Multimedia in Teaching

Multimedia through Computer Technology

Multimedia is the integration of different media content like text, graphic/still images, audio, video, animation, and even interactivity. As an advocate of 21st Century Learning, I highly recommend this approach to all the teachers, who would like to redefine pedagogic scheme in view of the omnipresent technology.

Let me cite some of its advantages first:

• It engages learners in accomplishing certain tasks that involve computer and multimedia applications
• It empowers them to create and design their own presentation and flow of thought through multimedia
• It becomes a medium for the students to represent and express their prior and captured knowledge
• In the study conducted by Carver, Lehrer, Connell, and Ericksen (1992), they list some of the major thinking skills that learners learn and use as multimedia designers:
• Project management skill
• Research skill
• Organization and representation skill
• Presentation skill
• Reflection skill

About the disadvantages, I can say that the cost of developing a sophisticated multimedia application is one of its major limitations. Considering some high end hardware and software supports is also one. Sometimes, overuse of multimedia contents could distract the learner from your real learning objectives.

Developing a multimedia application would require us to meet some hardware and software considerations. The more sophisticated multimedia application we are eyeing to develop would mean more high-end hardware and software requirements.

Basically, for some hardware considerations, we need to have some of the essential computer components like:

• Monitor screen – as much as possible with wider screen for better view of image editing
• Scanners – flatbed or portable, nowadays we have the scanner integrated to our printer device
• Microphone and speakers – for sound/audio recording
• Computer pen and pad – for graphic creations
• Computer processors and memory – as much as possible the computer unit must be high-end to meet the latest version of multimedia authoring programs

      For some software considerations:

•        Audio editing software like Audacity
•        Video editing software like Windows Movie Maker
•        Animation authoring tool like Adobe Flash or Macromedia Director