Multimedia and Projects Essay
About Multimedia
Szuprowicz,
Fetterman, and Gupta have shown that humans retain only 20% of what they see,
from 20% to 30% of what they hear, and about 40% to 50% of what they both see
and hear. And they can retain up to 80% of what they see, hear, and do at the
same time (cited in Fluckiger, 1995, pp. 79-80). Multimedia use changes
the paradigm of learning from "standardization to customization" (Reigeluth,
1996, p. 14) to maximize the learning experience.
The integration of multimedia into primary and secondary classrooms supports
goals of National Education Technology
Standards established for both students and teachers by the International
Society for Technology in Education. In particular, student goals include
that they use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and
ideas effectively. Related to this is that teachers demonstrate
introductory knowledge, skills, and understanding of concepts related to
technology, which would include development of multimedia competency.
Alessi and Trollip (2001) identified tutorials, drills, hypermedia
environments, simulations, games, open-ended learning environments, and
computerized testing as methodologies in which to incorporate multimedia for
learning.
- Tutorials include presentation and guidance of material.
- Drills
provide practice of material.
- Hypermedia focuses on a database of information
with several methods of navigation, and can also be used to present
information.
- Simulations improve on tutorials and drills, provide a precursor
to real experiences, and give learners experiences that otherwise might not be
possible.
- Open-ended learning environments allow students to set their own goals to
solve meaningful problems, experiment, interpret, analyze, learn from errors,
revise their thinking, and collaborate with others.
- Educational games allow practice that integrates learning across many
subject areas. [See Dr. Deubel's article,
Game On!, in T.H.E.
Journal for more on digital game-based learning.]
- Computerized tests allow the assessment of knowledge, skills, or
performance.
All of these
employ a combination of text, audio, animation, video,
images/graphics, and interactivity, which define multimedia. The mix of
video, audio, and high quality graphics afforded by multimedia may grab the
attention of students, particularly poor readers, in ways that traditional
approaches to instruction would not (Kenworthy, 1993). In multimedia
environments, learners construct meaningful knowledge by "selecting words
and selecting images from the presented material, organizing words and
organizing images into coherent mental representations, and integrating the
resulting verbal and visual representations with one another" (Mayer, 1997,
p. 4).
 A visit to The Encyclopedia of Educational Technology at San Diego
State University (http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet)
will help you to see the difference in the learning process when multimedia is
involved. Click on the Table of Content and the heading "Cognition and
Learning." Select the article "Multimedia and the Learning
Process." Leo Clemente has written a one-page summary of experimental
research of multimedia: differences in cognitive processes observed with EEG.
The experiment examined brain activity when exposed to different media. There is
an excellent short Shockwave simulation that shows how different media types
activate different parts of the brain, which demonstrates cognition and the
learning process.
In terms of the learning process, the selection of media should be based on
the intended learning outcomes. George Siemens (University of Manitoba,
CA) (2003) discusses the strengths and weaknesses of various media formats and
their roles in achieving outcomes, particularly in relation to an online
learning environment. In terms of text, audio, visuals, and video, he
indicates the following:
- "Paper, digital, manuals, online chats, discussion questions, and
blogging are all effective uses of text" (section: Text). Text is well
suited to activities involving synthesis, evaluation, and reflection.
It's portable, easy to reproduce, but it's overused and is a passive medium.
- Audio enables two-way interactions, is faster than typing, and certainly
appeals to auditory learners, but learners can tune-out the audio.
Audio is useful for explanations, accessibility, pronunciations, for
example.
- Visuals enrich text material and can be used for any learning task.
Cost varies depending on if one is using the rather inexpensive options of
clip art and digital photos to enhance textual content or the more expensive
and time consuming options of animations and video.
- Video can add the personal element to the learning experience, and can
be used with multiple learners. Lectures, explanations, and detailed
demonstrations of complex tasks can be stored, and reviewed multiple times.
However, it is generally a passive medium, might take a team effort to
produce and is not easy to modify.
Vivien Sieber and David
Andrew (2003, p. 228) of the University of North London found students gained
skills and used a range of intelligences when working with multimedia and the
project method, which they linked to Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple
Intelligences:
- Verbal: subject content, text, reports
- Musical: sound effects
- Spatial Visual: text, graphics, animations, background
- Logical: navigation and project management
- Interpersonal: group work and evaluation feedback
- Intrapersonal: understanding, confidence, and self-management
Among conclusions regarding evidence for the
effectiveness and impact of media and technology in K-12 schools around the
world, Reeves (1998) stated that multimedia presentation software can support
development of a wide range of student abilities, including research, time
management, organizational, presentation, and reflective thinking skills.
However,
Rupert Wegerif (2002, citing
Lehrer, Connell, & Ericksen, 1992)
indicated that teachers must model skills to be developed. He elaborated
on the thinking skills that
learners need as designers of multimedia presentations:
Project
Management Skills
-
creating a timeline for the completion of the project
-
allocating resources and time to different parts of the project
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assigning roles to team members.
Research
Skills
-
determining the nature of the problem and how research should be
organized
-
posing
thoughtful questions about structure, models, cases, values, and roles
-
searching for information using text, electronic, and pictorial
information sources
-
developing new information with interviews, questionnaires and other
survey methods
-
analyzing and interpreting all the information collected to identify and
interpret patterns.
Organization and Representation Skills
-
deciding how to segment and sequence information to make it
understandable
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deciding how information will be represented (text, pictures, movies,
audio, etc.)
-
deciding how the information will be organized (hierarchy, sequence) and
how it will be linked.
Presentation Skills
Reflection
Skills
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Project Phases: Planning, Design, Development,
Authoring
There are four phases in completing a project:
planning, design, development, and authoring.
Planning
Planning a project requires knowing what you have available
with which to work, including a budget and timeline. In addition to hardware
for capturing images and sound (e.g., flatbed
scanner, digital camera for still images and/or video, microphone), you will
need software for video, audio, and image editing, and an authoring tool for
your project. Paint and draw programs can be used to create and manipulate
graphics. Students might capture their own images with digital
cameras. They might scan their paintings and drawings for use in projects,
or use clip art from the Web or from purchased CD clip art collections.
They might even scan images from their coloring books.
You should begin by listing hardware and software in your
classroom and/or personal system for creating multimedia products. Include items
relating to contact information to people who might provide technical
assistance. Add tutorials and manuals that you have available and their
locations. Identify minimum systems requirements for the development of a
multimedia project, and where you might find resources to upgrade your system,
if needed.
In the planning phase, your team should also brainstorm project ideas, and
then select one idea of merit that would be suitable for development within your
classroom. One project idea for a math classroom is to have students develop a
computer assisted learning module for a topic they are studying, which might be
used to teach others. Describe the project in 50 words or less, which helps you
to focus the scope and content of a project that you might actually accomplish
within a specific time frame. Now is also the time to gather potential
subject matter resources and image/audio/video resources. These might include
Web sites gathered from Internet searches.
Design
The primary problem in the design phase of a project is finding a balance
between the learning that is to be acquired and the effective use of the
multimedia to support learning. For example, Lloyd Rieber (1994)
identified five uses of computer graphics. On an affective level, graphics
might be cosmetic and serve only as a decoration. Graphics might be used
to motivate and arouse curiosity. On a cognitive level, graphics can be
used to gain attention and focus learners on instruction. They can
be used to present and elaborate on a concept. They can be used to assist with
practice and for visual feedback.
Using your team's agreed-upon project
goal, identify a sequence of steps to develop the project and assign tasks
to team members. Members should also agree, in business terms
"sign-off," on the completion of each phase of a project. You
should develop a navigation structure with flowcharts and storyboards that fit the flowcharts, and a
prototype of the project.
Storyboards are visual representations of what will be included on a screen.
There is no single way to create a storyboard, but one should be created for
each screen and include thumbnail sketches and placement of all visuals (e.g.,
photos, clip art, videos) and corresponding text. Storyboards should
include associated audio scripts that will eventually be recorded. Include
identifying information, such as a title, date, version number and the
storyboard sheet identifying number (like a page number). Each storyboard should
also include the filenames of specific audio, video, and graphic files that will
be used, programming instructions and notes to the developer, and branching
information (Beyer, 2005; Lee, Chamers, & Ely, 2005). Beyer suggests using
filenames that describe the content of the file, rather than using numbers,
because this makes searching for files easier.
Seek permission from authors of
copyrighted material that you might wish to incorporate in the project. David Warlick (http://www.landmark-project.com)
of Landmarks for Schools has simple to use Permission
Templates for this purpose, which will automatically go to the author
or web master of the site you wish to use in instruction or for a school
project.
Development
During the development phase, your team will deal with the technical aspects
of creating graphics, and capturing/editing audio and video. It is here
that the team will need to know about correct use of file formats (e.g., BMP, GIF, PICT, TIFF, EPS, JPG, JPEG, MPEG) and how to apply appropriate
resolution and compression techniques (e.g., lossy vs. lossless) affecting file
size. For example, scanned images in high resolution for printing are
often saved in TIFF format. BMP (bit-map) is Windows based and typically
used with line art. GIF files are limited to 256 colors, a poor choice for
photos. GIF files are often used on the Internet for displaying images in
low resolution. JPEG includes several alternatives for the degree of
compression. You might practice scanning an image at different
resolutions, noting the size of each file. This process helps you examine the
time issue for successful project completion and storage requirements for files
that you would like your students to create. It also impacts the amount of
memory that you need on your hard drive for producing multimedia.
Authoring
The final phase in the project model is authoring in which you put all the
pieces together. The authoring process has at least three components:
mastery of the programming tools, gathering and learning the content, and
instructional design and development. "Middle and secondary
student-authors' efforts might be divided into tool mastery and content
presentation using greatly informed instructional design" (Abramson, 1995,
p. 10). During this phase, the team will focus on screen design, selection
of color, consistent use of a metaphor, icons, and navigation features, all of
which will impact the overall look and ease of use of the project. The
team should "alpha" test the product and make revisions at each stage in the development
and authoring process, before presenting a project as finished. "Beta"
testing or usability testing with learners who were not part of the development
team will offer a fresh perspective on the product, point out problem areas, and
provide recommendations for improvement, which the developers might not have
observed.
On Power Point as an Authoring Tool
Power Point is a
powerful authoring tool for students and educators for classroom projects and
presentations. Sometimes,
however, authors fail to consider the audience perspective in their development. As you read on, how would you
answer these?
-
What are the purposes of
slides?
-
How many slides are needed in
a presentation for the allotted time?
-
Should slides be handed out?
If so, when?
-
Should words dance onto the
screen?
-
Should words become prominent
and fade?
-
Should the background have a
message?
-
How many levels of indentation
can still be seen from the distance?
-
Will Internet access be
available if you use hyperlinks to Web resources? If so, will the
connection speed be sufficient for accessing and viewing multimedia content?
Power Point slides outline the session, and contain key points to
emphasize to an audience. A primary concept is slides accompany a
presentation, and do not just contain script to be read to an audience.
I have told students to imagine you are standing before an audience
giving a presentation on your topic. The audience sees one slide at a time. They
expect a smooth, logical presentation of your message as you progress from one
slide to the next. Hence, presenters need good speaking
skills, eye contact with the audience, and appropriate gestures and body
language to maintain audience interest. The emphasis in the authoring
should be on the message to be delivered. Glitzy slides with poor content
are not valuable to an audience.
Slides can be used to demonstrate something
visual that discussion cannot replicate and can incorporate all multimedia
types: graphics, audio and video, and hyperlinks to the Web. Hyperlinks
can be used to make the presentation non-linear. As a classroom tool, Power Point can be used to post
lectures for student review or for students who were unable to attend class.
Slides can easily be updated for additional presentations. Power Point is
also valuable as a tool to organize thoughts in preparation for writing a paper
or an article. Power Point can be used to develop interactive multimedia
programs for self-paced individualized learning.
Each slide can contain a notes page. Notes remind the presenter of what to
say about the content of the slide and any bullet points provided. The
audience does not see these notes during the slide show, which the novice Power
Point user might not know. When adding content to the notes page for a slide,
keep in mind that about 250 words fit
in one text box in the notes section, single spaced with one blank line
between paragraphs on each slide. The text box size can be
enlarged and the font size for notes can be changed.
All notes should fit inside the text box, however. If you print your presentation for your benefit,
each slide and its notes should print on a single page with roughly one
inch margins all around—slide on top half, notes on bottom half. Another
caution that I have given students is the notes should accompany one
slide only. In other words, notes for slide 1 should not extend
over to the notes section for slide 2, and so on.
To add
page numbers to slides (e.g., perhaps in the lower right corner), select
to VIEW the SLIDE MASTER of your presentation. If you have
customized your presentation, rather than using a pre-existing template,
be sure slides are formatted consistently for a professional look, and
that a viewer of your presentation will not get lost in your navigation
structure.
Think ahead as you develop your presentation. An audience
appreciates resources, references, contact information, and handouts used in the
presentation. As you develop a project that might have 15-20
slides or more, the references will grow.
A complete listing of resources and references used might be
placed at the end. Each time you include
a new resource, it is easier to add it to the end of the presentation on
those slides right away, rather than waiting until all slides are
complete and then creating that cumulative list. Audiences also
appreciate a slide called Contact Information for questions,
comments, or other feedback they might have. The choice of what to
include is up to the presenter, such as your name, work place
or school, address (e.g., home, school, or work), telephone/fax, email,
and URL of a personal or professional web site. Finally, audiences
appreciate handouts of the presentation slides so that they can place
notes next to a particular slide.
Slides can be printed with or
without the author's notes pages. Power Point includes options for
printing slides with lines for notes, or multiple slides on a page (e.g., four
or six to a page).
Some presenters
misuse Power Point. The following tips might be
useful.
-
Provide adequate contrast
between text color and the background. Dark colors on light backgrounds
work well, particularly if slide content is to be printed.
-
Slow down. Too many slides
may lose the audience.
-
Number your slides so that the
audience has a perspective on the length of the presentation.
-
Expand upon bulleted points in
the oral presentation.
-
Avoid those bullet points and content that flies in on the click of the mouse,
particularly those that are accompanied by repetitive "swooshing" sounds.
-
Match slide content with
dialog.
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Avoid using
words that fade on a slide, as
fading words diminish their importance.
-
Avoid font sizes less than 20
points. Viewers sitting in the back of a large room may not see fine
print.
-
Consider only two levels of
indentation for readability.
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Avoid excessive animation and
sound that do not support content.
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Any graphics
used should support content of a slide.
-
Spell and grammar check all
slides before presenting. Double check that all hyperlinks work and go
to the correct slide and back.
-
Pretest from the back of a
room before presenting.
-
Know your audience (multiple
intelligences). While young students might like razzle-dazzle, is it needed?
Will it detract from your message?
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Multimedia and Accessibility
Don't forget about accessibility. A
quick
rule of thumb for making your multimedia project or presentation
accessible to all is to synchronize your multimedia presentation with
audio. If your audience can't see the presentation, they must be
able to hear it, or vice versa.
- Caption audio used in your videos so that deaf
or hearing impaired students have access. Also consider that in
any setting with a lot of noise, all viewers benefit from text
equivalents.
- Remember PDF files can't be read by screen
readers. Provide alternative electronic forms.
- If your Power Point presentation is posted on the Web, consider
learners who might need to use a screen reader to access the content.
Provide the presentation in HTML format, which can be interpreted by a
screen reader.
- Not every student can easily manipulate a
mouse. Provide keyboard access to content.
Accesselearning.net from the
Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA) at Georgia
Institute of Technology provides a series of 10 free tutorials on how to make
your multimedia projects accessible to all. After an overview of
accessibility issues and planning for accessibility in distance education
(actually applicable to any learning setting), learn how to make accessible
documents using PowerPoint, video, Flash, Word documents, Excel documents, PDF
documents, Web pages, scripts and Java.
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Tips for Projects in the
Classroom
Use the e-portfolio with your students
as a way for them to provide evidence of their mastery of standards, or
to showcase their work and accomplishments.
Store each project in a single folder!
 Multimedia
can be inserted into into your project documents two ways:
- Embedded multimedia becomes part of the
document.
- Linked multimedia keeps the multimedia file
separate from the document file.
If you copy your project or
presentation to another computer, you need to also copy all the multimedia
files that you have inserted into your project. Best advice--store
each of your projects or presentations along with all multimedia files
inserted in a separate folder on your computer. Then if you
need to copy your presentation onto another computer, copy the source
folder. If you are presenting your project on a computer that does
not have your development software on it, be sure to include the player
for your presentation (e.g., PowerPoint player), as well.
SAVE OFTEN! BACK UP ALL WORK!
Saving work often and making backups of
it often are just good practices.
I recall a particular video that we had of one of our daughter's
gymnastic meets, a one of a kind, that was lost forever because the disc
on which it was stored was accidentally used to record something else.
This was a huge lesson learned about the need for backups. I also
recall having backups of a backup for really important documents, like
versions of my dissertation as it was in progress. So, imagine the
woes of students who have worked diligently on projects only to have
accidents erase important work or unexpected computer glitches make
documents irretrievable.
Consider ramifications of Murphy's
Law.
Sandy Hayes (2007) provides advice when
dealing with Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will.
- "Decide ahead of time what to do
about a project that crashed, disappeared, became corrupted, or was
ruined by a hasty keystroke. Maybe the grade will be based on a
completed final draft of the writing that is the foundation of the
project, giving a participation or effort credit for the technology
component. When experimenting with a new or particularly complex
technology, consider setting the expectation level to GE—Good
Enough" (p. 60).
- Have backup plans in place for class
time when log-ins don't work or software applications are
inaccessible. Students might partner with another at their
computer.
- When doing something new, review the
basics ahead of time explaining the logic behind it.
- Write out procedures. This
will sometimes help students to answer their own questions and work
at their own pace.
- Use a buddy system for teaching and
answering questions. The Learn–Teach–Learn model is helpful to
demonstrate a procedure to a first group of students or student.
Then have each group or student help a subsequent group or
individual. The peer-to-peer question/answer process
reinforces learning. If peers can't answer questions from
others, then the teacher can be consulted. Rather than having
hands fly in the air, "Use place-card-style signs students can put
on top of the computer to signal for help. The sign can indicate
urgent computer problems and less urgent questions about directions
or content" (p. 62). I would add that color coding those signs
would be helpful to draw attention to the level of urgency.
- Be aware of software versions.
Some work might need to be saved in a lower format to allow for
greatest transferability. Download software upgrades as they
become available.
- Consider the learning curve for
software applications. New software versions and upgrades
often come with additional features. Have tutorials available.
- To learn new software, teachers
might need to experiment with it at home. This means that
administration might need a policy allowing teachers to take
equipment home.
- When demonstrating a project using a
computer other than the one used for its development, be sure you
have all cables available and necessarily software installed on that
computer.
- Expect and value the contributions
of learners who might know more about the software and technology
being used than you do. (Adapted from pp. 60-62).
Have you thought of online storage and
using Web 2.0 tools for collaboration?
VoiceThread,
which has made its premium account available to K-12 educators for free.
“A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any
type of media (images, documents and videos).” The beauty lies in the
commentaries that people can add to the media using a mix of voice with
a microphone or telephone, text, audio file, or video with a webcam.
This allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one
place. Even doodles can be added in feedback. You can designate your
media as public, private, or accessible by a select few, the latter of
which is a good safety feature for students.
For a nominal fee, K-12 educators can ensure their
students are collaborating in a secure and safe network by using the
Ed.VoiceThread. It’s a private
space by default “for creating digital stories and documentaries,
practicing language skills, exploring geography and culture, solving
math problems, collaborating with other students, or simply finding and
honing student voices.” Plus, there’s an option to make those creations
public. Public sharing does tell students their creativity has added
value.
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Multimedia
and Projects Essay (Page 1): The current page addresses the following:
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