Making News Today

The Making News Today site is now closed.

This website supported a curriculum designed and developed by a group of researchers and educators who were interested in how multiliteracy pedagogies could be used to support student learning.

Making News Today was designed to address outcomes for Years 9 and 10 English, Technology and Art syllabi in New South Wales. It was also linked to the national Statements of Learning for English and ICT as well as syllabi in each Australian state and territory.

The website provided a set of learning activities and resources to support students as they analysed a range of media and created their own digital video news stories. The website was used with the students and teachers who participated in the research project from 2004 through 2008. The site was then made available to all schools. The site was decommissioned in 2017.

The research program was funded and supported by a University of Wollongong New Partnerships Grant and an Australian Research Council Linkage Project grant (LP0455648), Apple Computer Australia and WIN Television. The project team included Lori Lockyer, Ian Brown, Barry Harper, Phillip McKerrow, David Blackall, and Natalie Cooper.

Research and practice-focused outputs of the project included:

  • Cooper, N, Lockyer, L, & Brown, I. (2013). Developing multiliteracies in a technology-mediated environment. Educational Media International. 50(2), 93-107.
  • Brown, I. & Lockyer, L. (2012). Towards a Conceptual Model for Multimodal Learning and Multiliteracy Assessment. London International Conference on Education (LICE-2012), 19-22 November 2012, London, UK.
  • Lockyer, L. (2012) Mulitliteracies: Teaching, Learning and Assessing with Technology. Invited paper at Pearson Global Research Conference, 27-28 January 2012, Fremantle, Western Australia.
  • Blackall, D., Lockyer, L. & Harper, B. (2011). Making News Today: a tool for adoption of ethics principles using technology ‐ supported television journalism. Learning, Media and Technology, 36 (3), 277-294.
  • Cooper, N. (2010). Media Analysis and Production: The Development of Multiliteracies in Technology-Supported Learning Environments . Doctor of Philosophy thesis, University of Wollongong - Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong.
  • Lockyer, L. (2009) Developing multiliteracies through digital video creation. Workshop presented at the 2009 Personal Development, Health and Physical Education Teachers' Association Conference, 23 October, 2009, Manly, NSW, Australia.
  • Lockyer, L. & Brown, I. (2008). Multiliteracies and Technology. Invited paper presented at the 2008 New South Wales Department of Education and Training Illawarra and South East Region Principals Conference, 9 May 2008, Batemans Bay, NSW, Australia.
  • Brown, I., & Lockyer, L. (2007) Don’t Mention The ‘T’ Word: Value And Validity In Testing Visual Literacy. In R. E. Griffin, M. Avgerinou & J. Giesen, History, Community, & Culture: Celebrating Tradition & Transforming Our Future, Selected Readings of the International Visual Literacy Association . (pp 7-13). Loretto, PA: International Visual Literacy Association. (Awarded Braden & Beauchamp Visual Literacy Award for contribution to the theoretical foundation of the discipline of visual literacy by the International Visual Literacy Association).
  • Cooper, N., Kosta, L., Lockyer, L., & Brown, I. (2007) Making News Today: Content creation in the classroom. In M. Docherty (Ed.) Proceedings of Apple University Consortium 2007 Conference - Contribute, Communicate, Collaborate Gold Coast: Apple University Consortium, pp 1-1 – 1-9. Available at http://www.auc.edu.au/myfiles/uploads/Conference/AUC_Conference_2007_Proceedings.pdf
  • Lockyer, L., Brown, I., Blackall, D., Harper, B., & McKerrow, P. (2007). Becoming multiliterate: Digital video news construction within a technology-supported learning environment. In Theo Bastiaens and Saul Carliner (Eds.) Proceedings of E-Learn 2007 World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare and Higher Education. (pp. 6247 - 6254) Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.
  • Reece, P., & Blackall, D. (2007). Making news today: literacy for citizenship. Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 15(3), 46.
  • Cooper, N., Lockyer, L., & Brown, I. (2006) Media Analysis and Production: Developing Multiliteracies in Technology-Enhanced Environments. Joint Issue of Journal of eLiteracy (JeLit) and Innovation in Teaching And Learning in Information and Computer Sciences (ITALICS). 5(4), 75-95. Available at http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/italics/vol5iss4.htm
  • Cooper, N., Lockyer, L., Brown, I., Blackall, D., & Harper, B. (2005) Developing Multi-literacies in Technology-Enhanced Environments. In A. Pandian, M. K. Kabilan, and S. Kaur (Eds.) Teachers, Practices and Supportive Cultures. (pp 296-300). Serdang, Malaysia: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press.
  • Brown, I. & Lockyer, L. (2005/2006). Exploring a learning design to operationalise new pedagogical frameworks using multi-literacies. International Journal of Learning. 12(10), 175-178.
  • Blackall, D., Lockyer, L., & Brown, I. (2004). Straight Shooting – Developing Camera Ethics and Multiple Literacy Through Digital Video New Production in High Schools. Asia Pacific Media Educator. 15: 47-62. [also available at http://ro.uow.edu.au/apme/vol1/iss15/5/]
  • Brown, I., Lockyer, L., & Norman, A. (2004) Position vacant: new learner… Skills required: multiliterate. In Lorenzo Cantoni & Catherine. McLoughlin (Eds.) Proceedings of ED-MEDIA2004 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications (pp. 3530-3534). Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.