Media & Communication Literacy in Higher Education: Learning a Foreign Language

Learning how to speak through modern interactive channels is not easy for “grown up students”, as those at higher education level. They are used to the multimedia Web, iPod, iPhone, etc. as “personal channels” for their own entertainment but they are not used at using these channels as a way to deliver their own work. In addition, “speaking multimedia” is no-man land: for students inclined to humanities it is too techy; for students inclined to technology it is too “expressive”. This paper describes how “multimedia narratives” were introduced in two different courses. The empowering environment is “1001stories”, a toolkit developed at Politecnico di Milano, used for professional development of multimedia-multichannel applications but also for educational purposes. The paper describes how the activities were carried on, the results and the educational theories relevant for interpreting them. In the conclusion we propose a “foreign language” approach for multimedia communication.