Creating engaging experiences through a blended media innovation

Mun Fie Tsoi
Marshall Cavendish International Singapore Pte Ltd
Singapore

Various teaching practices have evolved from recent research on learning environments involving digital media. However, how different digital media (e.g. ebooks or virtual manipulatives) can be infused with the right pedagogy for effective teaching and learning is still a daunting task. The paper seeks to address this issue by applying a 4C framework (Tsoi, 2010) as a pedagogical tool for blending innovatively enriched content, such as info-graphics, and appropriate digital media, such as interactive ebooks, with digital elements. The outcome is a blended media innovation that provides engaging experiences for the teacher and learner.

The 4C framework represents a cognitive cycle of four phases, viz. concept awareness, concept construction, concept internalization and concept application. The concept awareness phase involves providing activities (face-to-face or online) for learners to gain an awareness of the concept; and the activities will be familiar to the learners so that they can make connections to their existing knowledge. In the concept construction phase, the learners have to discover the essential features of the concept. Next, the concept internalization phase provides opportunities for the learners to link up or connect all the critical features of the concept as a whole to see its relevance and connections. Finally, the concept application phase is concerned with applying the concept for the meaningful transfer of knowledge. An illustrative example will be shown of how this blended media innovation is used for engaging experiences through (a) visualization and manipulation and (b) collaborative, social and self-directed learning anchored in a holistic blended learning approach. The implications in the context of a digital environment are also discussed.