1+ Weeks < a month - HCL Learning Objects Lab - Research Guides at Harvard Library

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Pedagogy: Design Phases

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Browse by Time: 1+ Weeks < a month

Learning objects on this page should generally take one or more weeks, but less than a month to build.

MOVIE

A short movie created for research instruction, outreach, or orientation. To build your own, see HELPFUL TIPS, below.
Example:

Type: Video

Learning Goals: Especially recommended to help students value or get excited about featured content, identify or differentiate between information resources, strategize approaches to research (such as critical evaluation, etc.), among other things. Caveat: Use judiciously; this approach requires that students will be motivated to watch a linear, moving presentation.

Estimated Production Time: 3-4 weeks

Recommended Software: iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Sony Vegas, or Final Cut

Publication Options: click to view

Experts, Consultants, & Collaborators: Michael Hemment, Paul Worster, Ramona Islam, Peter Reuell (For suggestions or questions from other colleagues, check for Comments at the bottom of this box, or add your own.)

HELPFUL TIPS:

Instructional Design Tips
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To begin, consult Pedagogy: Design Phases.

This learning object is most germane when:
- The subject matter is intrinsically engaging.
- Necessary details can be conveyed concisely.
- People/actors will be featured.
- The entertainment value of your content will balance nicely with its educational value.
- Content will be delivered through storytelling or a problem solving scenario.
- Information presented cannot be clearly or meaningfully conveyed with simple still images and text.
Pedagogical Style Guide:
- Include introduction, body, closing, contact info, & credits.
- Be aware and observant of copyright law and fair use guidelines.
Resources:
- Fabe, 2004. Closely watched films: an introduction to the art of narrative film technique.
- Bordwell, 2008. Film art: an introduction.
- Ken Burns films.
- McKee, 1997. Story: substance, structure, style, and the principles of screenwriting.
- Stocklossa, 2007. Advertising: new techniques for visual seduction.
Technical Development Tips
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If interested in this option, please contact Michael Hemment at hemment@fas.harvard.edu or 617-495-4548.

PREZI

A web-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides. Text, images, videos and other presentation objects are placed on the infinite canvas and grouped together in frames. The canvas allows users to create non-linear presentations, where they can zoom in and out of a visual map. To build your own, see HELPFUL TIPS, below.
Example:

Type: Slide Show

Learning Goals: Especially recommended to help students analyze or understand part-to-whole relationships. If used as an active-learning tool, Prezi can encourage interaction through its non-sequential display capabilities.

Estimated Production Time: 1-2 weeks

Recommended Software: No special software required (Use Prezi)

Publication Options: click to view

Experts, Consultants, & Collaborators: TBA (For suggestions or questions from other colleagues, check for Comments at the bottom of this box, or add your own.)

HELPFUL TIPS:

Instructional Design Tips
more...less...
To begin, consult Pedagogy: Design Phases.

This learning object is most germane when:
- You are teaching a concept that involves part-to-whole relationships, or when it's important that students understand how the details of smaller elements inform the big picture and vice-versa.
- Your students will be encouraged to participate throughout the lecture and presentation (sometimes making predictions, sometimes asking questions, sometimes stating a preference), requiring that your presentation can flow in a nonlinear sequence.
Pedagogical Style Guide:
- When laying out your canvas, arrange elements logically.
- Take advantage of Prezi's ability to surprise--plant rich details into small, but zoom-able, spaces.
- Anticipate as many possible reactions to your lesson content as you can imagine when designing the presentation. This will enrich the learning process.
- While Prezi lets you to create a (literal) storyline connecting sections of your presentation in sequence, you may digress from the path as appropriate during the presentation.
- Take care with the zooming features. Overuse can create a feeling of sea-sickness.
- Be aware and observant of copyright law and fair use guidelines when inserting content (like images). Creative Commons can be a terrific source.
- Avoid gratuitous use of Prezi; in other words, its novelty is probably not a sufficient rationale for using it.
Resources:
- EDUCAUSE, 2010. 7 Things You Should Know About Next-Generation Presentation Tools.
- Hill. Thoughts on Using Prezi as a Teaching Tool.
- MacNeill, 2009. Prezi, PowerPoint, multimodality and the 'logic of the image'.
Technical Development Tips

VOICETHREAD

A collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows students to navigate pages and leave comments. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies. To build your own, see HELPFUL TIPS, below.
Example:

Type: Slide Show

Learning Goals: Especially recommended to help students analyze, critically evaluate, understand, give feedback about, and use/search featured information resources, such as primary documents, images, videos, presentations, etc. VoiceThread may also encourage students to value or get excited about subject matter because it offers an opportunity to interact with content and with other students through webcam video, microphone, telephone, text, or image and through file uploads of their own.

Estimated Production Time: 2 weeks

Recommended Software: No special software required (Use VoiceThread)

HELPFUL TIPS:

Instructional Design Tips
more...less...
To begin, consult Pedagogy: Design Phases.

This learning object is most germane when:
- There is an opportunity to introduce students to relevant content or materials outside of class time, asynchronously.
- Students are likely to contribute.
- Featured content is intrinsically engaging or can be made engaging quickly through simple explication.
- You'd like to highlight something special.
Pedagogical Style Guide:
- Involve students as much as possible, both in the original presentation and in the commentary.
- Engage students aurally and visually.
- Create a VoiceThread or invite students to create their own.
- Consider highlighting special collections, award-winning research projects and papers, students' favorite library study spaces, etc.
- Keep presentations as succinct as possible.
Resources:
- Lofton, 2008. New Ideas Take Flight (discusses VoiceThread as a learning tool in libraries)
- Anderson, 2010. Expanding the Power of Primary Sources with Web 2.0 (discusses VoiceThread, among other tools).
- Andrew, 2010. Edutopia Back-to-School Guide, Digital Library additions
Technical Development Tips