Weal, E. (1995). From school room to board room: Multimedia transforms learning. Multimedia Online (premier issue), pp. 42-48.

OVERVIEW

Using multimedia, students of all ages—from third graders to graduate students to business executives to retirees—can access tools that allow them to control what they learn, how they learn it, and at what rate they learn. The educational value of multimedia has been confirmed by studies that show that people tend to retain 10 percent of what they see; 20 percent of what they hear; half of what they see and hear (the benefit of multimedia); and 80 percent of what they see, hear, and do (the benefit of interactive multimedia). As a result, the market for educational CD-ROMs is exploding.

Many teachers feel that the motivational and educational benefits of multimedia make it an indispensable classroom tool. Where students were once limited to encyclopedias and a few reference books from which to write reports, they can now use Grolier’s Multimedia Encyclopedia and actually "visit" interesting sites via video clips and photos. "When your kids come to school and say ‘I can’t wait to do my report. I’m three pages ahead of where I’m supposed to be,’ it’s hard to think of doing things any other way," says fifth-grade teacher Robynne Brown.

Educators tend to be in favor of multimedia because it promotes three forms of learning: active, individualized, and multimodal. In active learning, students become directly involved in attaining knowledge, rather than passively absorbing information that is fed to them by a teacher. Individualized learning is based on the assumption that students rarely learn at the same rate. As a result, gifted students get bored, while academically unprepared students are left behind. In individualized learning, students absorb information at their own pace. Multimodal learning is defined as learning that is reinforced through sight, sound, and other sensory feedback.

Schools are not the only forum for multimedia. Increased competition and a rapid rate of technological development have prompted businesses to provide employees with more training. Multimedia-based training is less expensive than hiring trainers and transporting workers to a training site. It also ensures consistency, because all workers are exposed to the same information. It is easy to customize and update.

Home users are also turning to multimedia products designed to both entertain and teach. RedShift, from Maris Multimedia, is one such product. Using virtual reality techniques, RedShift allows the average stargazer to view an object in the CD-ROM’s catalog of 200,000 stars and 40,000 "deep sky" objects. Maris’ vice president of sales and marketing, Jeneane Harter, says that "RedShift uses multimedia to make a complex subject intuitive." Foreign language software is another segment of home multimedia that is growing rapidly. A student can listen to a phrase, use a microphone to record the phrase themselves, play back the recording, and compare it to the native speaker’s phrase.

Interactive books are gaining popularity among younger users. The idea behind the interactive book is that kids practice reading and comprehension skills while being entertained by amusing images and sound effects. Kids can also create interactive books. Software is available that allows kids to add text, scenes, characters, props, sound effects, and music a page a time.

As for the future of multimedia, online services such as America Online are introducing hybrid CD-ROMs, which are interactive multimedia products that provide built-in connectivity to an online service. Using these CD-ROMs, students can share their knowledge and insight with other students who are exploring the same learning environment.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What do you think about multimedia as a teaching tool?
2. Do you think parents should encourage multimedia use in the home?
3. n what ways do you think multimedia learning will change the kids of today?

IMPLICATIONS

1. Multimedia and Internet tools can be extremely useful supplements to regular classroom curricula. However, teachers need to use them in conjunction with traditional learning tools, such as reference books, libraries, and other resources.
2. With the growing problem of pornography and other inappropriate materials available online or on CD-ROM, adults need to supervise and guide the computer use of young people.