Apple Education recently posted an interesting article that profiles Professor Maria Lovett’s “Writing with Video” class at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Supported by Mac computers plus iWork and iLife software suites, Writing with Video is one of the most popular courses at the University.

The course grew out of an attempt to define what it means to be literate in the modern world, and the role of the written and spoken word in education and normal discourse. Lovett and Professor Joseph Squier from UIUC’s School of Art and Design developed the class to challenge traditional perceptions of language and to help students understand how easily media can be manipulated. Using a combination of writing and video production, Writing with Video pushes students to become effective authors and critical consumers of media.

Assignments incorporate reflective writing about the production process — shooting, editing, and sharing the videos. In addition, students engage in peer reviews of works-in-progress and completed projects. Most students in the Writing with Video class use Apple notebooks and iMovie to compose and edit their video projects (those who do not have access to the notebooks work on iMac and Power Mac computers in UIUC’s Mac labs). For audio editing, they employ a combination of GarageBand and a third-party product. Final projects are published on iTunes U, creating an end-to-end process from creation to publication (iWeb is also being evaluated as a publishing option).

Because electronic media plays an increasingly important role in contemporary society, students proficient in both visual, time-based communication and written discourse might possess a significant competitive advantage in the coming decades.