Students today find it easy to pick up any new electronic device and learn how to communicate with it—whether it’s the newest cell phone or PDA. They expect to be able to use their technology. While it’s exciting that most students can use today’s tools, a question we should now ask is: are they effective communicators who can compete in today’s—and tomorrow’s—job market? Can students use technology to create persuasive messages for audiences beyond their peer group? Can they think critically to design a communication that meets the needs of a specific audience? Do they know how to select the best media for their message?
The answer is yes, and no. Most students can IM, e-mail, search the web, and make simple multimedia presentations. What they’re not prepared to do is create persuasive messages for people other than their peers.
The world of communication now includes all kinds of media—audio, video, rich media presentations, interactive websites, DVD, simulations, and virtual meeting environments. Today’s companies and organizations, large and small, use different types of media to reach and retain their audience. Knowing how to select the right medium for the message and create different forms of communication helps students achieve at school and beyond. Many colleges already understand this need and require digital communication skills for nontechnology majors. Any student—regardless of his or her career and professional goals—can benefit from a strong foundation in digital communications. Further, using multimedia offers students a way to find their own voice and not be limited to just the written word.
Effective digital communication is the ability to create persuasive communications in different media, be it websites, video, audio, text, or animated multimedia. Digital communication is a foundation skill for most careers today, as most people will be involved in some form of conceptualizing, producing, delivering, and receiving such communications in their jobs and lives. Starting in elementary school and extending to higher education, students can learn a variety of digital communication skills across all their courses, whether they build multimedia presentations to demonstrate their knowledge of academic subjects, create e-portfolios of coursework, or present ideas in a virtual classroom.
Digital Movie Assignment
One of the assignments for this class is to produce a movie for the educational classroom.
Click here to view the
movie I made to address the problem of students not reading their syllabus. Yes it is just a little...shall I say weird...
but that's ok so am I.
The factory of the future will have 2 employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed
the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.
Alan C. Kay
Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his
right mind should have an inferiority complex everytime he looks at a flower.
