The Impact of Multimedia in Schools
Yuhong Sun
I. Growing Interests in Impact of Multimedia in School
Today technology integration is one of the hottest topics in education because computers have already penetrated every aspect of our society. Being an educator, it is of the first priority to understand and appreciate the impact computers have on our schools and the promises they hold for the future.
With respect to multimedia, there are many issues of concern to students, parents, educators, and society at large. For example, many educators and parents ask the important questions about the effects of multimedia on children’s mental development. They want to know whether multimedia is more effective for teaching and learning than the traditional classroom approach.
The controversy is often seen in public press concerning this issue. Most educators believe that the multimedia integration in education can lead to more active and creative learning and meet the needs of students with different learning styles. However, despite optimism, there are many skeptics. Some argue that multimedia may actually limit learning by focusing both the teacher’s and students’ attention on the delivery vehicle rather than the actual content to be learned. A story entitled The Computer Delusion also illustrates a critical view of technology in education, beginning with this sentence:
“There is no good evidence that most uses of computers significantly improve teaching and learning, yet school districts are cutting programs – music, art, physical education – that enrich children’s lives to make room for this dubious nostrum.” (Oppenheimer, 1997)
I am an advocate of technology integration in education. I believe that multimedia is a powerful and effective tool in schools if it is well planned. Among other advantages, multimedia project aims to engage students in their own learning and develop students’ skills of collaboration, decision-making, and complex problem solving.
In this paper, I am going to discuss the impact of multimedia in schools. My paper consists of five parts. Part One introduces the issues concerning the growing interest in multimedia in schools. Part two addresses the impact of multimedia on the cognitive and moral development of children. Part three discusses the impact of multimedia on the traditional teaching style. Part four presents the evidence of positive effects of teaching and learning with multimedia programs. Finally, this paper puts forward various ways that multimedia can be incorporated into teaching and learning and summarizes the positive impact of multimedia in schools.
II. The impact of multimedia on Children’s Cognitive
and Moral development
To know the impact of multimedia on the cognitive and moral development of children, we should first know what is multimedia and how it is used in school. Not long ago, multimedia was simply defined as a software program that contained sound elements and moving pictures. Time has changed. Now multimedia is any package of materials that includes some combination of texts, graphics, still images, animations, video clips, movies, panoramic views and direct connections to the Internet.
Today, the definition of multimedia is not complete without mentioning hypermedia, which is synonymous with interactive multimedia and is a collection of multimedia materials with multiple possible arrangements and sequences. Hypermedia is any non-sequential, electronic text, assembled not as a seamless sequence of material from beginning to end, but as a web of interrelated chunks of text. Hypermedia can be linked and organized in multiple ways simultaneously, and searched, sorted and navigated in hundreds of possible combinations.
Now we have seen by definition the special characteristics of multimedia-- the capacities of delivering large amount of information in multiple forms. Then how can we change these characteristics into benefits in education? In practice, there are two major approaches to using multimedia to enhance learning in schools: learning from multimedia and learning with multimedia. Learning from multimedia is referred to instructional television, computer-based instruction or integrated learning systems. Learning with multimedia is referred to cognitive tools and constructivist learning environments.
In learning-from-multimedia approach, multimedia serves as vehicles for educational communications, i.e. the purposeful act of communicating content to students with the assumption that they will learn something from these communications (Krendl, Ware, Reid, & Warren, 1996). This approach is often known as multimedia as a tutor and is often used to develop students’ lower level learning skills such as memorize, judge and lower-level think. The two most widely used forms of multimedia as tutors today are video and computers.
There are two methods in video as a tutor. One method refers to videotaped instruction. Usually instructional videotapes are produced containing explanations of the content to be taught with real life examples. The other method is integrative TV programs. The two successful TV shows are Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street. Sesame Street has positive outcomes for pre school education, teaching kids some basic concepts of math, reading, and social skills (Seels et al., 1996) while Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood has demonstrated positive effects on socialization, moral sense, the self-esteem of children and their tendencies to value others (Seels et. Al., 1996).
As for computer as a tutor, the most widely known method is computer-based instruction (CBI) (Alessi & Trollip, 1991). The personal computer is the most commonly used interactive technology in CAI. A CAI package is usually constructed containing the explanations of the content to be taught with examples. For example, Living Books and Oregon Trail are the computer-animated pictures books and low-level problem-solving software (Johnson, 1996). Most of the software programs of this kind are meant to teach students moral sense, self-esteem and socialization. Essentially the programmed instruction is automated, presenting information to the student, requiring the student to make prompt responses to the information and providing feedback to the student. Since the CAI module contains prompted responses to questions, it allows the student to learn at his own pace.
In learning-with-multimedia approach, multimedia is used as a cognitive tool in constructivist learning environments. Cognitive tools refer to technologies that enhance the cognitive powers of human beings during thinking, problem-solving, and higher order learning, whereas constructivist-learning environment (Wilson 1996) refers to a place where learners may work together and support each other as they use various tools and information resources in their guided pursuit of learning goals and problem-solving activities. Cognitive tools are believed to have their greatest effectiveness when they are applied within constructivist learning environments.
Constructivists believe that children actively construct their knowledge according to their previous experience and their interpretations of the external world based on that experience. So rather than simply absorbing ideas from teachers, children actually invent their ideas. The constructions of meaning may have little relationship to reality at the beginning, but will become increasing more complex, differentiated and realistic as time goes on.
In constructivism (Daiute 1989), play and experimentation are important forms of learning. Play involves the combination of new ideas and the imagined outcomes. It is a form of mental exploration in which children create, reflect on, and work out their understanding. Experimentation on the other hand provides children with direct feedback about the accuracy of their ideas. Both play and exploration are self-structured and self-motivated processes of learning.
Besides play and experimentation constructivism has led to another discovery that children learns better when they work together. When children collaborate, they share the process of constructing their ideas. They reflect on their own ideas as well as those of their peers.
Multimedia as cognitive tools represents constructivist theory very well. In this approach, multimedia is given directly to learners to use for representing what they know. The most widely used tools are databases, spreadsheets, multimedia/hypermedia construction software, and computer programming languages. All of the tools are real-world productivity software and are learner-controlled. Students are asked to complete tasks similar to those they will be asked to do in jobs that require using information to solve problems. As Perkins (1993) stated students can’t use them without efforts because the tools require them to think harder about the subject matter and collaborate with each other in order to construct their own representation of the knowledge. Therefore, multimedia as a cognitive tool is often used to develop students’ higher learning skills such as research skills, organization skills, presentation skills and critical thinking skills.
From above paragraphs we have known the characteristics of multimedia and the two major approaches to using multimedia in schools as well. Now let’s take a further look at the reasons why multimedia has such a great effect on children’s cognitive development.
The first important reason is that multimedia engages multiple senses. According to Menn’s experiment (1993), as humans, we remember only about 10% of what we read; 20%, if we hear it, 30% if we can see visuals related to what we’re hearing; 50% if we watch someone to do something while explaining it.
The most significant feature of the multimedia is that they allow for the presentation of knowledge in numerous ways, combing text, audio, visual, graphic, animation and video. Students using multimedia are reading, seeing, hearing and actively manipulating materials together. In other words, multimedia can stimulate more than one sense at a time, and in doing so, students can gain and hold more attention. This presents students with unique learning resources that can be used in a various ways to stimulate different forms of learning. For example, students can learn about abstract principles through text and can see the application of the principles through an animation or a video example. Well-designed applications of multimedia can do two things: (1) help learners come to understandings more quickly than conventional text; and (2) help learners move confidently between concrete and abstract understandings.
Secondly, multimedia helps students construct their own knowledge and express it in multiple ways, such as print, illustrations, digital audio, video, animations, computer graphics, and hypermedia representations. According to Langer (1989), students learn and retain the most from thinking in meaningful ways. Representation involves meaningful thinking. Students who use multimedia cognitive tools have to think in meaningful ways, such as analyzing the information and interpreting information, organizing their personal knowledge, and representing what they know to others. Students not only learn deeply and meaningfully with cognitive tools, their opportunities for reflection are also enhanced (Norman, 1983). The carefully selected programs usually allow students to be actively involved, have fun and learn at the same time.
Thirdly, multimedia not only allows students to have instant access to databases and online information services but also allows students to manipulate the information at will. As the definition indicates, interactive multimedia is non-sequential, assembled as a web of interrelated chunks of text. It can be linked and organized in multiple ways simultaneously. Therefore students can manipulate the information through a wide variety of powerful linking, sorting and searching activities. Students can even control the sequence of reading according to his/her own understandings and interpretations.
IV. The impact of multimedia on the traditional teaching
style
Multimedia is indeed a powerful tool for education. It has a lot of potentials to enhance learning and teaching. However, without teachers’ enthusiasm and good attitude to integrate it in classroom, it would only be a paper tiger. As far as I know there are some teachers who are reluctant to consider using it in teaching, because they worry that incorporating multimedia into the curriculum means “throwing out the printed books and substituting teachers.” Is this true?
Absolutely not. First of all, Multimedia isn’t about replacing books. Multimedia only helps students and teachers reinforce, extend and supplement what is going on in the traditional classroom with textbooks and lectures. It only enhances printed materials and the course content. It doesn’t do what books do, but what books can’t do. For example, it presents materials in multiple forms such as audio, video, animation and direct connections to the Internet.
Secondly, multimedia isn’t about substituting teachers. It only affects the teacher’s role and changes the traditional relationship between teacher and student. It recenters the focus of classroom teaching from the teacher toward collaborative group work among students.
Traditionally, teacher’s role was that of the sole giver or transmitter of knowledge and the student's role was that of the passive recipient. The teacher enjoyed the dominant position in the classroom. But in the new relationship, the hierarchic structure is broken and cooperative structure is established where students’ ideas and interests drive the learning process. The teacher only serves as a guide, rather than the source, of knowledge. The teacher helps students organize information and assist them in their own self-directed explorations. Flexibility is the most important feature of the new role the teacher will have to play in such an environment.
Student’s
role has changed from passive recipient to active learner, knowledge designer
or self-governed creator of knowledge. They have much control over what it is
read and the sequence in which it is read, making it most meaningful to
themselves. They construct their own understandings, rather than simply
interpreting the teacher's understandings of the world.
Hence, the role of the teacher is by no means diminished but more challenging. Indeed, multimedia integration requires more highly skilled teachers working in teams with multimedia producers.
V. The evidence of positive effects of teaching and
learning with multimedia
Studies suggest that the use of multimedia can enhance student learning. A University of Michigan study reported that children could gain the equivalent of three months of instruction per school year when multimedia is available to them (Elmer-Dewitt, 1991). Twenty years of research show that multimedia assisted learning produces at least 30 percent more learning in 40 percent less time, and at 30 percent lower cost (Perelman, 1987). When a computer is used for interactive multimedia methods of instruction, retention is raised to 80%, as opposed to 40 percent for discussion methods, or 20 percent for a lecture approach using visual aids (Northup, Barth, and Kranze, 1991).
There are so many other positive findings in some other
studies in the past 20 years. Here I only cite some of the positive findings
from two sources. One is U. S. Department of Education (ED) and the other is Apple
Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT).
According to ED, multimedia integration improves the
following skills and situation.
¨ Multimedia software – teach to a variety of learning styles
¨ Videodiscs – strengthen basic skills
¨ Video and audio technologies – bring material to life
¨ Improved student retention
¨ Increased student comprehension
¨ Students learn to: organize complex information, recognize patterns, draw inferences, and communicate findings
¨ Learn better organizational and problem-solving skills
Others seen in ED study
¨ Rising scores on state tests
¨ Improved student attendance
¨ Motivation
¨ Attitude
¨ Strong study
¨ Parent and teacher support
¨ Improved teachers’ skills
¨ Improved school administration and management
¨ Improved placement in jobs
According to ACOT, the following are the strong points of multimedia integration.
¨ Explored and represented information dynamically and in many forms.
¨
Thought more deeply, pursued curiosity.
¨
Communicated
effectively about complex processes.
¨
Became
more socially aware, more motivated to learn, more confident and more
successful.
¨
Used
technology routinely and appropriately.
¨
Worked
well collaboratively. Greater student cooperation and sharing and
helping behaviors occurred when students used multimedia.
¨
Knew
their areas of expertise and shared that expertise spontaneously.
¨ Developed a positive orientation to the future.
¨ Multimedia gives teachers the tools to turn the classroom into centers of student-directed inquiry.
¨ Multimedia increased student-student and student-teacher interaction.
¨ Students were taking more responsibility for their own learning, and teachers were working more as mentors and less as presenters of information.
V.
Possible Ways to Integrate Multimedia in Education and Conclusion
Multimedia affects the ways teachers teach and students learn. In this part, I want to mention several possible ways that we could integrate multimedia in classroom.
1. Using multimedia texts as supplementary materials
In 1994 Loretta A. Crain in Clarion University of Pennsylvania did an experiment on students’ long-term and short-term memory retention with three different teaching methods—video instruction, computer-assisted instruction and traditional lecture. He wanted to see which method would produce the highest level of short and long term recall. The result showed that the score of video group was lower than that of the other two groups in terms of short-term recall. But there was no significant difference between lecture and CAI groups. As for the long-term memory recall, there was no difference among the three groups. The interesting thing was that the score of the video group remained the same after three months. Based on his experiment, Crain argued that there was no single method of instruction that could insure significant amounts of long-term recall of knowledge. Therefore, possible related uses for each of these instructional media would make difference.
From the experiment, we could possibly suggest using multimedia this way. The teacher gives a lecture first and then uses a video-assisted instruction as reinforcement tool to stimulate discussion and interaction from students. Later, the teacher can implement a CAI package to further facilitate long-term recall as an individualized review session.
2. Building Multimedia Resource for Teachers and Students
Since multimedia can deliver a large amount of information in multiple ways, we should make productive use of it as an efficient resource for both teachers and students. We can build an electronic resource and place it in the school library. Teachers can use the resource to get information, do research, prepare lectures or design examinations. While students can also use the resource for research papers, assignments or examinations.
3. Using Multimedia Texts as Tools for Reinforcing Learning Skills
Since we build an electronic resource for both teachers and students, we should consider ways to use the multimedia resources into teaching and learning. After class, teachers can give students some topics for the students to consider and encourage them to search and read them as a supplementary reading. Teachers can also help students with the Internet search functions, teaching them how to search the information or how to trace the specific detail.
Multimedia is such a powerful tool for education that there are so many other potentials that we can explore later. But so far, we have seen clearly from this paper that multimedia integration has become one of the hottest topics in education today because multimedia has been proved to have the positive impact on the cognitive and moral development of children. As I mentioned above that there is strong evidence that multimedia can be used effectively to develop children’ cognitive and moral senses when it is intentionally designed for education and when teachers are involved in its selection and integration into the curriculum. The carefully selected multimedia programs usually allow students to be actively involved, have fun and learn at the same time.
In multimedia integration, teachers play an important role. Without teachers’ enthusiasm and good attitude, multimedia incorporation becomes meaningless. Though some teachers still worry that incorporating multimedia into the curriculum means “throwing out the printed books and substituting teacher,” most teachers have seen the potentials of the multimedia integration in education. They fully understand that multimedia isn’t about replacing books, but about helping students by way of reinforcement and extension. Teachers’ role is by no means diminished but more challenging. The new learning environment recenters the focus of classroom teaching from the teacher toward collaborative group work among students and it requires more highly skilled teachers working in teams with multimedia producers.
I should say that as education moves toward a more technological age, teachers will need to apply their thinking to new, emerging, and integrative uses of multimedia within their curriculum and teaching methods, and to new approaches for meeting students’ needs. Multimedia has already changed the ways teachers teach and students learn. If teachers are afraid of any changes and fail to make the connection between technology and education, they will be left behind and they will no be able to help their students to have what it will take to succeed in the future.
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