Multimedia Land - The Multimedia Effect on Learning by Keith Royer

Images, sounds, text, videos...all ways that we reach our students in today’s educational world.

There are many (many, many) definitions of multimedia out there. One of the best definitions I could find is from the The Value of Multimedia in Learning by Patti Shenk,

“Mao Neo and Ken T. K. Neo, faculty at Multimedia University in Malaysia, extend this definition. They say that multimedia is “the combination of various digital media types, such as text, images, sound, and video, into an integrated multisensory interactive application or presentation to convey a message or information to an audience.””

I feel that Neo and Neo combine all aspects of the multimedia along with its purpose in a concise manner. Multimedia in learning is trend that can be found all over the place. In the article found on Digital Chalk, multimedia, in the form of videos and such, was a top 10 trend in 2015. It is being used everywhere from education to business. Multimedia is comprised of many forms of of both digital and analog media (interested in learning more...check out the article on encyclopedia.com).  

Multimedia is allowing our teaching to become more and more student-centered. Students are able to more freely express creativity and personality in their learning. There no longer needs to be a “one-size-fits-all” approach to presentations, no matter the subject.

We, as educators, need to embrace the multimedia world, and use the tools that we have available to us, and our students have available to them. Let students decide how they will present their information and select ways in which they learn best.

We need to have a growth mindset, and be open to change. Let’s use the technology that is continue to grow and develop. Let’s let our learning goals guide our practice, and the multimedia tools get us there.

If it’s really all about the students, let embrace our every-changing world of technology that our students walk around with in their hands everyday.