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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. What is it? Are there important pedagogical and practical reasons for seeking multimedia literacy? 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; Jarboe, 2001; Lazarus & Mora, 2000). 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.

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Pages: 1 Intro  2 Educational Values  3 Social Values  4 Economic Value  5 Unimedia  6 Bibliography

[Multimedia Home | Pageauthor Houghton]

Last modified February 28, 2006

Original Version: 1.0, 1996.

To cite this composition:

Houghton, R. S. (2004). Rationale for Multimedia Use and Instruction in Education, v7.8. Western Carolina University. Retrieved on (put date of retrieval here) from http://www.ceap.wcu.edu/Houghton/MM/Rationale/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.