Week Ten: Reflection #9: Multiple Realities Need Multiple Medias

“Multimedia in education begins with the assumption that students will find learning more interesting if more than one mode of learning is used for teaching.”-Maloy, et al., Transforming Learning with New Technologies (2017)

Maloy, et al. (2017) define multimedia in the following manner: “Multimedia means ‘the presentation of material using both words and pictures’” (p. 214), in Chapter Nine of their text Transforming Learning with New Technologies. However, as they make it abundantly clear to their readers after the presentation of that definition, the multimedia of today is inherently more complex than the multimedia of yesterday. Today, “multimedia is part of media synergy where video, digital, and print materials, combined with in-person instruction, build technology-based learning environments for students” (p. 214). This incorporation of multimedia in media synergy is quite important since the world of today—especially the world of our students—is becoming more and more digital by the second.

Maloy, et al. (2017) go on to explain that multimedia is incorporated into a concept known as “multimodal learning”: “Multimodal learning means teachers combine spoken words with visuals, written text with audio, or simulations with models” (p. 214). As indicated by the excerpted quote at the start of this post, students become more engaged in what they’re learning if the what they’re learning is done a multidimensional, or “multimodal” level.

Now, Walker, et al. (2016) in strategies three and four of Chapter Three of their text Teaching the Last Backpack Generation identify three forms of multimedia worth discussing: video, quick response (QR) codes, and augmented reality (AR). We will start with video. Maloy, et al. (2017) state the following in regard to video: “Videos, widely used in classroom teaching, offer ways to present information multimodally and redirect the method of instruction from teacher to screen for portions of class time” (p. 224). Videos, thereby, are quite important in engaging our students since they allow for the interest of the student to be taken into consideration, they offer a resource abundance, and, finally, they allow for students to be uniquely taught (p. 224). Walker, et al. (2016) further highlight that “videos can be watched on mobile devices, computers, or televisions” (p. 55). Therefore, if a teacher only has access to, simply, a Smartboard and a computer, they can easily implement this feature into his/her classroom, even if not every student has their own devices with them.

Next, are the concepts of AR and QR codes. Walker, et al. (2016) state the following of these features: “Quick response (QR) codes and augmented reality (AR) blend computer-generated images (virtual) and layer them onto the real world (physical) to enhance our perceptions and experiences” (p. 68). The authors then point to AR as, perhaps, being one of the best ways to have a multimodal approach to learning (p. 68) to them.

I’d like to end this post with the following discussing on minimal and multimedia classroom technologies. Maloy, et al. state the following: “Understanding the potential of multimedia technologies begins by examining their impact on teaching and learning in a classroom” (p. 216). The authors explain that older—perhaps outdated—classrooms often have minimal tech, which then leads to having minimal multimedia within a teacher’s classroom strategies. Students, the authors continue to point out, learn through hands-on experiences and materials (p. 217). Finally, they state: “By contrast, in a technology-integrated classroom, the use of text, voice, video, images, and sound allows teachers to contribute to the wide range of minimal classroom experiences by increasing multimodal options for learning…” (p. 217). Therefore, multimodal learning bridges the topics that we have been talking about over the past few weeks: creativity and autonomy.