Winner Winner Chicken Dinner: EdTech Students’ Video Wins Instructional Design Award in Vegas
Ann E. Prizzi and Terah Minor-Jones, two students from the Educational Technology Program in the School of Education at Loyola University Maryland won the Nova Southeastern
University Award for Outstanding Practice by a Graduate Student in Instructional Design
from the Design and Development Division of the Association of Educational Communications
and Technology (AECT) in October 2022.
The Nova Southeastern University Award for Outstanding Practice by a Graduate Student in Instructional Design is an award for graduate students who have “designed exemplary instructional materials'' (DD design&development, n.d.). Ann and Terah won with a video created in the EdTech course, ET620: Multimedia Design in the Classroom.
Ann and Terah developed the Music and History of: The Blues video (7:50) in Spring 2021 for elementary and middle school students using Cognitive Theory for Multimedia Learning (CTML; Mayer, 2017) and accessibility (WAI, 2019). “We were excited to use researched practices of design and accessibility considerations in our video to better support our students’ understanding of the Blues” stated Terah.
CTML includes a set of principles for multimedia design to support learning (Mayer, 2017) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide support for multimedia designers in creating accessible content for the web (WAI, 2019). “K-12 students learn in multiple ways and designing multimedia for learning is one way educators can cater to students’ learning preferences.” stated Ann.
Ann, a middle school music teacher at Loch Raven Technical Academy in Baltimore County,
Maryland, and Terah, a 9th-12th grade history and English teacher at The Nora School
in Silver Spring, MD, worked together to design and develop this video as a class
project. “We decided our goal was to minimize extraneous processing for students and
foster intrinsic processing [referring to Cognitive Load Theory (CLT); Paas et al.,
2010]. We did this by utilizing a narrative voice that not only sounds like an expert,
but speaks at a calm pace, which is perfect for our intended audience: elementary
and middle school students” stated Terah. “The reflection questions throughout the
video help guide the learners down the intended pathway for learning. Lastly, we were
able to successfully minimize any extraneous processing for viewers (CLT; Paas et
al., 2010] by limiting the amount of text that appeared on the screen and by using
graphics to convey the content as the narration plays in the background” stated Ann.
Ann and Terah presented their video at the 2022 AECT International Convention in Las
Vegas, NV (Ann face-to-face and Terah online) and were supported by their instructor,
Irene A. Bal (face-to-face). “The Loyola EdTech program has helped expand our use
of technology in our classrooms and provided strategies that have enhanced and strengthened
our pedagogy and instructional practices. Winning the Nova Southeastern University
Award for Outstanding Practice by a Graduate Student in Instructional Design is an
honor. We would like to thank all the wonderful professors at the Loyola Educational
Technology program for their guidance and technology wisdom.”
Watch the video Music and History of: The Blues (7:50)
Want to know more about the Loyola Educational Technology program? Find more information on the program at https://loyola.edu/edtech and follow the Loyola Ed Tech program on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok - @LoyolaET
Ann Elaine Prizzi is a 6th-8th grade music teacher at Loch Raven Technical Academy
in Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland. Ann’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/prizzi_ann & https://twitter.com/AnnPrizzi3
Terah Minor-Jones is a 9th-12th grade history and English teacher at The Nora School
in Silver Spring, Maryland. Terah’s Twitter/Instagram: https://twitter.com/TeacherTerah & https://www.instagram.com/teacherterah/
References
DD design&development. (n.d.). Awards. Retrieved on December 1, 2022, from https://sites.google.com/view/aectdddivision/home
Mayer, R. (2017). Using multimedia for e‐learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 33(5), 405. Wiley.
Paas, F., Van Gog, T., & Sweller, J. (2010). Cognitive load theory: New conceptualizations, specifications, and integrated research perspectives. Educational Psychology Review, 22(2), 115-121. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10648-010-9133-8
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). (2019, October 4). How to meet WCAG (Quick reference). https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/
Published: December 5, 2022