Create to Learn: Introduction to Digital Literacy

by Renee Hobbs

Want to learn something well? Make media to advance knowledge and gain new ideas.

You don’t have to be a communication professional to create to learn. Today, with free and low-cost digital tools, everyone can compose videos, blogs and websites, remixes, podcasts, screencasts, infographics, animation, remixes and more. By creating to learn, people internalize ideas and express information creatively in ways that may inspire others.

Create to Learn is a ground-breaking book that helps learners create multimedia texts as they develop both critical thinking and communication skills. Written by Renee Hobbs, one of the foremost experts in media literacy, this book introduces a wide range of conceptual principles at the heart of multimedia composition and digital pedagogy. Its approach is useful for anyone who sees the profound educational value of creating multimedia projects in an increasingly digital and connected world.

Students will become skilled multimedia communicators by learning how to gather information, generate ideas, and develop media projects using contemporary digital tools and platforms. Illustrative examples from a variety of student-produced multimedia projects along with helpful online materials offer support and boost confidence.  

Create to Learn will help anyone make informed and strategic communication decisions as they create media for any academic, personal or professional project. 

259 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 22, 2017

Reviews

[Lucie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only read chapter 14 for my master thesis. It was very interesting and useful!

[Savannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book. The kindle edition had a few grammatical errors (misplacement of words), but only occasionally. This book is great in the fact it includes little actionable work that can be done to apply the knowledge learned at the end of each chapter. This book is relevant whether you are a teacher interested in literacy or just a human curious about how this new technology world is changing the way we communicate.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and inspiring

Admittedly, this is going to be most useful for librarians and archivists working specifically on media literacy and media production programming. Even if you aren't in that demographic, there's a lot of information that could be helpful for both people who want to see something New from their library or people looking to advance through creating and implementing new programming.

[Sydney Brammer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking forward to using this as a foundational text for my upcoming media literacy course … I so appreciate Renee’s accessible, engaging approach to media and digital literacy.