Where is Multimedia
-Exercises and Activities

Where is Multimedia

Multimedia is found in many places throughout modern life. Within the course we are most interested in multimedia which is found in education, entertainment and information systems.

Education

One of the difficulties of education is maintaining the motivation to learn among students. Pupils who find a subject interesting, will often learn more quickly and more easily than students who are bored and disinterested. A second difficulty in school based education is providing learning material to a student at a pace that is suitable to them. Each student has a particular learning capaccity which varies between students and even varies within a student depending upon the time of day and their own personal motivation levels during the day. Traditional education with a teacher at the front of the room and the pupils learning at the pace set by the teacher does not address the individual needs and differences of a class full of people. Finally, educational research has shown that each person has a prefered method of receiving information. The method may include seeing something demonstrated, listening to a description, reading about a theory, participating in an activity that supports the lesson material, or other ways. If material is presented to the learner in their prefered method, the learner has more chance of learning the information.

Multimedia can help with these problems in three ways:

Multimedia that is of high quality is highly motivating. By providing information with colour graphics, sound and video along with traditional text based information, the various senses of the learner are stimulated and the learner is more inclined to participate in the learning material. If the material is presented as some sort of game, story or competition, the learner's motivation is further stimulated.
Progression through a multimedia package is controlled by the user. By using a computer the learner can set their own pace through the material - they can linger over material they find particularly interesting and may, often, choose pathways though the learning material that interests them.
Multimedia, by definition, provides information in a number of different formats. The use of sound along with video, text as well as interactive activities provides a wide scope for appealing to the individual preferences of the learner.

Multimedia in education can take to form of :

Interactive CDROMS : These are the one of the earliest forms of multimedia in which sound, videao and animations were combined with text and presented in a CD format. The multimedia encyclopedia Microsoft Encarta was an early example.
Powerpoint presentations : The powerpoint format of presenting information is a ow a familar one. Single pages are used to display text, animations, sound and video and are shown in an order determined by the presenter.
Computer BAsed Training : or CBT uses multimedia to help users learn about a topic. CBT is often used to provide information to the user, which is then tested through true/false or multiple choice questions. The student's progress through the learning package is determined by how their answers to the questions - good student's are given extension work, while students who get the answers wrong are shown revision until they mater the skill.

Entertainment

Entertainment, more than any other single use, is pushing the boundaries of hardware and software in a personal computer system. Multimedia in the form of games and other entertainment requires the fastest processor, the most memory, the best graphics and the most realistic sound. Today's entertainment, including movies and games, demands high quality graphics delivered to the screen at a high refresh rate - usually somewhere between 15 and 60 frames per second. Entertainment products that use multimedia include :

Multimedia games : are making an ever increasing demands on hardware and software as their level of detail increases towards completely life-like. 3d modelling has become very important to games allowing the developer complete freedom with regards to camera angles, lighting and games physics (how objects behave inside the game world). All combine to create a completely believeable world inside the game.
Interactive DVD : Material that accompanies latest release DVDs provide a huge range of enterataining and educational information relating to the DVD title. The user can be provided with video out-takes, simple games, interviews and even alternate endings to the movie.
Interactive digital television : plans to allow the view control over the camera angle for sports broadcasts and alternative endings fro soapies and movies.

Information

Information products include any form of multimedia whose prime purpose is to provide the user with information. Some forms of information products include :

Web sites : Many websites today include a huge range of multimedia. Using such technology as flash and shockwave, sound, video and animations can now be easily included with the more traditional text and graphics pages.
Information kiosks : usually include a touch screen allowing the user to touch choices to gain information of guidance. They are often used in museums, galleries and other large public places and replace the traditional tour guide allowing people to find nessecities like the toilets or the directions to a particular feature.
Electronic books and ezines : are multimedia versions of books that can be read on the computer screen. These are most successfully used in an educational setting where young readers can have a simple book read to them by the computer with interactive pictures to play with and the words highlighted as they are read.
Multimedia Database : databases today can hold more than simple text about a person. Information like pictures, voice records and even fingerprints now form part of some databases.

Exercises and Activities

In your note books, write down the heading Where is multimedia. Under the heading describe at least two ways multimedia is used in each of Education, Entertainment and and Information products.
Use Microsoft Word to design an evaluation form for multimedia software. Your evaluation form should have (at least) the following headings, as well as room beneath each heading for writing information :

Evaluation form for multiedia software

You are encouraged to print this form out and use it to help organize your thoughts as you evaluate the multimedia software.
Name(s):
Software Title and Platform:
Date Produced:
Target Audience (age, grade level, etc):
Subject Area:
Best Use:
Major Strengths:
Major Weaknesses:
Use of multimedia : how is each of text, graphics, sound, animation and video used in the product.
Overall Impression (Would this be good to use? As a teacher would you use this title in the classroom?):

Evaluation form for multiedia software
You are encouraged to print this form out and use it to help organize your thoughts as you evaluate the multimedia software. Name(s): Software Title and Platform: Date Produced: Target Audience (age, grade level, etc): Subject Area: Best Use: Major Strengths: Major Weaknesses: Use of multimedia : how is each of text, graphics, sound, animation and video used in the product. Overall Impression (Would this be good to use? As a teacher would you use this title in the classroom?):

View a piece of educational multimedia. Students at Muirfield High may visit »this page for examples. Use your evaluation form to evaluate the software.

View a piece of entertainment multimedia from the internet. Use your evaluation form to evaluate this multimedia.

View a piece of informational multimedia from the internet. Use your evaluation form to evaluate this multimedia. You could try looking here : »wikipedia