While reading chapter 9 "Expressing Creativity with Multimedia Technologies" I realized how much opportunities students and teachers have today to create learning material. Technology made an enormous jump since the time I went to school. I remember starting to use computers in a classroom when I was in job training schools. In the section "Multimedia technologies in school today" the book describes Multimedia as multiple media - text, data, voice, picture and video - in a single application or technology. The book also says that multimedia in education occurs when multiple media support teaching and learning in classrooms. Examples are computer presentations that combine words, pictures and sounds or viewing material from websites, CD ROMs or television programs. Also, downloading podcasts or vodcasts or watching musical and theatrical performances that combine video, light shows and music with large screen simulcasts are examples according to the book. Students nowadays are very lucky to have all these modern learning opportunities to explore. During most of my school time, I had to get information from books and write the majority of school and homework by hand while today most of this can be typed. I started to use the internet for school in 9th and 10th grade and I saw, Like already mentioned, the first computers in classrooms during job training classes in Germany. The book says that there is an educational advantage to using multimedia. I agree, I think modern technology helps a lot while teaching and learning. I found an article called "Teaching a Course - Using Technologies in and beyond the Classroom" by "The Teaching Commons" it describes more creative ways to teach and learn with technologies and points out how teaching materials in classrooms changed more and more.
Another section I would like to talk about is "Powerpoint and next-Generation presentation tools". I think, Powerpoint is probably the most popular presentation tool used. The book describes it as a multimedia presentation software package. It is a standard feature of many of today's computers. I use Linux as my operating system and LibreOffice Impress as my presentation tool. It works very similar to Powerpoint and I use it very often to create presentations for my college classes. When I was in my first year in a job training school in 2001, I used Powerpoint for the first time and learned how to do presentations. Now, I am sure most students know how to use Powerpoint. It is interesting and amazing to see how schools presentation tools changed from a simple blackboard and chalk to overhead projectors and now to a digital projector to present teaching material in a large version of a computer screen on a wall or a Whiteboard. The book says Powerpoint features are useful for teachers at every grade level. They help students learning and studying too. My last class provided printouts from powerpoint slides as study material and my last Powerpoint about Otto von Bismarck I created, was for one of my history classes in college.
The next section I am talking about is "Video in the Classroom". The book says videos are widely used for Classroom instruction because they offer ways to present information multimodally while redirecting the method of instruction from teacher to screen for part of the classtime. also the book says, although the technology has changed from television and VCR's to computer and internet, video remains a popular and effective teaching tool. The book describes 3 reasons why it is still popular. First it says that it gets students interest. A student responds differently to videos than to teacher lectures and written material. A video is more interesting and exciting for them. Videos as resources: The book says that there are high quality video materials available in libraries. Also the book describes videos as a unique learning experience. It says, high quality videos provide visual learning experiences that would not be in any other way.
I sometimes use Youtube videos and educational movie material in our preschool classroom. For example, when we talk about a specific topic for a week, we show the children short 5 to 10 minutes long videos about the topic. After that, the children sit down with their journals and draw a scene that they can remember from the video. This enhances their thinking skills and helps them remember material that they have learned. Here is a video I have found which describes 10 reasons why to use Youtube videos in Classrooms.
Since we have a VPK class where the majority of children are boys, the class gets very active sometimes. When we have difficulties to engage our boys sitting and listening in circle time or group learning activities, one of us sits with a large group at our computer and plays songs and short stories about educational material found on youtube. The children love that and sing and dance to the short video songs about letters, numbers or other teaching material. This helps to keep them focused and prevent them from getting too active. I like the idea to use short videos and educational movies but we should watch the lengths and the amount of providing movies or videos in school. It should also be enough time left to do other hands on material away from electronic pictures.
Citations
a schurg (2009) 10 Reasons for using Youtube in your classroom, retrieved from www.youtube.com
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
The Teaching Commons, Teaching a course - Using Technologies in and beyond the classroom, retrieved from https://commons.georgetown.edu/teaching/handbook/using-technologies/
Freitag, Julia (2014) Otto von Bismarck, PowerPoint presentation
Freitag, Julia (2015) Multimedia mindmap, retrieved from bubbl.us
You have developed your thoughts well with additional reference points and your own experiences. All forms of multimedia are almost expected in today's classroom environment...our learners demand it on some level. In any situation, though, I agree with you that it needs to be balanced with other facets, be it 'hands-on' or using other modalities.
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