i-Lab Resident Spotlight: Classroom Media Workshop

This article first appeared on the Harvard Innovation Lab website.

In today's digital world, children grow up surrounded by many types of media. It's not uncommon for young children to be able to navigate an iPhone before speaking their first sentence. Schools are responding to this reality by equipping classrooms with the technology to bring them into the 21st Century. However, many educators still need the tools and training to utilize this technology in ways that suit the needs of their individual students.

A pair of i-lab residents, Mary Jo Madda (HGSE ’13) and Brandon Pousley (HGSE ’13), are working to close the gap between media-savvy students and their teachers by empowering educators to create their own media content, while engaging students with various learning styles and interests.

Mary Jo and Brandon have created the Classroom Media Workshop (CMW), a two-week online course they are piloting with 35 public, private, and charter school teachers and administrators from over a dozen states.  The free online course guides educators through the process of creating video content and incorporating that media into their lessons.

In addition to walkthrough and lecture videos they have created, Mary Jo and Brandon are also building a professional learning community where course participants can discuss project ideas, view and comment on each other's plans, and interact in live Office Hours sessions that Mary Jo and Brandon host weekly. The learning experience is designed to be flexible for participants through multiple communication channels and self-paced access to course content.

For more, visit the Harvard iLab website.