The art of teaching

With technology

and multimediaBy: Mariela García

An e-book is an electronic book that is published in digital form, and includes text and images. It can be read on computes or any other electronic devices. E-books can also be used as a teaching resource because it is a new way to make students feel engaged in a meaningful way, and it facilitates the teaching-learning process.

Only some schools have the resources to have a great equipment with technology, by having and using all new technological resources teachers can gain time and improve learning by fitting new content with students background knowledge, technology motivate students to know more and more every time.

At the end the most important thing is what the purpose of education is? To give students the tools to succeed in life, give them the tools to make good decisions, expand students’ view of the world, prepare them for a good job, helping them to learn all of this by communicate and collaborate with others, information media and new technologies are the key to integrate all important purposes for education at the same time; 21st century skills are all about teaching our kids to navigate the world as they are experiencing it, not the world WE experienced (Bethany smith) a phrase that summarizes why technology is important in education was written by Sheryl Nussbau said: “Teachers will not be replaced by technology, but teachers who don’t use technology will be replaced by those who do”

This is an e-book that contains interesting topics related with teaching, multimedia and technology. I hope you enjoy it and find useful information that can be applied in your classroom.

The author

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INTRODUCTION

INDEX

Chapter 1 Multimedia projects

Chapter 2 Some multimedia project types 3.     Critics circle

projectChapter 3

Technology and multimediaChapter 4

7 principles of good practice in technologyChapter 5

Visual cues and importance of high quality design

Chapter 6 Some important programs that support teaching

with multimedia

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Multimedia Projects

A multimedia project is an assignment where students can apply their abilities, knowledge, and technological skills. Creating a multimedia project is not easy. A successful project can be result of the time and effort that students invest, while planning effective ways in which the project can achieve its proposed goals.

A useful strategy to start creating a project is to write down a concrete topic, have a target audience, clear objectives, approach, and metaphor of the project. During the development of the project, the teacher can coach his students by applying the following process:

Teacher prepares: Select goals, define range of topics and articles, assess technical environment, and determine strategy for startup.

Teacher assigns: Announce topic and goals, describe and demonstrate, establish routines, devise and announce new topics and conditions.

Students create: Students make additions, teacher monitors work.

Students and teacher practice ongoing reflection: Students self-evaluation, scheduled class review of archive, teacher and students propose changes, teacher raises standards.

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CHAPTERI

Multimedia projects process:

There is a three-stage process to create multimedia projects:

Pre-production Production Post-production

Pre-production: It includes: the idea, the project goals, demographic of target audience, product concept, delivery medium, authoring tools, planning, resource organization, flowcharting, orientation, navigation, defining screen action, designing interface controls, storyboards, theme development, interface layouts, creating interface elements, creating access controls, integrating media elements, and creating prototype interfaces.

Production: It includes: scriptwriting, editing, shooting new images, creating original art, digitizing art, 3-D modeling and animation, shooting and digitizing video, recording and digitizing audio, authoring, proofreading, and quality control.

Post-production: It includes: testing and debugging, mastering, archiving, duplication, and distribution.

In instructional design, the objective of multimedia is not just to integrate multiple media, insert effects, or add complexity. Some types of media that can support different purposes of multimedia are:

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A project always requires students to think about how to organize information in a way that is suitable for members of a given audience. The creators can allow other users to add new links or even more information to the project for other users to see and listen, so they help users to avoid getting lost in with the project.

The creators will also help users by providing a welcoming screen that explains how the project works by giving a list of instructions and options. The creators might use either text or audio to present that explanation.

There are some methods that help users to know where he is within the organization.

Some of these methods involve providing a map of the information, so the user can feel that the information that the user sees and hears is very personal and that the project is very responsive.

One effective way to demonstrate a multimedia project is to tell the audience to what links to activate. This is one of many differences between a multimedia project and an electronic easel audiovisual presentation aid. Typical authentic assignments include creating a project that will run on a computer in a public location, such as a school corridor or lobby.

CHAPTERII1

Some multimedia projects types

There are three different types of multimedia projects that are: Self-playing presentations Manually advanced presentations with linear progression Manually advanced presentations without linear progression

Self-playing presentations: In this type of project, slides and special effects play automatically. There is no manual intermediation at all, and the presentation becomes a "show."

Manually advanced presentations with linear progression: In this type of project, the slides and text will advance only with a click of the mouse. Special effects can be set to advance automatically or by clicking a mouse. Students are asked to give an oral presentation accompanying their multimedia presentation. Examples of topics with linear progression are biographies or History.

Manually advanced presentation without linear progression: This type of project is also called “interactive”. The best way to assign this project to students is by showing a project that is already done, other way it will be more difficult for them to plan it in advance. The front slide should have hyperlinks which can be clicked in any order by the user. When the user clicks on a button or link, another slide will be shown, and it will include specific information, special effects, and

another button click which will take the user back to the front slide or on to another. The creator should also make a map to connect all slides using action buttons. Then it becomes difficult to visualize. This type of project is for topics where there is no particular order that

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information should be presented. Some examples could be: math projects, parts of a plant, etc. This type of project can be useful to make study those topics interactively. This is also particularly good way for teachers who want to create interactive quizzes. Power Point is a useful and easy program to manage, and it has a feature for action buttons that when the user clicks on it, it will take the viewer back to whatever slide brought the viewer to that point. This function can be used when it is a generic "wrong answer", so the slide can be prepared to take the user again and again to return the viewer to whichever slide they came from. Buttons can also initiate sound effects, or other actions.

Multimedia projects for schoolsMultimedia projects can be created using many different types of

programs and software. Students can produce different types of multimedia projects such as:

Electronic portfolios: A collection of students’ works that is created in a web page authoring software or presentation graphics software. Multimedia slideshows: They can be created to review vocabulary words, drills, questions, math problems, etc. they can be created using presentation graphics software. Tutorials: They have to show an instructional sequence to guide users to the components of a subject. They can be developed using presentation graphics, word processing, or web page authoring software. Research presentations: They present results of researches. They can be created using presentation graphics sources. Class yearbooks: A collection of class activities, pictures and events that have being done during the year. It can be developed using a web page authoring or presentation graphics software.Interactive story books: Children can write their own stories, and add images using word processing, presentation graphics or web page authoring.

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CHAPTERIII

Critics circle project

This project involves several important multimedia technologies, such as audio, images, and symbolic icons. Applying this project in class, helps students acquire the key higher order thinking skill, because they can notice that different people have different opinions about exactly the same topic or subject. To complete this project it is necessary to include expository writing and oral expression which are components of all levels of the English curriculum. In this chapter describes a particular form of the project in which some students record their own opinions of a movie.

Background:

Some students record their oral opinions about a movie, others play the role of critics, and the others provide pictures of the critics design symbolic icons and prepare a written summary of the opinions.

Groups create their critics’ circle

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The first step to begin a Critics’ Circle project, is to select a movie and divide the class into groups of five students each. Each group holds a roundtable discussion of the movie in which everyone gets a chance to speak and to be heard. Then, the students select three members of their groups to be the critics, and they proceed to create their multimedia project by modifying a copy of the Critics’ Circle template provided by the teacher.

Then, the critics use that template to record their opinions about the movie. Each critic takes a turn to record his opinion by selecting one of the microphone icons that will appear when they open the template and see the “Welcome” message. These icons are not merely pictures on the computer screen; they are actually buttons objects that tell the computer´s audio adapter to start recording, stop recording, or play back what the critic records.

Audiences use each project

Teachers, staff, parents, and other students play the role of users of the group´s completed project. They listen to the opinions of the critics about the movie, and analyze them, and then they write a summary.

Critics´ Circle uses buttons that are links that take the user from one page to another. Students could complete Critics’ Circle from a description without using a sample prepared by the teacher. However, starting with a template allows students to complete the project without paying too much attention to the software or to the equipment.

Theory

Achieving goals can represent an important cognitive and interpersonal experience for the students and teachers. This kind of projects can meet serious objectives when using an arbitrary movie as the topic for the project´s opinions.

This project requires a team to present in front of the whole class. The fact that certain members of the team held specific opinions may fade in significance with the effort to put together a presentation on the whole topic. It includes selecting a subset of the group members´ views

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that represent a complete spectrum of opinions and are individually and collectively interesting and engaging.

Current curriculum standards call for attention to the different kinds of communication skills. Critics´ Circle provides such attention, first, to scripts for the spoken comments and then, to the written summary. The project requires students to go through a process that includes: brainstorming, exposition with feedback, writing editing, publishing or performance.

Steps: There are four steps to follow when creating a critics’ circle project.

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CHAPTERIV

Technology and multimedia

Fifty-five years ago, radio broadcasting, teaching machines, and television, were predicted to be the medium to revolutionize education, but now, the computer is being hailed as the technological innovation to have major impact on the educational process.

With the creation of new technologies for teaching we have improve several things according to education and knowledge acquisition but some skills have been leave apart such as grammar, spelling and basic reading and writing skills. Including multimedia project in learning process motivates students and gives them the opportunity to use a wide variety of tools to give the information.

Computers allow students to create multimedia project in which links come alive. With computer students:

Can create buttons and links quickly and easily. Decide what information they want to place on each screen Decide what button to create and the links that they will use

for that button.

In order to help students with the creation of multimedia project and make activities that were not possible before, computers are part of multimedia.

The essence of multimedia is “interactivity” that can be created by linking the information on the project. Years ago a lot of tools to create an interactive class or an interactivity learning process did not exist.

Theory

Important modern methods to improve educational system:

Allow students give information using different media.

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Employ hypermedia to organize information Involves a sufficiently a lot of activities and skills.

Students learn better if: They construct knowledge actively. They learn to work in groups and at the same time by themselves They use multiple sensory modalities.

The Dilemma of Technological Innovation in Education

Educational change was a difficult and complex process. Reformers kept trying, and with each new technology, some saw new possibilities and new urgencies. Later, after each innovation was introduced, academic studies demonstrated that the innovation is better than conventional practice. The tools that some teachers use such as a chalkboard or a textbook, are simple, durable, flexible and responsive to the problems in meeting the demands of daily instructions, but in the other hand, projectors, radios television, and especial computers do not solve these problems easily, because they are sometimes scarce and undependable, and they are not always skilled at their use. But some other teachers believe that technological resources enhance textbooks and critical viewing skills, they teach students the ways in which these media can be used to persuade and entice, and they help to solve their daily problems of motivation students to learn and to supply relevant and meaningful content that gets students to reason and solve problems.

Technology's place in education

A variety of technologies can be integrated into the learning experience of students; it provides the students the ability to select a tool with a clear understanding of what potential the particular tool brings to their learning. Technology offers only limited possibilities for solving conventional educational problems,

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but it offers limitless possibilities for solving emerging educational problems.

Technology can support learning that is:

Active: Students are engaged by the learning process in mindful processing of information and are responsible for the result.Constructive: Students can accommodate new ideas into prior knowledge.Collaborative: Students work in learning and knowledge building communities, exploiting each other's skills and providing social support to each member.Intentional: Students are actively and willfully trying to achieve a learning objective.Conversational: Learning is a process in which students benefit from being part of knowledge-building communities both in and out of school.Contextualized: Learning tasks are situated in meaningful tasks or simulated through some problem-based learning environment.Reflective: Students articulate what they have learned and reflect on the processes and decisions that were part of the process.

CHAPTERV

7 Principles of good practice in technology

“The Seven Principles of Good Practice” were created in 1987. They became the major sources for teaching and learning. The seven principles allow the use of new technologies into a consistent way. At the present time new technologies are being developed and explored, these technologies have numerous capabilities but to deliver these into education a guide is essential.

A guide may work for all the technologies or some technologies can be worked with a certain guide. The seven principles of good

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practice provide the approach to use effectively computers, videos, and telecommunications in education.

These principles are:

1. Good practice encourages contacts between students and faculty

Communication between students and faculty members is important to increase student motivation and involvement.

2. Good practice develops reciprocity and cooperation among students

Collaborative work is enriched with the use of technology because it is easier to be in communication among students and faculties.

3. Good practice uses active learning techniques.Practice makes excellent teachers. So in technology everybody

needs to practice to developed skills.

4. Good practice gives prompt feedback

Students need chances to perform and receive feedback, to analyze on what they have learned and need to learn. Knowing what you know and still don’t know help you to focus your learning.

5. Good practice emphasizes time on task

Time is important for meaningful learning. With technology the time people spend is important in order to increase knowledge.

6. Good practice communicates high expectations.

“Expecting to have more” is a good motivation for students. New technologies can communicate high expectations explicitly and efficiently, because it improves their cognitive skills of analysis, synthesis, application, and evaluation.

7. Good practice respects diverse talents and ways of learning

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Students need opportunities to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Students need to become familiar with the principles and be more assertive with their own learning.

CHAPTERVI

Visual cues and importance of high quality design

Visual cues are symbols or images that replace words. They are attractive to people and always send a message. Visual clues include the following:

Visual sign posts: The arrangement and presentation of text and images can aid or hinder effective communication. Key aspect of print design is providing visual signposts or visual cues that let readers know where they are and where they Signposting: breaks up text and images into readable, easy-to-follow blocks or panels of information.Artwork: It includes: photos, captions, clip arts, charts, graphs, etc.Titles: It includes: nameplate, title page, headlines, secondary headings (kickers, decks and subheads)Paragraph emphasis and organization: Solid blocks of unbroken text are difficult to read. Text is made more readable by breaking up the text and using visual indicators to show where paragraphs start and where paragraphs finish.

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Character emphasis: Using bold or italics text is one common method of letting the readers know what information is especially important or noteworthy.

CHAPTERVII

Some important programs that support teaching with multimedia

A significant base of research, that was developed many years ago, is available to inform educators about effective approaches to teaching children. However, research on the use of multimedia digital technologies to enhance learning. This reflects the fact that the technological abilities have come to have the most potential in helping children to learn. New products using these kinds of technologies and software, have recently been announced, more are on the way, and a number of research studies are underway to test the impact of these products on children's learning.

Some of the programs that support teaching with multimedia are:

PowerPoint: PowerPoint is a presentation software program that is part of the Microsoft Office package. It works with a graphical approach to presentations in the form of slide shows that accompany the oral delivery of the topic. This program is widely used in business and classrooms and is an effective tool when used for training purposes.

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Prezi: Prezi is a presentation software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides. The zoom canvas makes it fun to explore ideas. It is interactive, attractive and easy to use.

Flash: Flash is a multimedia platform that has being used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. It is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast.

CONCLUSIONS

Technology makes our life simple and easier in many ways.Technology can be applied and adapted to all themes and subjects,Technology is only an aid, what really matters is teachers’ creativity and enthusiasm. Technology and multimedia can be used as a way for students to provide evidence of their mastery of standards, or to showcase their work and accomplishments.The use of technology and multimedia, include that they use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively. Related to this, teachers demonstrate introductory knowledge, skills, and understanding of concepts related to technology, which would include development of multimedia competency.

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