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Chrystine Mitchell

Chrystine Mitchell

A Penn State Berks professor integrated digital media into her junior-level literacy block courses for elementary education students, preparing them to teach in the 21st Century classroom where digital media likely will be more and more common.

Chrystine Mitchell, assistant professor of language arts and literacy at Penn State Berks, uses digital media in three courses that are part of the literacy block, including LLED 400 Teaching Reading in the Elementary School, LLED 401 Teaching Language Arts in the Elementary School, and LLED 402 Teaching Children’s Literature. Also part of the literacy block is field experience.

“We have a partnership with a local elementary school, established for a number of years, where each of the students are paired with an elementary teacher two days per week for two hours,” Mitchell said. “This partnership allows the students to not only complete projects for my class but then implement or share them with the students in the school.”

Mitchell decided to have her students produce digital media to prepare them for teaching in a modern environment that they will encounter after graduation. “I believe that in order to be able to be ready to teach in the 21st century future teachers need to be equipped with knowledge and practice using numerous digital tools,” she said.

Mitchell said she introduced digital media in the courses in the following ways:

LLED 400: Mitchell said, “The students needed to create a digital photo journal to illustrate the components of a balanced literacy program. I explained to them that this is something they will either want to incorporate into their digital portfolios or link to for a professional web page they can share with future employers.”

LLED 401: “The students are asked to create a literacy hot topic digital group project.  The purpose of this project is to allow the students to choose a topic that has meaning to them and create a digital footprint with useful resources to share with one another and other professionals in regard to the topic.  I leave it open-ended for them to decide the medium to present the information but examples could include a podcast, Pinterest page, website, Facebook page, or video. This semester I had three groups create a web page, one group created a Pinterest page, and one group created a cartoon using Powtoons.”

LLED 402: “I have the students create a web page for an author student or content area, with an annotated bibliography, for their students to access and use. I also utilize the digital media project that was done by my predecessors, including Toni Vanino, before my arrival at Penn State Berks, where the students work in grade-level teams to create a content-area video related to a social studies or science topic the students in the field placements will be studying. These 3-5 minute videos ranged this year from topics like Jamestown, Thomas Edison, Milton Hershey, needs and wants, maps and globes, and the three branches of government.”

Mitchell said that these experiences have influenced her students’ thinking on the use of digital media for their future classrooms, and has made them feel more comfortable about their own media production skills. “It is essential for students to not only be exposed to different forms of digital media but also have multiple experiences using different types so they will have an established comfort level with the tools,” Mitchell said. “The students often remark about the process, how important it is to know how to do it, and that they will definitely be using videos and other mediums in the future classrooms because they witness firsthand how engaged their students are when given the opportunity to see the videos. One student remarked how the video their group created helped her class of students ‘connect the dots’ and bring the learning together.”

Along with benefits for the students, Mitchell said using digital media for teaching literacy has advantages for her as well. She noted that digital media makes the content she is teaching more relevant.

Berks Students

“I can incorporate different websites, videos and apps into my instruction that demonstrate the concepts I am trying to teach,” Mitchell said. “This helps to build their knowledge base and they can watch me model different means of incorporating technology. In turn, the pre-service teachers can witness how teaching literacy using digital media allows reading and writing to “come to life” for their students. It helps build young students’ background knowledge, makes learning fun, allows for deeper comprehension, enriches vocabulary, helps students improve fluency, and the list can continue.”

One example she gave was from her own experience teaching first graders from Trenton, New Jersey back in 2001. She read a story to them about a crab from the Chesapeake Bay, but did not realize that the students not only did not know what a crab was, but never had been to a beach nor aquarium. She said showing those students online panoramic videos of a beach, aquariums, and crabs would give them the background information they were lacking.

Challenges that Mitchell face include the digital media learning curve and the time needed to teach students how to create and use digital media. She said that Carla Rapp, traveling media consultant with the Media Commons, has been a big help. “I typically speak with Chystine through email, or in person, prior to the beginning of the semester,” Rapp said. “We discuss the projects and possible training dates for her students. During the semester I conduct about two to three training sessions per class. The first two are on either iMovie or GarageBand and scholarly storytelling. The last is for a critique of the student’s work.”

To Rapp, the proof that the students learned new digital media skills was evident in the finished product. Here are several examples:

“The students certainly were able to produce great projects,” Rapp said. “I believe that through their diligent work, the encouragement from their instructor, and the support from Media Commons they were able to work through these projects and have great skills to showcase by the end.”

“The help I received from Carla and the Media Commons is enormous and I can’t imagine any of this without her,” Mitchell added. “She has been amazing to work with and offers the students instruction in other important areas like copyright law and how to use Creative Commons. I think one of the best aspects of teaching at Penn State is the technological support we have in so many areas.”

(Original article by Jamie Oberdick for Teaching and Learning with Technology)