In the evolving landscape of education, integrating multimedia resources into traditional coursework can provide powerful learning experiences. One way to do this in a communications course is by incorporating Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart (Brown, 2021) alongside textbook materials, such as Interplay: The Process of Interpersonal Communication (Adler, Rosenfeld, & Proctor, 2018). This multimedia approach not only deepens students’ understanding of emotions but also enhances their communication competence by linking emotional experiences to core communication theories.

Connecting Emotions to Communication Theories: A Reflective Approach

Students often experience emotions in their daily interactions, but they may not always reflect on how these emotions impact their communication. By engaging with the emotions discussed in Atlas of the Heart, students can gain a more nuanced understanding of interpersonal communication theories, such as those explored in Chapter 9: Emotions of Interplay (Adler et al., 2018).

For example, one way to foster this reflection is by having students write about how vulnerability affects communication. Vulnerability is central to emotional expression and connection, which ties directly to the concepts of self-disclosure and emotional intelligence discussed in Interplay (Adler et al., 2018). By reflecting on vulnerability, students can explore the tension between openness and the fear of rejection, gaining insight into how these feelings influence their interactions with others (Brown, 2021).

Class Discussions: Exploring the Emotional Side of Communication

Using Atlas of the Heart as a springboard for class discussions offers a dynamic way to explore the emotional components of communication. Episodes or excerpts from the series can serve as powerful tools to introduce students to the complex relationship between emotions and communication theories like perception and cultural differences.

For instance, an episode focused on the emotion of belonging (Brown, 2021) could open up discussions about how different cultural perceptions shape communication in group settings. Students could compare their personal experiences with concepts from Chapter 3: Perception and Chapter 5: Culture of Interplay (Adler et al., 2018), analyzing how emotions affect intercultural interactions and communication patterns.

Interactive Activities to Deepen Understanding

Interactive activities are essential for applying theoretical concepts to real-life situations. One engaging activity is having students conduct case studies based on characters or scenarios from Atlas of the Heart (Brown, 2021). These case studies can be analyzed through the lens of communication concepts such as perception, culture, or conflict management—key ideas covered in Interplay’s Chapters 3, 5, and 12 (Adler et al., 2018).

For example, students might analyze a scenario where a character experiences shame, and then connect that to theories about self-concept and identity management (Adler et al., 2018). By making these connections, students will better understand how internal emotional experiences influence external communication behaviors, especially in moments of conflict or cultural misunderstanding.

Conclusion

Recap: Integrating Atlas of the Heart into a communication course offers students a valuable opportunity to connect emotions with interpersonal communication theories from Interplay (Adler et al., 2018). This multimedia approach not only deepens their understanding of key concepts like vulnerability, shame, and belonging (Brown, 2021), but also allows them to apply these insights to their real-world communication experiences. Ultimately, this enhances their ability to navigate the complex emotional landscape of personal and professional relationships.

Call to Action: I encourage educators to adopt multimedia tools like Atlas of the Heart to bridge communication theory with the emotional realities students face in their daily lives. By doing so, we can help students become more emotionally intelligent and communicatively competent, preparing them for success in both interpersonal and professional contexts.

Additional Elements

Visuals: Consider including visuals or clips from Atlas of the Heart alongside textbook content from Interplay to engage students visually and reinforce key concepts. Using multimedia alongside academic material can help students make deeper connections between theoretical ideas and their emotional experiences.

Reflection Questions:

1. “How do emotions like shame or belonging impact the way we communicate?”
2. “How can understanding our own emotional triggers improve our interpersonal relationships?”
3. “What role does storytelling play in enhancing our comprehension of communication theories?”

Encouraging students to reflect on these questions will help them think critically about how emotions influence their communication and relationships.

References:

• Adler, R. B., Rosenfeld, L. B., & Proctor, R. F. (2018). Interplay: The process of interpersonal communication (14th ed.). Oxford University Press.
• Brown, B. (2021). Atlas of the heart: Mapping meaningful connection and the language of human experience. Random House.

In my Audio Video Production and Professional Communication courses, project-based learning is critical for student success. With Class Companion, I can easily create and manage project-based assessments that align with course objectives and provide a real-world context for learning.

Project-based learning helps students develop problem-solving skills and encourages active engagement with the content (Blumenfeld et al., 1991). Class Companion’s project management features allow me to assign, track, and assess student projects, ensuring that every student has the tools and resources they need to succeed. Whether my students are working on video production or preparing professional presentations, Class Companion keeps them organized and on track.

For educators looking to incorporate project-based learning into their classrooms, Class Companion offers the structure and support you need. 

Use my referral code here to explore how it can transform your project-based instruction.

References:

• Blumenfeld, P. C., Soloway, E., Marx, R. W., Krajcik, J. S., Guzdial, M., & Palincsar, A. (1991). Motivating project-based learning: Sustaining the doing, supporting the learning. Educational Psychologist, 26(3-4), 369-398.

Sometimes, rubrics need restructuring to match new learning objectives or adapt to unique assignments. Brisk makes it easy to adjust existing rubrics without starting from scratch, saving time and ensuring adaptability.

How Brisk Aids in Restructuring:

• Easy Reordering of Criteria: Brisk’s interface allows educators to move, add, or remove criteria as needed. If an assignment evolves, like shifting from written responses to multimedia presentations, the rubric can be easily adapted.
• Adjustable Weighting: Brisk enables educators to assign varying weights to rubric components based on importance, prioritizing specific skills or knowledge areas for different assignments.
• Focus on Skill-Specific Feedback: By restructuring rubrics with Brisk, educators can emphasize particular skills, such as “Critical Thinking” in writing assignments or “Technical Proficiency” in audio-visual projects.

Using Brisk to restructure rubrics allows for dynamic, flexible assessment that aligns with evolving course goals and project requirements, making evaluation a more responsive tool for student success.

Streamline your teaching and engage your students with Brisk—sign up using my referral link here and discover how Brisk can transform your classroom.

Enhancing rubrics with detailed descriptors helps students understand where they excel and where they need improvement. Brisk provides educators with tools to enrich rubrics and make feedback more impactful.

How Brisk Enhances Rubrics:

• In-Depth Descriptors: Brisk’s rubric enhancement tools allow teachers to add descriptive details to each criterion. For example, in a public speaking rubric, “Eye Contact” can be described in levels like “Maintains consistent eye contact throughout” or “Occasionally looks away.”
• Specific Examples: Including examples within rubric descriptors can provide clarity. Brisk helps integrate relevant examples, so students know what behaviors or qualities are expected at each level.
• Consistency and Objectivity: With Brisk, teachers can apply consistent standards across different sections or classrooms, ensuring fair assessment.

With Brisk-enhanced rubrics, students gain a clearer picture of their performance, making assessments more valuable to their learning process.

Streamline your teaching and engage your students with Brisk—sign up using my referral link here and discover how Brisk can transform your classroom.

In our Instructional Practices class, students are diving into foundational learning theories to better understand the philosophy behind effective teaching. We’re working through Chapter 1, Section 1 of Learning Theories Simplified by Bob Bates, focusing on nine classical learning theories ranging from Socrates’ emphasis on reflection to Freire’s concept of critical consciousness. This assignment encourages students to explore how great thinkers have shaped educational approaches, while also making connections to modern teaching practices.

Assignment Breakdown and Objectives

The assignment is designed to help students become familiar with classical learning theories and apply them to real classroom scenarios. Here’s how it’s structured:

1. Theory Selection and Research: Students select one theory, such as Dewey’s Pragmatism or Aristotle’s Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, and conduct in-depth research on the concepts, historical context, and applications of their chosen theory. This week-long research phase allows students to build a thorough understanding of key philosophical ideas in education.
2. Peer Teaching Presentations: Each student prepares a presentation to teach their chosen theory to the class. These presentations are interactive and include an overview of the theory, real-world applications, and a brief discussion or activity. This peer teaching aspect builds public speaking skills and fosters a collaborative learning environment where students can engage with diverse perspectives on education.
3. Theory-Based Lesson Plan Creation: Students create a mini-lesson plan incorporating their selected theory, complete with Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) alignment, learning objectives, and an activity grounded in theoretical principles. This element reinforces the importance of aligning instructional design with pedagogical philosophy.

How We’re Applying These Theories in Class

To bring these theories to life, the class structure includes a mix of direct instruction, storytelling, and reflective discussions. Each day, students check in to share their progress, ask questions, and collaborate on ideas. This consistent feedback loop enables students to connect their research with practical classroom experiences.

As a core part of the course, students complete two weekly classroom observations, followed by reflective journaling. These observations are key to understanding the dynamics of classroom instruction and identifying examples of how these classical theories are applied in real time.

Why This Assignment Matters

Studying classical learning theories in depth helps students develop a critical understanding of educational philosophy, a skill essential for future educators. By blending historical insights with practical application, students can see how abstract ideas like Socrates’ method of questioning or Dewey’s focus on experience play a tangible role in shaping modern classrooms.

This assignment not only promotes a deeper appreciation for the field of education but also cultivates essential skills in research, lesson planning, and peer instruction.

Assessing student reflections requires a focus on both the content of the reflection and the depth of thought, while recognizing that reflection is inherently subjective. Here are some key ways to effectively assess student reflections:

1. Use a Rubric Focused on Depth and Relevance

A rubric provides clear criteria for evaluating student reflections. Here are some elements that can be included in a reflection rubric:

• Insightfulness and Depth of Analysis: Look for evidence that students are critically analyzing their experiences, connecting them to learning theories or specific goals, and demonstrating a deeper understanding of the material.
• Specific Examples and Details: High-quality reflections often include concrete examples from classroom observations or personal experiences, helping to ground their thoughts in real-world context.
• Connection to Theory or Learning Goals: Assess how well students connect their reflections to relevant theories, learning outcomes, or educational practices discussed in class.
• Clarity and Coherence: Reflections should be well-organized and clearly express the student’s thoughts and insights.

2. Provide Reflective Prompts for Guidance

Prompting students with specific questions can help them dig deeper. For example, you might ask:

• “What surprised you most about the classroom experience, and why?”
• “How does this observation connect to [specific learning theory]?”
• “What would you do differently if you were the teacher in this situation?”

Using these prompts as part of the rubric can guide students and standardize responses.

3. Focus on Growth Over Time

Reflections are tools for growth, so track how students’ reflections deepen over time. Look for changes in how they analyze situations, connect experiences to theory, and self-assess.

4. Encourage Self-Assessment and Peer Feedback

Including self-assessment or peer feedback as part of the reflective process can be a powerful way to encourage students to assess their own growth. You can have students review their earlier reflections to assess progress, or use peer reviews for additional insights.

5. Provide Constructive, Narrative Feedback

Instead of only assigning a score, offer narrative feedback on student reflections. Highlight where the student showed deep insight, asked valuable questions, or made strong connections to theory, and offer suggestions for how they might reflect more deeply in future assignments.

By assessing reflections with these strategies, you create a supportive framework that values personal insight and encourages critical thinking, guiding students toward more thoughtful and meaningful self-assessment.

Creating an effective rubric is crucial for transparent, consistent, and fair student assessment. Brisk offers educators an efficient way to design rubrics that provide clear expectations for student performance, aligning with specific learning objectives.

How Brisk Helps:

• Template Customization: Brisk allows teachers to select from a variety of pre-built rubric templates. You can modify these to suit different assignments, such as evaluating interviews or public speaking skills.
• Criteria Development: Teachers can specify learning criteria for each rubric. For example, for an interview assignment, you could assess students on criteria like “Professionalism,” “Question Response Quality,” and “Body Language.”
• Performance Level Descriptions: Brisk simplifies the process of writing specific descriptions for each performance level (e.g., Excellent, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement). This helps students understand the expectations clearly.

Brisk saves valuable time by providing a structured framework for building effective rubrics, enabling teachers to focus more on student growth.

Streamline your teaching and engage your students with Brisk—sign up using my referral link here and discover how Brisk can transform your classroom.

In my Interpersonal Communication course, guided notes play an essential role in helping students follow along with lectures and discussions. With Diffit, I can create customized guided notes that emphasize the most critical aspects of the course, such as conflict resolution or active listening.

Research shows that guided notes improve student engagement and comprehension, particularly for complex topics (Boyle & Weishaar, 2001). By using Diffit, I can quickly generate notes that guide students through key concepts while allowing them space to apply their learning through class discussions and activities. These notes can be distributed digitally or printed for in-class use, providing flexibility for different learning environments.

Diffit has simplified my lesson planning, allowing me to focus more on student interaction and less on material preparation. Enhance your lesson planning with Diffit—automatically create differentiated learning materials in seconds! Sign up using my referral link here and experience the ease of personalized instruction.

References:

• Boyle, J. R., & Weishaar, M. (2001). The effects of strategic notetaking on the recall and comprehension of lecture information for high school students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 16(3), 133-141.

Vocabulary plays a critical role in understanding course material in my Introduction to Speech Communication and Interpersonal Communication courses. Using Diffit, I can generate vocabulary activities that help students learn essential communication terms while reinforcing their practical applications.

Vocabulary acquisition is crucial for academic success, and research has shown that differentiated vocabulary activities enhance student retention and understanding (Graves, 2006). With Diffit, I can quickly create activities that are tailored to the varying proficiency levels in my dual enrollment classes. These activities help students engage with the material more effectively, whether they are learning about rhetorical strategies or interpersonal dynamics. Students can complete the activities digitally or use printed copies, depending on their preferences and learning needs.

Diffit’s versatility in creating differentiated materials has allowed me to better support my students’ vocabulary development. Enhance your lesson planning with Diffit—automatically create differentiated learning materials in seconds! Sign up using my referral link here and experience the ease of personalized instruction.

References:

• Graves, M. F. (2006). The vocabulary book: Learning and instruction. Teachers College Press.

In today’s digital classroom, educators have a wealth of tools at their fingertips that can help transform simple ideas into engaging learning materials. One exciting approach is using AI tools like ChatGPT and ElevenLabs to create stories from personal experiences and events, complete with visual and audio elements. In this post, I’ll walk you through how I used these AI tools to develop a kid-friendly story, complete with visuals and narration, and how easy it is to integrate these into platforms like Canva to create an animated video.

This process not only demonstrates the power of AI in education, but also highlights how simple it is to use these AI storytelling tools to create engaging content for students. Let’s dive into the steps:

1. Story Concept and Outline

Goal: Develop a whimsical, kid-friendly story based on quirky neighborhood characters.

My Input: I provided ChatGPT with a list of personal memories and unique neighborhood events like “The Pig House,” “Flamethrower Incident,” and “The Dancing Man.”

Action: ChatGPT, one of the best AI-generated storytelling tools, transformed my list into a cohesive story by creating chapter titles and summaries based on these quirky events. Each chapter highlighted a fun character or event from my neighborhood, setting the tone for a whimsical tale that would capture the imagination of young readers.

2. Story Adaptation for Kids

Goal: Turn the outline into a cohesive story suitable for a children’s book or animated show.

My Input: I requested that ChatGPT adapt these events into a short story written in the playful, simple style of a children’s cartoon.

Action: ChatGPT crafted a narrative that introduced each character and event in a kid-friendly way, making it perfect for students. The story was not only entertaining but also illustrated the power of AI-generated stories for kids. It kept the language light, with fun themes like community and uniqueness, making it engaging and educational for young readers.

3. Image Creation for Visuals

Goal: Create AI-generated cartoon-style images to illustrate key scenes in the story.

My Input: I used Leonardo.ai (another fantastic AI tool for visuals) to generate images based on prompts crafted with the help of ChatGPT. I described specific scenes like “The Dancing Man twirling in the park” and “The Pig House with colorful flowers.”

Action: ChatGPT helped me generate detailed prompts for Leonardo.ai, ensuring the visuals matched the story’s whimsical style. These AI-generated visuals were essential for illustrating the key moments, helping bring the story to life in a vibrant, animated style. Such AI visuals can be a game-changer when creating multimedia storytelling in education.

4. Script for Audio Narration

Goal: Convert the written story into a script that could be used for audio narration.

My Input: I wanted to create an engaging audio version of the story using ElevenLabs’ text-to-speech feature, so I asked ChatGPT to break the story into a script with clear narration cues.

Action: ChatGPT simplified the narrative into a series of scenes that were easy to follow in an audio format, making it perfect for storytelling. The script was designed to keep listeners engaged, with clear directions for tone and pacing. This use of text-to-speech for kids’ stories not only made the narrative more engaging but also demonstrated the flexibility of AI-generated audio narration.

5. Final Adjustments and Revisions

Goal: Finalize the script, ensuring it flows smoothly and matches the desired style.

My Input: After reviewing the script and visuals, I requested minor adjustments to ensure the tone stayed cheerful and engaging.

Action: Based on my feedback, ChatGPT revised the script to ensure it aligned with the visuals and created a cohesive flow for narration. By incorporating the visuals and narration, the story was now ready for multimedia production, which is key for creating engaging stories with AI.

6. Ready for Audio Production

Goal: The script is now ready for audio production using ElevenLabs.io.

I used ElevenLabs’ AI-generated voiceovers to bring the narration to life. The platform’s customizable text-to-speech feature allowed me to match the narrator’s voice to the playful tone of the story, creating an engaging experience for young listeners.

7. Combining Visuals and Audio in Canva

Once the visuals and audio were ready, I used Canva to create a video of the story. Canva’s intuitive interface made it easy to upload the AI-generated visuals and sync them with the audio narration from ElevenLabs. With simple drag-and-drop features, I could add animations, transitions, and text, bringing the story to life in a dynamic way.

This combination of AI storytelling tools—ChatGPT for the narrative, ElevenLabs for audio, and Canva for visuals—resulted in a highly engaging, kid-friendly story that could be used as a learning tool in classrooms. Canva’s multimedia features made the whole process smooth, allowing me to easily create a video that students would enjoy and learn from.

Why Use AI Tools in the Classroom?

Using AI in education can transform how teachers create and deliver content. Tools like ChatGPT, ElevenLabs, and Canva offer educators a way to personalize learning materials, making them more engaging and interactive. By combining AI-generated stories, visuals, and audio, educators can create lessons that captivate students while also meeting educational goals. Whether it’s for storytelling, lesson planning, or developing interactive resources, AI tools like these provide endless possibilities.

This step-by-step process highlights just how easy it is to create personalized, multimedia stories using AI tools. With just a few platforms, teachers can transform simple ideas into captivating learning experiences for their students.