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14 Types of Student Products
Narrative
The term "Narrative" is used to denote information that simply is "told" to an audience by the presenter, using any of a wide variety of vehicles of technologically assisted expression. Storytelling is the dominant mode, whether the student is relating a personal story, sharing a personal passion, or telling a constructed and fictitious story.
- Personal Expression
The term "Personal Expression" refers to a type of communication in which the student expresses a subjective and introspective message. Original poetry, for example, would be personal expression, as would any other free-form expression of original thought. A student may, for example, present scanned vacation photos in a computer-assisted presentation with the goal of sharing a favorite place. Another student might do a "show-and-tell" presentation of a coin collection, using a television camera and monitor to enlarge the coins visually for an audience. Personal Expression communication does not involve an attempt to persuade or convince the audience of a perspective or point of view; instead, it shares with the audience the presenter's experiences, the presenter's feelings, and the presenter's point of view.
- Myths / Folk Tales
Myths are stories made up by people to explain their origins, values, and beliefs. The presenter may tell an established myth, such as the Greek story of Prometheus or the Navaho creation myth. The category also includes stories made up by the presenter and having myth-like qualities. A student may, for example, invent a myth-like story to explain the origin of a school's sports team.
Folk tales are similar to myths in that they tell stories which have been developed and modified by groups of people over periods of time. The Johnny Appleseed or Paul Bunyan stories would be examples of American folk tales. A student may tell an established folk tale or may invent a folk tale-like story. For example, a student may invent and communicate a story about the fictional first students to attend that school.
- Short Story
Like the myths and folk tales, a short story is at least partly fictional. Unlike the other tales, however, it is more closely based on the story elements of plot, setting, character, and theme. It does not purport to be the story of the origin of a people nor of a people's experiences; rather, it is clearly a constructed story based on the presenter's imagination. A story about how a high school girl unintentionally caused misunderstanding among her friends by misplacing a note to her boyfriend--and the convoluted plot to follow--would be an example of a short story. It could be told, for example, by a student-created video production.
Information / Expository
These forms of communication involve explanations. In them, students communicate explanations to their audiences with technological assistance. They differ from the Narrative category in that these communications are real or factual rather than fictional. They differ from the Persuasive category in that these communications do not attempt to persuade audience members to adopt any perspective, point of view, or plan of action; rather, students present Information / Expository communication purely to explain something to an audience.
- Summary Report
A Summary Report is a form of communication in which a student summarizes information. Presumably a student has acquired learned information about a subject and communicates in order to share that learning with the audience. An example would be a report in which a student tells about various types and characteristics of dinosaurs. Another example would be a science fair presentation of how the rain cycle works in which the student might actually construct model fields, forests, rivers, and functioning "rain clouds" to show how the water goes through its cycle. The Summary Report represents larger learned concepts or experiences rather than the personal, process-oriented, how-to form of communication. (See How-To Directions.)
- Book Report
As its name implies, the Book Report is a form of communication in which a student presents an evaluation of a book he or she has read. Its purpose centers on sharing that book with the audience. Presented in fully developed form, the book report should show that the presenter has clearly understood the book's message and intent; moreover, it should reflect the presenter's full intellectual engagement with the book in such a way that the presenter's thinking has clearly interacted with thinking from the book. The presenter may have an overall positive or negative reaction to the book, but the presentation should provide clear reasons for the reaction.
- How-To Directions
In this form of communication, a student shares with the audience a process the student knows or has just learned. While the Summary Report might describe how a process such as smelting iron is done, How-To Directions provide step-by-step information that not only demonstrates learning but which would enable audience members to recreate by following the directions. The How-To Directions might include secondary research, but this form of communication assumes that the presenter has actually followed the directions and can now share them with the audience. By contrast, the Summary Report describes something, such as climbing Mt. Everest, that the student has learned purely from external sources. (See Summary Report.)
- Biographies
Biographies are communications about the lives of people. Subjects may be famous, such as John F. Kennedy or Madonna, or they may be unknown, such as a student's grandparent. Biographies differ from Book Reports in that Biographies may not derive from books at all. A student reporting on her great-grandmother's life on a farm in Russia might consult secondary sources, such as a documentary film about rural Russia or letters from her grandmother, but she may not be reporting on a particular book. A student may read a book as part of the research used in preparing the Biography, but the communication goes beyond just that book.
Persuasive
In each of these forms of communication, the presenter makes a conscious attempt to persuade the audience to share the same point of view or belief as the presenter. It is essential that the intent to persuade be an inherent component of the structure of the presentation and not simply an implied message or a tacked-on thought added to some other form of communication. In persuasion the presenter uses, either singly or in combination, any of a battery of tools to sway the audience through an intellectual appeal, an emotional appeal, or both. Some television commercials, for example, attempt to sell us a product by showing images that suggest that people who buy the product win favor with happy family members in warm settings, while people who don't buy the product are portrayed as unhappy and alone. Here the appeal is emotional. On the other hand, political commercials comparing and contrasting two candidates' views on medical care might argue their case based on an intellectual appeal to side with the better plan.
- Advertisements
Advertisements are relatively short communications that try to sell an idea (such as the adoption of a particular philosophy), a product (such as a new car), or an action (such as voting for a political candidate) to the audience. The presenter may use an intellectual appeal about the superior merits of the espoused position, or the appeal may be emotional. A student using a litter of young puppies in a television "commercial" designed to encourage other students to vote for him in a student election would be using an emotional appeal. A demonstration showing how one brand of soap actually kills more bacteria than another would be an example of a logical or rational intellectual appeal. Advertisements tend to be short and summary in nature. They must create their impact quickly, since they are not extended presentations of complex ideas but are short clips of ideas or images selected to create an idea of the whole.
- Describe / Conclude
In the Describe / Conclude communication, the presenter attempts to persuade the audience of the merits of a product, idea, or action by describing it in detail and letting its merits sell the audience. The communication differs from Advertisements in the thoroughness of the description. While an Advertisement is a short prŽcis of an idea--an image of the whole--the Describe / Conclude communication delineates an entire idea and argues for its acceptance. A science fair demonstration of the history and projected future of the world's human population describes that idea fully and argues from the very thoroughness and clarity of its description that humans must take some form of recommended action (the conclusion) to remedy the situation.
- Analyze / Conclude
Similar to the Describe / Conclude form of communication, the Analyze / Conclude communication is one in which the presenter not only describes a problem or idea in detail but also analyzes its meaning or impact. A presentation of the scope and scale of the problem of drunk driving through posters and charts of statistics is the "Analyze" part of a presentation, while the distribution of MADD or SADD literature to the audience is the "Conclude" part. Rather than the merely presenting an idea to suggest the conclusion, it is the presenter's analysis of meaning that leads to the conclusion recommended.
- Analyze / Persuade
Similar to the Analyze / Conclude form of communication, the Analyze / Persuade communication is one in which the presenter provides a personal analysis of an idea or problem and then attempts to persuade the audience to share the same position as the presenter. What is different between the Analyze / Persuade communication and either the Analyze / Conclude or the Describe / Conclude is that in the Analyze / Persuade, there is a call to action that goes beyond that suggested by the presentation or analysis itself. In other words, the presenter first analyzes a situation (such as the inequities of the present federal income taxing system) and then makes an emotional or intellectual appeal, a "call to action," to the audience. That appeal does not merely automatically derive from the problem analysis itself, but brings new thinking and new solutions to bear upon the problem. In the example given, the presenter may suggest an entirely new way of raising federal tax dollars that has nothing to do with personal income. The Analyze / Persuade communication, then, entails a necessary component of critical and original thinking employed to sway an audience.
- Compare / Contrast
In this form of communication, the persuasion takes the logical form of the comparison and the contrasting of two or more products, ideas, or calls to action. A student may, for example, compare and contrast two possible solutions to the dilemma of how to plan most effectively for the national solution to waste disposal. In this example, the student would examine each of two or more possible solutions and base a persuasive argument for the adoption of one of them. Since the Compare / Contrast presentation is persuasive, however, it is essential that the presenter attempt to persuade the audience to adopting the same position recommended by the presenter.
- Cause / Effect
In this form of communication, the presenter shows a logical relationship between the cause (or causes) of a situation or problem and the effects that cause has produced or will produce. For example, a student may present a historical explanation of the relationship between the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the outbreak of World War I. Another student may show how our failure to control the emission of hydrocarbons may lead to global warming. Since the Cause / Effect presentation is persuasive in nature, it is essential that the presenter attempt to persuade the audience to adopt the same position to the issue or problem as that developed by the presenter.
Environment(s)
Most products developed are one-way sharing of ideas and content with the information or ideas organized in a static format meant to present, share, or convey information or ideas by the learner. However, a growing number of student products are designed to create an environment, situation, or experience for others to contribute by sharing, interpreting, or reflecting about information or ideas in diverse ways.
- Participatory Environment
Participatory environments have a trait not found in other types of communication—User Content Contribution. Participatory environment projects attempt to have elements for users to make contributions that add value or evolve the content or concepts of the learning experience beyond the author's work. This collaborative participation my be interactive like a survey or feedback function or may be organized to sustain generative learning as defined by Senge et al. Generative environments are organized for continual user contributions that support collegial information sharing, interpreting, or reflecting over time.
Examples of Participatory Environments are: Thinkquest projects; dynamic data displays; shared databases; or problems solved collaboratively over time. Whether these participatory elements are problems, opportunities to obtain/add information, or use feedback functions, the task(s) should be intellectually substantial and highly challenging. Limited tasks are superficial with more attention to the technical capacity than creating substantial learning experiences, which would be highly engaging or challenging tasks. Beware of the dazzle substituting for rigorous substance. Limited environments have superficial content that does not add substantive value to others' learning. Examples include a jeopardy game with low level questions; rhetorical requests for feedback or inputs; and users being given little choice or opportunity to contribute. Developed environments are games with high level questions requiring users to synthesize; dynamic surveys showing results in real time; or multiple interactive tasks related to the content in interesting ways. Exemplar environments are highly challenging with substantive content and engaging learning experiences. Exemplar environments greatly benefit others in their learning or understanding of concepts or content. Examples include a novel constructed online by teams of students collaborating on the characters, setting, and plot; collaboratively collecting and interpreting weather data with different students in different locations; and interactive games requiring higher order thinking skills.
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