Multimedia Education

Instance: 2018/2019 - 1S

Cycles of Study/Courses

Last updated on 2018-09-10.

Fields changed: Objectives, Resultados de aprendizagem e competências, Métodos de ensino e atividades de aprendizagem, Fórmula de cálculo da classificação final, Componentes de Avaliação e Ocupação, Obtenção de frequência, Programa, Tipo de avaliação, Melhoria de classificação

Teaching language

Objectives

Multimedia Education is a mandatory curricular unit for the students of the Specialization in Education. In accordance with the objectives of the Master in Multimedia, the curricular unit intends to contribute to enable its students to recognize, characterize and take part in the current debates about the discipline either from a theoretical-critical point of view as well as from a technical-practical point of view. As such, it is important to promote the mastery of the main historical developments, theoretical visions and elements of empirical characterization, as well as the development of critical and argumentative skills that allow the construction of grounded and relevant points of view to promote multimedia literacy, in general, and the integration of multimedia into formal and informal educational projects, in particular.

The curricular unit intends to contribute to enable the future masters to integrate data of the latest research in the moments of conception and evaluation of products, processes and services in professional contexts in the area of ​​multimedia education. Simultaneously, it intends to contribute to increase the capacity to signify the relevance of the masters’ performance in multimedia at the socio-professional level.

Learning outcomes and competences

Epistemological, historical and social knowledge: 

• To describe the main moments and historical developments of multimedia education
• To identify and analyze the epistemological assumptions underlying the proposals for educational multimedia integration (such as technological determinism and reductionism)
• To inscribe in and relate multimedia education with different social and political contexts
• To differentiate and articulate the different levels of analysis of the objects of study of multimedia education
• To characterize the main expectations and social representations about multimedia education
• To critically compare theoretical perspectives and empirical data on the educational integration of multimedia

Theoretical knowledge: 

• To define theoretically and operationally key concepts of multimedia education
• To distinguish contexts of formal and non-formal education
• To characterize theoretical proposals such as the theory of multimedia learning, activities with parents in the computer or transformative play
• To identify, distinguish and describe the elements of the multimedia matrix
• To recognize the main educational affordances of the elements of the multimedia matrix and of given multimedia environments

Analysis and design of multimedia education scenarios: 

• To evaluate the suitability - qualities and limitations - of educational multimedia integration projects
• To compare the case study characteristics of educational projects
• To link multimedia affordances to specific educational goals
• To propose innovative educational multimedia integration scenarios with strong theoretical and empirical support
• To establish evaluation criteria for the proposed multimedia educational integration scenarios 

Reflexivity and critical thinking: 

• To evaluate the fundamental contributions of theoretical and empirical scientific articles on multimedia education topics
• To write a literature review on theoretical and empirical work on a given subject of multimedia education from a critical point of view
• To question the virtues and limitations of educational multimedia integration case studies.
• To discuss the place of multimedia education as a multidisciplinary research area

Working method

Program

1. Multimedia and education
- Concepts, levels of analysis and representations
- Epistemological and historical developments on multimedia education
- Theoretical views on and debates around multimedia education
- Current national international panorama of multimedia education: case studies

2. The multimedia matrix
- Technical characteristics and educational affordances
- The multimedia learning theory

3. Formal and non-formal education
- Models and case-studies of multimedia integration in formal education settings
- The role of play in multimedia education: The transformational play
- Integrating multimedia in non-formal education settings: The case of science communication
- Activities with parents on the computer: A strategy to bridge formal and informal learning and to enhance digital literacy

4. Future directions on multimedia education

Mandatory literature

Comments from the literature

Teaching methods and learning activities

- Lectures
- Exploration of case studies and multimedia educational scenarios 
- Developing individual and group work
- Oral presentation of work

Some classes pieces will have a style admittedly "masterful" (in a good sense of the word) although it encourages student participation. Powerpoint presentations will be used as guidance for the students, but it resorts with great frequency to show simulations, digital games, dynamic pictures and other tools of virtual environment, as we shall see.

All texts, simulations and associated materials to the discipline are available to students in the associated e-learning platform. This virtual area empowers and "extends" the classroom, in space and time: forums continue conversations, texts extend readings, simulations can be re-visited, students documents can be shared.

A bibliographical list, available on paper but also in most cases, available digitally, it is offered to students. The classes will be very proactive, encouraging the students participation and, in some cases, becoming small workgroups. Students will have small projects and tasks assigned to them, they will they will develop either individually or in small groups. These studies will be submitted by uploading to a digital platform of the discipline and, some of them, presented orally. Paper versions will tend to be unused.

Evaluation Type

Assessment Components

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Eligibility for exams

The student should obtain a grade equal ou higher than 10.

Calculation formula of final grade

Evaluation will comprehend formative and continuous components, mixing flexible parameters with more “conventional” ones, such as a test. There will be self-evaluation and hetero-evaluation moments at the developed assignment presentations. The subject teachers will arbitrate, moderate and guarantee good judgement and transparency. In every case, the students activities are typically marked by four criteria:

a) Scientific accuracy.
b) Creativity/originality.
c) Clarity.
d) Commitment/presentation.

In addition to the task  there will be a theoretical test relatively short, with a group of open questions (students choose two of a set of three). On a scale of 0 to 20, the final grade will have the following profile:

A - Evaluation of the literature review report.
B - Evaluation of the presentation of the literature review report.
C - Final written test.

Weighting:
A - 50%
B – 20%
C - 30%

The final score for each student will be: A*0,50+B*0,20+C*0,30

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

As described by FEUP. Exceptions shall be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Classification improvement

To improve the exam.