an innovative sharing platform. The institutional support needed for faculty to develop, implement and assess such learning activities will also be addressed.