|
Rationale for Multimedia Use
and Instruction in Education
Page 1
Introduction to Multimedia Thinking
There is much that educators, community leaders and web composers should consider about
multimedia. A first stop is an initial understanding of this term that we use to
indicate multiple forms of communication, and a consideration of its
application. What is it? Are there important pedagogical and practical reasons for using
computer-based and web-based multimedia? Why should technology that provides multimedia capacity take up
space in a college computer lab? Or an elementary classroom? Or an
administrator's office? Other issues follow. What is the relevance of multimedia
to education, the economy and culture? Are there any inherent
problems in the use of this multitude of media? There is an additional important
stop. Is multimedia the right term at
all for what has emerged in the last few years? Has a new form of communication
synthesized itself, needing a new label and new curriculum?
Consider these
common learner requests that can be addressed by multimedia.
A. "Can you explain that differently? I don't get it." "I'm stuck!"
"It's too complicated!"
B. "I'm bored."
C. "I don't understand. Can I touch? Let me see and hear too."
That is:
A. The diagrams, charts, video, film, animation, theater/plays,
pictures, sounds and other changes of perceptual view that teachers and other
creative composers frequently
employ to help the "stuck" are multimedia. Multimedia provides fresh perspective
and metaphor.
B. Learners also need items of high interest. Instructional and other leaders need attention grabbers.
Multimedia provides instructional variation.
C. Further, much of what we have learned does not translate simply and
clearly to text. In many cases, ideas cannot be adequately understood let
alone perceived unless a medium other than text is employed, whether sounds
from a rain forest or photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope of the
Orion nebulae. The issue of perception takes on special meaning for those
teaching special
needs students, those with particular handicaps and disabilities. For
these students, multimedia may not just provide an alternative perspective.
A certain form of multimedia may provide the only point of access for understanding,
the only bridge to both "sight" and "insight" for the learner. Multimedia
provides awareness.
From this perspective, good educators have always been multimedia
educators.
If only it was that simple, for there is one more critical factor
that will only grow in significance, the economic factor.
D. In the age of cyberspace in the twenty-first century, composition,
calculation and communication on paper alone is an impoverished, fractional and
increasingly outdated concept and practice for thinking and communication. To
build on the accomplishments of paper technology, a digital infrastructure must
be in place. Once in place, a web
composition of one or several web pages can merge text, computer programming,
images, music and speech, video, animation, three-dimensional images and remote
access and control of electronic devices. (See examples at the top of this
page). The global range of
development related to
to multimedia is enormous. In a
variety of ways an enormous body of thinking notes that the under-supported
digital technology systems and digital curriculum of public schools leads to a
growing digital divide within public school education (Google
search "schools"; Looker & Thiessen, 2003; Paige, 2003) and between public
schools, communities, countries and the current communication practices of
higher education, business, corporations and government (Google
search "business"; Hirsch, 2003; Perkins, 1999). The school desk
of a typical student is a digital ghetto in comparison with the digital
scene of current employment practices. Though many schools have acquired a
computer in every classroom, computer labs and the appearance of a wide range of
technology, at the end of the day, what counts is what the student is able to
use every hour of the day, not just for part of an hour once or twice a week. At the same time, the businesses which
are growing the economy are not just seeking employees with this knowledge, they
are increasingly moving their operations out of areas of low concentration and
moving to areas with high concentrations of digitally knowledgeable thinkers and
communicators (Florida, 2002). Many schools are not yet able to fully address
this reality.
With this brief introduction, these points need to be revisited in greater
detail.
Launch Parent Frame |
Top of this Page |
Printer friendly view of the entire
article
Pages:
1
Intro 2
Educational Values
3
Social Values 4
Economic Value 5
Unimedia 6
Bibliography
[Multimedia Home | Pageauthor Houghton]
Last modified
August 14, 2004.
Original Version: 1, 1996.
To cite this composition:
Houghton, R. S. (2003).
Rationale for Multimedia Use
and Instruction in Education. Western Carolina University. Retrieved on (put
date of retrieval here) from
http://www.ceap.wcu.edu/Houghton/MM/RationaleMMframes.html
Disclaimer: Any errors are those of the author, and the paper's opinions
do not represent any official position of Western Carolina University. The
author greatly appreciates the prompt notification of any errors.
|