What makes a really good professional Tiktok?
Tik Tok is a social media platform that allows for users to both share and create content in a meaningly and engaging way. What ultimately leads to the success of your Tik Tok is being able to engage best with your audience.
Due to the time constraints on the platforms, creators must create content that draws their audience immediately, by using the fun audio tracks that Tik Tok provides gives creators the framework to build from. From there creators are able to create any content they see fit, whether this is educational, political, comedy, etc.
Utilizing the hastags also allows for your content to appear to your target audience, if this is a professional Tik Tok in your relevant field, its best to use hashtags that are used most by other creators in your field.
Most importantly, have fun! Future employers or other professionals will engage with material that best translates information in a fun way!
Cyberbullying Lesson Plan
My lesson plan is retrieved from MediaSmarts.ca, while the bulk of my lesson covered a range of relevant material addressing Cyberbullying, I felt that one major issue that the lesson plan covered was positionality and empathy in the online space to become good digital citizens. In the online environment I felt that many users lacked an understanding of the users offline and their own circumstances, as a result, I altered some of the learning outcomes to the curriculum.
Drawing from my Political Science background, one major aspect in my revision was privilege, an activity I’ve done in the past was a “Privilege Walk” inspired by Peggy McIntosh “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, some barriers’ with this assignment are anonymity and students, especially in younger grades, not feeling comfortable sharing their own experiences. I was able to find an online version of this game that allows for students to stay anonymous and authentic with their answers. This helps facilitate the discussion of privilege and your own privilege, especially for users online (who are anonymous) and garner empathy towards other digital citizens.
I chose to incorporate a “How can I support my child to intervene?” section under the parental section. The ultimate result of this lesson is that students are able to identify cyberbullying and intervene rather than remaining as passive bystanders online on their own. This requires strenuous work and support to feel comfortable doing so. I was able to find a “Bystander Model” online with steps that young people can take in deciding for when to intervene and questioning whether they should move toward in doing so.
Tik Tok: A Platform That Has it All
What is Tiktok?
Tik Tok is a free social media platform used for social networking opportunities that allows for users to create short videos to share comedy, tricks and hacks, educational resources, dances, etc. backed by audio clips like music or snippets from pop culture. Users can create, share, or watch on the platform.
How could I use it as a professional?
Contrary to assumptions, many users have been able to utilize the platform for professional development or creating content in their fields to educate others. Personally, I have some across numerous creators that use the platform to share Marketing tips for others in the Marketing industry on topics just as brand awareness, growth, and networking. Tik Tok has also been used as a mobilization tool for social justice advocates, creators like Tia Wood are Indigenous creators that educate people on the history of colonialism and Indigenous culture.
How can I find people on Tiktok to become part of my PLN?
By using hashtags on Tik Tok, users are able to find similar creators or content to enjoy and integrate into their field/classrooms. By following more accounts that align with your interests or field, users are able to curate Tik Toks algorithm to best suite their needs. While some may choose to share themselves on the platform, other educators benefit from the knowledge and content shared and utilize this with their students. TikTok is a versatile tool for networking, professional development, and creative expression.
Twitter Reflection
3 Powerful Blogs You Should Visit
https://www.hastac.org/explore
HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory) is an interdisciplinary community of humanists, artists, social scientists, scientists, and technologists changing the way we teach and learn. Members of this community are scholars from a wide range of disciplines from around the world that share blogs about Humanities, Arts, and Media, Technology, Networks and Sciences, Social and Political Issues, Educational and Cultural Institutions.
Rabble. ca is an alternative left-leaning political blog that reports on a depth of issues that affect Canadians. Rabble has a discussions feature that allows for reader commentary allowing for discussion and political debate on their website. This is an independent not-for-profit covering independent journalism away from mainstream journalism.
The Tyee is an independent online magazine based in Vancouver with a focus on British Columbia and the wider Canadian landscape of journalism. They frequently publish works by both professional journalists and op ed pieces. They are an independent magazine working at enhancing independent media and all revenue in invested in journalism.
Multimedia Final Assignment
By, Ramneet Bhullar & Molly Cunningham
Introduction to iMovie Software
- Introduction:
IMovie is a versatile source that allows students, teachers, and families the opportunity to use video as a means of expression and work completion. This learning content is directed towards teachers adapting towards multimedia project based assignments and allowing for more digital storytelling and video editing projects.
- Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this IMovie Multimedia Project you should be able to understand:
- The overview and basics of the iMovie software.
- How to insert and edit video/audio clips.
- The learning theories surrounding digital storytelling.
- How to implement iMovie into a classroom setting for storytelling projects and screencasting ideas.
- Educational outlook
Taking an educational outlook on this assignment, I remember becoming frustrated with how to edit videos during personal projects. Thus, our intention of this design was to provide students and teachers with a basic understanding in video editing software, so future classrooms could offer projects and assignments that utilize technology.
Inspired by topic 4, Multimedia Design for Learning, our idea formed once we learned about digital storytelling and how to create screencasting videos. Therefore, we both researched how to use iMovie (both Apple users) and how to effectively edit videos. We also wanted to include a digital story within the video itself, our script is intended to be humorous for students to easily understand and follow along. In addition, our video is available for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of iMovie, however a classroom was our intentional audience.
- Filming and Editing (Project Plan)
To create our original content (posted below) we worked together to create a fun script and brainstormed the most essential tools for creating videos. We also embedded a screencast and presentation to utilize our understanding of multimedia principles. We both worked together to create a script, and Molly decided to act and film while Ramneet focused on learning theories and implementing them into classrooms. Overall, we wanted to find the most advantageous way of creating a user-friendly resource for encouraging teachers to implement multimedia principles within their classroom.
Instructional Videos (Original Content):
These videos encourage students to understand the potential of digital storytelling and video editing software. Watching these in a classroom is a great way to begin your understanding of iMovie and its purpose within the classroom.
Ashley Fells on TED Talk:
This is the link to our original content for this multimedia assignment.
Discussion:
Upon researching, experimenting, and exploring multimedia through this class I believe that iMovie could be a great resource for teachers to make use of multimedia principles (Mayer, 2019). Teachers are able to embed the software into their own lectures or students’ projects and activities. For example, a class discussion; there are many students who may not feel comfortable, or be able to partake in some activities. The teacher could utilize iMovie by incorporating several videos of the lesson process and then insert helpful commentary slides to guide the digital experience. Further, teachers’ use of iMovie could introduce students to initial video editing software. For example, for this multimedia design project we have incorporated an iMovie on how to use iMovie. The possibilities are endless as long as one has the ability to take photos and videos and import to Apple technology (iPads, iPhones or computers).
Learning Theories
A major theory that was implemented throughout the entirety of this project was multimedia learning theory and dual-code theory. Dual code theory proposes the use of both visual and verbal processing to present information to learners. This was depicted through firstly uploading on Youtube to allow visual Captions (CC) and visualizations also our use of the screencast tool and utilizing voiceovers (voice principle) during the presentation to aid learning via step-by-step (temporal contiguity principle). Rather than using static images, we chose to incorporate screencasting in our presentation as this encourages learners to follow along with the video rather than tools like PowerPoint where learners would often need to search for specific tools while watching PowerPoints. This creates a better storytelling experience for learners especially when learning multimedia tools as viewers become learners, while also being able to control their pace of learning (segmented principle) rather than having to view one continuous video that overloads the cognitive load capacity of learners. We also chose to introduce some key components within iMovie prior to delving into the instructional material so that learners without prior knowledge of the software can become more familiar with the interface of iMovie and tools in iMovie we use throughout our video, this process began around the 0.44 second mark (pre-training principle).
Overview
This project is intended as an educational resource for teachers or students to provide classrooms with integrated multimedia principles. Students will learn the basics of video editing along with some fun special effects to improve their skills. Teachers are able to evaluate students on their ability to create digital stories and their level of video editing. In the future, I believe that creating a resource that is more user friendly would be ideal for teachers, as Apple products are limited and iMovie is not available on other projects. Overall, our multimedia activity aims at integrating teachers multimedia toolset and increasing the level of technological support to develop students’ learning potential.
References:
Mayer, Richard E. “Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning.” The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. Ed. Richard E.Mayer. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2014. 43-71. Print. Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology.
Mayer, Richard E., and Logan Fiorella. “Principles for Reducing Extraneous Processing in Multimedia Learning: Coherence, Signaling, Redundancy, Spatial Contiguity, and Temporal Contiguity Principles.” The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning.Ed. Richard E. Mayer. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2014. 279-315. Print. Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology.
Fell, A. (2017). Why Storytelling is so Powerful in the Digital Era [Video]. TEDx Talks. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSi0kmqOBu4&t=866s
Lynch, M. (2017, November 7). How Digital Storytelling Can Amplify Your Students’ Voices. Retrieved November 14, 2017
Level Up Your Classrooms
I can clearly remember the hustle and bustle of games like Kahoot, Duolingo, and Quizlet being essential parts of my high school experience. Â Incorporating these elements create a collaborative and interpretative way to engage students outside of a traditional lecture style classroom. While online tools like Kahoot and Duolingo are beneficial with memorization, it is more effective to find other methods to incorporate game-based learning into the classroom setting.
An example of gamification in the classroom environment that still resonates with me today is our Café conservation during my French lessons in high school. This game entails students rotating pods and discussion topics in French, each pod was given 5 minutes to discuss the topic before they rotated. This was one of the most effective tools for me in becoming comfortable with my verbal speech in French and created a social atmosphere.
Another example that resonated with me were mock trails during my Law class in high school. This was a collaborative way in which students were able to research cases, construct an argument using the theories learned in class, and put the work into practice themselves while also observing the structure of a court room.
The experiences of Gamifying/ or adding game-based learning into classrooms helps translates in classroom learning with out of classroom learning, these experiences are what most stick with students.
Behind the Screen
During our COVID-19 online learning period, most of my instructors chose to record online lectures for students to follow along with lectures at their own pace. For my POLI 400 level, a professor of mine took a contrary approach to this which made me reconsider the approach my other professors took to online learning, he chose to opt out of recorded lectures to prompt students to speak more freely.
In the “Sections Model” video covered this week for our session, the video discussed the security and privacy of students and called for considerations on the risks that students are taking on in online learner, a consideration that as a student myself I did not know was an option.
In an offline environment, students are encouraged to speak freely but there are professional limitations with this in fear of retaliation at times. With online learning students are afforded a higher level of anonymity. In my personal experience, I feel that in comparison to other offline lectures or recorded online lectures, students spoke more freely on problematic topics.
There is still a risk. On platforms like Tik Tok and other social media tools we noticed a rise in online lectures being recorded without the consent of all individuals in these videos. Students can still record lectures without explicit consent, again putting students at risk. There is a clear call to action to revise online learning to make these platforms more accessible and protect the privacy and security of all students.
References
Youtube. The SECTIONS Model – Team 5. 2015. Web. 16 June 2021.
Assignment 3
For my core multimedia skills assignment, I chose to revise a PowerPoint presentation that I presented during my POLI 456 class. This presentation introduced learners to Clearview AI’s technology with the aim of raising awareness surrounding heavy surveillance of BIPOC folk in the U.S.
Some importance aspects I considered during my revision process was following the Multimedia & Modality Principles we learned during our time in this course. I focused on integrating some of these principles and being more inclusive of the learners as opposed to presenting information as fast as I could (my original intent). For example, I chose fonts, such as comic sans as this text is easier for dyslexic learners to read from.
In comparison to my original presentation, I chose to significantly reduce the amount of text in my PowerPoints, originally these longer sentences were read aloud and were repetitive so that the learns would ideally remember facts once hearing them twice. Following the principles of multimedia learner this myth was debunked as redundancy increases cognitive load for learner, effecting their short term and long-term memory.
As well as signalling learners, I chose to highlight importance of certain concepts by giving the readers cues for certain importance. In the slide above I chose to highlight each fact in a bubble.
I prompted for more collaborative and interactive learning with my revised edition as I encouraged readers to think, pair, and share, throughout the presentation with partners or pod members to encourage their own explanation. Specifically, in the image below, I would encourage readings to consider what red flags are raised from my search results from the platform. Once we meet again, I would ask to share with the class and highlight the 3 big ones one by one, I chose to also animate this for learners to signal them and create a more interactive effect.
I felt the original intent with using my own case study helped the class bring these bigger concepts down and have a tangible example of the impacts of this technology and the real people effects. I ended my presentation with a similar approach for “questions to consider”, potentially doing another “think, pair, and share” exercise.
