Mentoring Digital Media Projects: Project-Based Learning and Teaching for Professional Development

✍ Scribed by Patrick Parra Pennefather

• Publisher: Apress
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 321
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Mentoring is often a crucial, yet informal part of an organization’s best practices and skill development, whether targeted towards a team lead, project manager, designer, developer or a valued senior team member. This book provides practical strategies and methodologies for professionals to mentor others to successfully develop and deliver digital media projects across different types of settings.

Many professionals working with teams in the digital media industry (games, web development, XR, IoT, mobile) are drawn to teaching others, but may not know how or where to start. Many might be a subject expert but may not have the structure and skills in place to be able to teach others effectively in workplace and institutional settings. This handbook will give professionals a guide on how to mentor junior designers, developers and other learners in formal and informal learning environments.
Mentoring Digital Media Projects offers the right tools and strategies to use in digital media and emerging tech projects for you to better guide junior team members

What You'll Learn

• Understand the difference between mentoring and teaching
  
• Design thinking strategies to better identify where, when and how you can help and mentor others
• Build mentoring pipelines, end-to end, especially in post-secondary learning environments
• Create emerging technology projects with teams
  

Who This Book Is For

Digital media professionals (game, web development, XR, mobile, IoT, etc.) who have experience working in teams in their specific discipline and who want to mentor others.

✦ Table of Contents

Table of Contents
About the Author
About the Technical Reviewers
Introduction
Chapter 1: Know the Territory: Learning Interactions in Project-Based Environments
Foundations of Project-Based Learning
Common Characteristics
Teaching and Learning Interactions in PjBL
Roles That Instructors Play in PjBL
How Students Learn in PjBL
By Doing
By Reading
By Teaching
By Watching
By Discussing
By Presenting
By Reflecting
By Listening
Chart the Known Knowns and the Known Unknowns of PjBL in Post-secondary
Known Unknowns of PjBL Environments
Team
Medium
Project
Mentor
Learner Response
To Do: Map Known Knowns and Known Unknowns
How PjBL Reinvents How Teachers and Learners Interact
Mentoring Learners to Navigate Their Own Experiences
Project
Individual
Team
Chapter Summary
Tools and Suggested Processes
Deeper Dive
Chapter 2: Know How You Mentor
Mentoring Is
To Do: Mentoring Is
Let the Mentor Be Summoned
Mentors Bridge the Gap Between Acquiring Knowledge and Applying It
To Do: Bridging Knowledge to Action
Mentors Guide Individual and Team Learning in PjBL
Mentors Guide Prototyping in PjBL Courses
Mentors Translate Knowledge and Know-How into Authentic Tasks and Activities
To Do: Begin to Plot Your Know-How and Knowledge
Step 1: Identify What Recruits May Need to Have Knowledge of
Step 2: Identifying Experience in Production or Know-How
Step 3: Ask How They Might Come to Learn This Knowledge and Know-How
Step 4: Use These to Create Activities That You’ll Include in the PjBL Course You Eventually Design
Mentors Understand Their Different Personalities and Respond to Those of Their Mentees
To Do: Mentor Personas
Mentee Personas
To Do: Mentee Personas
Chapter Summary
Tools and Suggested Processes
Deeper Dive
Chapter 3: Know Your Various Roles: Designing Teaching and Mentoring Interventions
A Trio of Intersecting Roles
Break Down Knowledge Areas Useful to Emerging Tech Production
To Do: Map What You Know
Teach Learners to Develop Skills and Capacities Outside Your Expertise
Chapter Summary
Tools and Suggested Processes
Deep Dive
Chapter 4: Know the Patterns of Mentoring and Teaching Interactions
The Interplay Between Skills and Know-How
Knowledge and Knowing in PjBL
Identifying Patterns of Teaching and Mentoring
Patterns of Teaching and Mentoring in the Workplace
Patterns of Teaching and Mentoring in Learning Environments
The Impact of a Weekly Schedule on Teaching and Mentoring
Signs to Watch for That Inform an Intervention
Design Features That Will Require Teaching and Mentoring
Project Charter
Design
Kickoff
Ideation
Project Management
Rules of Play
Team Collaboration
Heuristics
Client Meetings
Mitigating Student Jitters
Chapter Summary
Tools and Suggested Processes
Deep Dive
Chapter 5: Know What Needs to Be Taught and Mentored in PjBL
Setting the Stage
What Needs to Be Taught in a PjBL Course
Pipeline
Agile
Prototyping
Collaboration
Development
What Needs to Be Mentored Throughout a PjBL Course
Self-Regulating
Problem-Solving As a Team
Learning by Doing
Collaborating with Team Members
Managing
Developing an Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Team Culture
Comparing Teaching and Mentoring Activities in PjBL
Shift Between Mentoring and Teaching Interventions
Chapter Summary
Tools and Suggested Processes
Deeper Dive
Chapter 6: Know Your Mentoring Strategies
A Strategic Approach to Organizing Your Mentoring Strategies
Mentoring Strategies Drawn from Research
Modelling
To Do: Reflection on Modelling
Feedback
To Do: Reflection on Feedback
Surprise
To Do: Reflection on Unplanned Feedback or Interventions
Timing
Humor
Socratic Questioning
Deeper Dive
Learning Goals
Deeper Dive
Group Genres
How They Manifest
Mentor the Action of Doing
Pausing for Reflection
Deeper Dive
Scaffolding and Fading
Deeper Dive
Productive Failure: Teams Solving Their Own Problems
Reinventing Failure in PjBL Environments
Memorable Stories
To Do: Write Out Your Memorable Stories
Managing Client or Proxy Client
Listening
Organize Your Own Mentoring Strategies
Identify Your Mentoring Strategies
Step 1: Identify your own strategies.
Step 2: Attribute a one- or two-word value to each sentence. (This has been done for the preceding sentences.)
Step 3: Organize your strategies on a bullseye. Using a bullseye helps you to map the ones you use more than others.
Balancing Between Individual and Group Mentoring
Spontaneous Mentoring As a Known Unknown
Targeting Project, Team, and Client
The Project
The Team
The Client
Balancing Attention to the Three Zones
Chapter Summary
Tools and Suggested Processes
Deeper Dive
Chapter 7: Know the Core Features of PjBL
Design for Learning Creativity
Project Brief
Brainstorming
Ideation Tools
Scoping Tools
Solving Problems First
Developing a Visual Vocabulary
Design for Humans
Interaction Patterns
Psycho-Demographic Profiling
Storyboarding
User Stories in Agile
Prioritization
Design for Solving Problems Together
Design for Agility
Core Principles of Agile in PjBL Environments
Agility
Continuous Improvement
Velocity
Goal Setting
Prioritizing
Iterating
Feedback
Communication
Agile vs. Agility
Daily Scrum
Weeklies
Backlogs and Parking Lots
Design for Emerging Technologies
Advantages of Cyclic Development of Emerging Technologies in PjBL
Choose the x in xR
Design for Prototyping
Iteration
Low to High
Always Incomplete
User Testing
Design for (Re)learning the Value of Productive Failure
To Do: Setting Learners Up to Fail
Design for Collaboration
Agile Alignment
Making Ideas Visible
Culture Tools
Design for Adapting to Change
Design for Reflection
Persistent Feedback
To Do: Targeted Reflection Questions
Chapter Summary
Tools and Suggested Processes
Deeper Dive
Chapter 8: Know the PjBL Development Pipeline
Applying Real-World Development Pipelines to a PjBL One
Designing What Students Need to Learn from a PjBL Experience
Teaching and Mentoring Snapshot in a Typical PjBL Course
Plotting What You Think Needs to Be Taught in a PjBL Course
Week-by-Week Breakdown
In-Between Classes
Identifying the Gaps in Your Own Knowledge
To Do: Rapidly Plot What, How, and When You Will Teach
Precourse and Preproject Preparation
Client Contact As Part of Prep Work
Choosing Project Types
Assigning Students to Projects
Chapter Summary
Tools and Suggested Processes
Deeper Dive
Chapter 9: Know How to Assess Learners
Process of Developing Criteria
Step 1: Skills Brainstorm
Step 2: Relating Skills to Competencies
Step 3: Distill Core Competencies
Step 4: Develop Associated Subcompetencies
Collaborating and Communicating
Creative Thinking
Reflective Thinking
Social Awareness and Responsibility
Problem-Solving
Identifying Learning Outcomes from Demonstrated Competencies
Precourse Learning Outcomes
Discovery Sprint Learning Outcomes
Production Phase(s) Learning Outcomes
Broader Learning Outcomes
Agile Retrospectives As a Key Formative Assessment Tool
Testing Bias
Rubrics
Participation Rubrics
Assignment Rubrics
Collaboration Rubrics
Course Rubrics
Assessment Milestones
Iterating on the Course Outline
Chapter Summary
Tools and Suggested Processes
Deeper Dive
Chapter 10: Conclusion
Appendix 1: Visual Models
Ideation
Mind Mapping
Venn Diagrams
Landscape Models
Human-Centered Visual Models
Prioritization
Tools to Build Team Culture
Production: Agile Tools
Retrospectives
Appendix 2: Know How to Anticipate and Remove Obstacles
Index