{"id":52739,"date":"2018-06-11T11:35:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T15:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=52739"},"modified":"2022-09-28T12:17:22","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T16:17:22","slug":"learning-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2018\/06\/11\/learning-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Amanda Harris, a communication studies major who interns in the New Media Incubator, helped beginning French students work on their language skills by producing storytelling videos. (Photo by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

It turns out that putting students in Wright State University\u2019s New Media Incubator<\/a> and turning them loose in a studio and control room with video cameras and other state-of-the-art equipment can help them learn French.<\/p>\n

It was a research project conceived by communication studies<\/a> major Amanda Harris, who works as an intern in the incubator. She had the beginning French students work on their French by producing storytelling videos that became their final presentations in French class.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne group in particular was hugely engaged and all ended up with A\u2019s at the end of the semester,\u201d said Harris.<\/p>\n

Harris\u2019 research caught the attention of organizers of the Computers and Writing Conference at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She was invited to present her findings at the event, which was held from May 24 to 27.<\/p>\n

The theme of the conference was \u201cDigital Phronesis: Culture\/Code\/Play,\u201d with submissions focusing on the intersections of formal learning and embodied experience. Harris\u2019 presentation involved how to use digital media to support interdisciplinary collaborations through active-learning strategies.<\/p>\n

Harris called her acceptance to present at the conference \u201chuge for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good to me personally that it is something other people care about because it\u2019s something I very much care about,\u201d she said. \u201cI think the way that we teach can be improved upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The French students were those of Jean-Michel Lamoine, the project’s initiating instructor. Harris was mentored by Ashley Hall, assistant professor of English language and literatures, and Jen Ware, assistant professor of multimedia.<\/p>\n

In the project, the French students not only learned and practiced French, but they did it while learning how to produce videos \u2014 from writing the scripts, identifying props and editing the videos. One student group did a French version of the television show “Family Feud.” Others did a news broadcast and biographies.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne video got shown in French class because it was just that good,\u201d said Harris.<\/p>\n

More importantly, she said, the students were deeply engaged in the project and having fun as they learned French.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to learn when they\u2019re having fun,\u201d said Harris. \u201cThe students spent an entire three months coming in to the incubator once a week, sometimes twice a week. They were going over the vocabulary and talking to me about what they were learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris said the learning project can also be applied to other areas. In fact, a group of students recently used the incubator to learn organic chemistry, producing a “Jeopardy” television episode based on chemistry questions and answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was funny, but they were learning,\u201d said Harris. \u201cYou can teach creatively in almost any setting. You may have a group of students that might not get math, but if you engage them in a different way, all of a sudden it clicks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris, 26, is a first-generation college student. Her father owns a heating and air conditioning business, and her mother owns a landscape design company. Her family moved from Hamilton to Lebanon, Ohio, when Harris was 13.<\/p>\n

Before graduating from Lebanon High School in 2010, Harris enrolled at Sinclair College to study art history. She graduated with an associate degree in fine art in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a firm believer that art, music, books all tell the story of the time,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I was very interested in preserving that.\u201d<\/p>\n

After taking a few years off school to recharge her batteries, Harris enrolled at Wright State\u00a0in 2016. She is majoring in communication studies<\/a> with a minor in French<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think about communication, you\u2019re studying more than just the words people are saying. You\u2019re studying how they move, their tone, their background. How does their background relate to what they\u2019re saying?\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what interests me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris is studying digital media, which includes text, photos, audio, video and other content from television, newspapers and magazines that can be transmitted over the internet or computer networks.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it means looking at how those things affect our lives. They can impact it very positively, and that\u2019s a lot of what I look at,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are some huge, huge advantages \u2014 especially surrounding education \u2014 that people don\u2019t think about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris would like to go on to graduate school and study English or the humanities. She ultimately wants to teach at the college level and write research papers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love doing research. I love figuring things out,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I really like observing people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amanda Harris, a communication studies student who interns in the New Media Incubator, helped beginning French students work on their language skills by producing storytelling videos. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":52819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2048,4863,747,715,18,4855,4298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-enrollment-management","category-humanities-and-cultural-studies","category-liberal-arts","category-news","category-research","category-social-sciences-and-international-studies","category-student-profile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52739"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52821,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52739\/revisions\/52821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}