Creating digital learning content to create more successful students
It happens at every school, every day. Whether their attention wanders or they just don’t understand a particular concept or lesson, students often miss out on learning key information during class. The consequences can build quickly, as the failure to learn one concept impedes learning the next, academic progress begins to slip, and the students become anxious and frustrated.
So how can educators make sure that students stay on track with their learning at all times?
Renaldo Lawrence may very well have the answer. An Adobe Education Leader and Lynda.com Author, Renaldo is also an Advanced Skills teacher responsible for creating eLearning content for Chiswick School of London. He works in partnership with Chiswick’s teachers to digitize parts of their curriculums using Adobe Creative Cloud software. As a result, Chiswick students can easily access syllabi, lesson plans, books, multimedia lessons, teacher videos, presentation slides, and more from their home computers, tablets, and mobile phones.
“Not every student understands a lesson the first time it’s presented,” says Renaldo. “But with these materials supplementing their classroom learning, students can always go back and revisit whatever they’ve missed.”
For projects like Chiswick’s , Renaldo uses Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Audition CC to edit videos, After Effects CC to create animations, Adobe Muse CC or Dreamweaver CC to design and develop websites, and Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, and Fireworks CC to create graphics.
“What I love about Adobe products is the consistency — they all look similar, so you can learn one if you’ve learned another,” he says. “And Adobe keeps adding features that make them easier to use.”
He also appreciates the integration between the products. “The roundtripping is incredible,” he says. “I can edit a video in Premiere Pro, send it into After Effects to work on the imagery, and then quickly bring it back to Premiere Pro. And I can create storyboards in Adobe Experience Design CC right on my iPad to show teachers what their learning materials will look like, save the storyboards to Creative Cloud, and then open them on my desktop later to refine them.”
Renaldo and Chiswick School are getting students involved in media-making, too. They’ve created Chelsea Digital Camp — a day of fun and learning in which students tour Chelsea Football Club’s Stamford Bridge stadium, meet some of the team’s players, play soccer, and create their own videos of the experience using the Adobe Premiere Clip mobile app.
“The students gain so many benefits from learning to create digital media,” says Renaldo. “It prepares them for careers, develops their communication skills, builds their confidence, and helps them find their unique voices.” He is now planning a similar camp to teach Chiswick’s teachers how to create their own digital learning content.
“By supplementing classroom learning with digital learning, we help our students succeed,” says Renaldo. “They no longer go home and tell their parents, ‘I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,’ because it’s all available to them. And parents can access all of the materials, too, to support their children’s learning.”
Teacher resources from Renaldo Lawrence
Webinar: In My Creative Classroom with Renaldo Lawrence
Adobe Education Exchange learning content for teachers
Blog post: Top 10 tips for turning curriculums into interactive learning experiences
Chiswick School Interactive Media Design coursework and mobile learning samples