Designing student-created media for authentic learning

CHICAGO — Reinforcing the ACRL Framework’s calls for information creation in a range of formats, a 2020 LinkedIn survey rated “video production” as a top 10 skill sought by employers. “Student-Created Media: Designing Research, Learning, and Skill-Building Experiences,” published by ALA Editions, guides librarians, learning technologists, and their faculty partners in designing assignments that showcase students’ ideas, research, subject knowledge, and media literacy skill set development. Building on his work supporting student media projects for more than 400 courses, Scott Spicer walks readers through:

• 5 case studies complete with learning objectives, student feedback, extracurricular views, and more, plus approaches to media creation workshops from four universities;
• 21 questions to guide assignment development consultations with faculty;
• an overview of common genres such as documentary, video investigation, and personal narrative, with pointers on when to use them;
• applying the 7 steps of digital storytelling;
• topics to cover when presenting the assignment to a class;
• recommended media creation equipment for circulation;
• the benefits of sharing student work on streaming platforms;
• developing effective individualized student media creation support services, either in-person or virtually;
• ways to showcase student work in online galleries; and
• examples of the enduring impact of student media projects.

Spicer serves as Media Outreach Librarian for the University of Minnesota Libraries (Twin Cities), where he functions as head of the Libraries Media Services program. His primary responsibilities include outreach to instructors on the development and support for course integrated student produced media assignments and commercial educational media resources. He has studied, published, and presented on a diverse range of media related topics in higher education, including the benefits and library support of student produced media, educational media resources, media literacy skill set development, and multimodal scholarship with additional interests in emerging technologies. He is a former chair of ALA’s Film and Media Round Table.

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