Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Pursuing Instructional Goals and Developing a Student-Centered
Learning Task
Relating to our framework described above, our task involves collaborative visual
design based on a video resource showing a historical newsreel on the 1948 Berlin
blockade (Fig. 25.5) andusing digital video tools (see tools section above). Students
are asked to act as a team of online editors who design a web page for a popular
German virtual history museum. The explicated overall design goal is to comment
on the video showing the historical newsreel, for publication in the virtual history
museum for future visitors. This product is based on the collaborative analysis of
the source video by integrating additional information applying one of the digital
video tools. Learners are explicitly made aware of the audience they are designing
for (i.e., museum visitors) and the purpose the product should serve for this audi-
ence: Namely, the future visitors of the virtual museum should be able to develop a
good understanding of both the content and the filmic codes/style of the historical
newsreel.
Fig. 25.5
Landing of a Douglas C-54 of the US Air Force at the airport Berlin Tempelhof in July
1948. The supply of West Berlin with goods by the air forces of the Western Allies during the Berlin
Blockade (June 1948—May 1949) by the Soviet Union represents one of the largest humanitarian
operations in history. It is an important topic in Germany's postwar history as studied in secondary
education. Henry Ries/DHM, © New York Times
Following our theoretical considerations the task includes an individual inquiry
phase for planning, where learners first watch a digital video showing the histor-
ical Berlin-Blockade newsreel from 1948, then visit the virtual history museum
LEMO, and finally familiarize themselves with the specific period of German
history. Participants have to acquaint themselves with the contemporary use of
newsreels as well as basic information on general filmic codes and style. Then,
students explore the functions of the digital video tool fitting for the respective
experimental condition with a thematically unrelated, instructional video clip. In
