Why use Interactive Multimedia?
Yet, as exciting as these new electronic resources are, the prospect of obtaining and incorporating some of them into classrooms, libraries, and resource centers can seem daunting at first. Having access to the necessary technology is one significant hurdle for using multimedia programs in education. However, there are other reasons that educators are resistant to consider the adoption of interactive multimedia in teaching, such as concerns that these new programs require a lot of technical knowledge to operate, or that the incorporation of such programs into teaching requires significant alteration in teaching style or revision of course curricula.
This brief Guide explains how interactive multimedia can be an effective and powerful tool in education. The Guide also discusses a variety of ways that multimedia can be incorporated into teaching settings, as well as the technical and practical aspects of getting started with interactive multimedia. Finally, this Guide surveys the various kinds of computer-based materials that are available and how they might be used in teaching courses related to the study of the United States.
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The term hypermedia" was coined to mean a hypertext that uses mutliple media. In other words, hypermedia is a collection of multimedia materials with multiple possible arrangements and sequences. Hypertext and hypermedia are "electronic" concepts that can only exist in a computer-based environment. Only in a computer-based environment can materials can be linked and organized in multiple ways simultaneously, and searched, sorted and navigated in hundreds of possible combinations by different users.
Imagine, for example, a large comprehensive textbook on the history of the United States. In a sense, a print version of that textbook is already "multimedia": that is, in addition to text, it might have pictures, maps, graphs, charts, timelines; furthermore, the text is made up of many different texts, being a combination of words written by the author, quotations from historical figures, perhaps commentary by other historians, and so on. But while the textbook could be thought of as a text using multiple media and materials, it is not a multimedia hypertext (or hypermedia) because, as a printed book, it can only be arranged in one order; its materials can only be accessed in the one way that the author and the publisher arranged them. True, a reader can access the print text in non-linear ways by using the index at the back of the book, or by jumping around. Still, the text itself has only one arrangement and one hierarchy of topics; and the reader's ability to navigate the materials is limited by the table of contents and the index.
Furthermore, a printed history textbook is limited by the constraints of size and practicality. Only so much information can comfortably fit between two covers of a printed book. Such practical issues have important consequences for the kinds of materials that go into the hands of readers. Limitation of size means that it is more practical to write history books that synthesize and make reference to large bodies of historical documents without being able to include very much or any of the documents, themselves--even though, for the historian, such documents are part of the vital material of history.
Now imagine a history textbook in electronic form, constructed as a work of hypermedia: how would that work be different from a printed text? First, you could fill that "book" with a far greater number of materials than you could fit between two covers of a printed book (a CD-ROM compact disk, for example, can hold the equivalent of 300,000 pages of printed material). Second, you could have a book that was truly "multimedia" in that, in addition to text, photographs, charts, and timelines, you could have audio (such as folksong recordings, famous speeches), and video (such as newsreels, film clips). Third, an electronic textbook could be constructed in an entirely different way from a printed textbook: it could have dozens of potential organizations, and thousands of internal linkages that could take the reader from one related idea to the next, in ways that would infinitely vary depending on the context of the reading experience and the interests of the reader.
Consequently, the structure of such a "text" would not be limited to the single storyline or synthesis offered by the author, but would become an intricate web of interrelationships, something approaching the complexity of history. In discussing the transformations that ensued in turning the print version of the history book Who Built America? into a multimedia CD-ROM, editors Roy Rosenzweig and Steve Brier noted that the very nature of the "book" changed:
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First of all, multimedia programs bring to education the extraordinary storage and delivery capabilities of computerized material. This is especially important for schools, libraries, and learning institutions where books are difficult to obtain and update. Multimedia is a powerful and efficient source for acquiring learning resources. Multimedia can also provide educational institutions access to other kinds of inaccessible materials, such as hard to find historical films, rare sound recordings of famous speeches, illustrations from difficult to obtain periodicals, and so on. Multimedia can put primary and secondary source materials at the fingertips of users in even the remotest locations from major research facilities.
Secondly, it is not just sheer access to these materials that makes multimedia a powerful tool, but the control over those materials that it gives to its users. Interactive multimedia programs enable the user to manipulate these materials through a wide variety of powerful linking, sorting, searching and annotating activities. Each of these activities can be made to reinforce and inculcate various intellectual skills, in addition to satisfying certain cognitive needs for quality learning, such as the ability to follow through links at the immediate moment when curiosity is aroused, and the ability to view different forms of the same information side-by-side.
Furthermore, interactive multimedia programs ususally integrate some combination of orientation tools, such as timelines, graphs, glossaries, and other pedagogical guides. These kinds of tools further point to the third major benefit of multimedia: the personalization or individualization of the learning experience.
By allowing users to control the sequence and the pacing of the materials, multimedia packages facilitate greater individualization in learning, allowing students to proceed at their own pace in a tailored learning environment. Furthermore, interactive multimedia can be a powerful learning and teaching tool because it engages multiple senses. Students using multimedia are reading, seeing, hearing, and actively manipulating materials. As one educator enthusiastically put it,
I use the term "supplementing" quite intentionally, however, as the supplementary dimension of multimedia materials is important to keep in mind. Incorporating multimedia into the curriculum does not mean "throwing out the printed books." Most teachers who incorporate some kind of interactive multimedia into their teaching do so to enhance printed materials and the core course content. Multimedia materials help students and teachers by way of reinforcement and extension, not substitition. What hypermedia provides is access to materials and unique personalized control over them. In other words, interactive multimedia isn't about replacing books, but about replacing the absence of books; hypermedia doesn t do what books do, but what books can t do.
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There are a lot of different, viable ways to categorize the different kinds of multimedia packages that are currently available. This Guide and Bibliography uses the following five categories:
It may, however, be easier to imagine the kind of multimedia programs that would be appropriate for your educational context than it is to imagine specific scenarios in which you would utilize them. The next section discusses in more detail a variety of scenarios in which multimedia can be incorporated into classrooms and libraries.
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Below are listed five hypothetical scenarios and possible uses for the integration of multimedia materials into educational contexts.
Use Scenario #1: Building a Library-Based Multimedia Resource for Teachers
Before even considering the idea of implementing interactive multimedia in the classroom, for students, consider the productive use of multimedia as an efficient and effective resource for teachers. This scenario requires only a single multimedia station, placed in a library or a teachers' resource center, with a core of multimedia programs available.
As a teachers' resource, a solid multimedia collection can be used in a variety of valuable ways. Most directly, it can be a resource for teachers who are gathering background and contextual material for their courses. With multimedia resources, teachers can efficiently research and design lectures and assignments, as well as generate ideas and texts for clusters of materials. Because of the rich, integrative nature of the best interactive programs, multimedia can also offer teachers provocative resources for curricular design, modelling dynamic ways that knowledge can be constructed and portrayed. This can be a valuable tool both for teachers preparing their classes, as well as teachers in training.
Mutlimedia can also serve as a teachers' resource by providing a tool for enhancing lecture and classroom presentations. An LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) that works in conjunction with a standard overhead projector allows the lecturer to project what is on the computer screen. The "resource collection" feature in the program Who Built America? or many of the annotation features in the Voyager or IBM's electronic books are particularly conducive to this kind of presentation.
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Use Scenario #2: Building a Library-Based Multimedia Resource for Students
The library-based multimedia resource that you build for students can be, of course, the same resource that is being used by teachers for the purposes outlined in the first scenario. But with somewhat different uses. A library-based, interactive multimedia resource complements the other collections in a library. In addition to interactive reference tools, multimedia programs such as electronic texts, as well as general and focused educational packages, can provide valuable enhancements to the library collection. Even before teachers begin incorporating the use of multimedia into classroom contexts, their students can begin using library-based multimedia for research papers and writing assignments, or as tools in preparing for examinations, or even for pleasure and curiosity.
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Use Scenario #3: Using Multimedia Texts as Supplementary Curricular Materials for Particular Courses
Once a foundational multimedia resource collection exists in an institution--either in a library or some kind of resource center- -teachers can begin considering ways to incorporate multimedia resources into teaching. This kind of incorporation can occur at all levels of intensity and centrality. The level of impact that necessitates the least amount of revision in teaching style and classroom materials is the implementation of multimedia as a supplementary curriculum to the one covered in class. In this scenario, students are using multimedia programs to extend discussions and assignments in class on an informal basis.
At low levels of integration, teachers can ask students to use multimedia as one of their resources for doing supplemental research to topics and texts covered in class. That is, putting in "lab" time at the multimedia station in order to augment an understanding of regular readings. At higher levels of coordination, a teacher might key particular class assignments to particular sections of multimedia packages, giving students broad reading questions that they must answer using mutlimedia resources. Or, at an even higher level of coordination, teachers might choose texts that are keyed to multimedia programs, such as general history programs like Who Built America? and American Impressions, or use electronic texts for research and analysis. This latter usage is explained more fully in scenario #4.
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Electronic texts packages are excellent resources for teaching students a wide variety of "literacy" skills, from reinforcing reading skills (particularly in second languages) to more complicated analytic skills. Electronic texts and electronic books easily lend themselves to supplementing classroom activity when teachers key the texts they teach to electronic texts available in multimedia packages. Some of the uses that students can make of electronic book programs include: strengthening a second reading of a text with searching and marking features; doing search and analysis work in preparation for writing papers on texts or preparing for exams; and preparing student-led class presentations on particular texts or subjects.
Teachers can also work with students, using electronic texts, to reinforce close reading skills, using search and find functions to trace thematic and formal patterns in literature, or to engage in rhetorical analysis of sophisticated political and philosophical documents. Electronic texts can also be a useful presentation tool for instructors to use in class to focus lectures or class discussion on particular passages, or to compare similar passages by placing them side by side on the screen.
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Use Scenario #5: Orienting an Entire Course Around the Use and Creation of Multimedia Materials
The most fully integrated level of using multimedia is to build an entire course around the use, and perhaps the creation, of multimedia materials. As multimedia packages become more common, some teachers are looking to multimedia as a major structuring device for their classes. It is at this level of integration that one would consider using an historical simulation, structuring at least a whole unit, if not a whole course, around the materials provided in an information-rich multimedia package.
Usually, an historical simulation would stand at the center of the course or unit, with supplementary materials surrounding it. Teachers who use historical simulations or other kinds of multimedia as the center of their courses are usually very "activity" oriented, decentering themselves from the learning process in favor of letting students, individually or in groups, engage in elaborate exercises of discovery and creation. This kind of teaching (and learning) is not for everyone. But for those who engage in it, there is a level of involvement by students that is difficult to match through any other technique.
Another fairly intense mode of multimedia integration involves the creation of multimedia collections, or the creation of small multimedia modules that extend programs already in use. These kinds of projects can widely vary in sophistication. However, at the lower end of complexity a number of multimedia programs have certain low-level authoring or annotation tools built into the software. Many programs allow students to annotate passages, or author essays, that can then be linked onto the existing materials. Or, as a separate example, The Voyager Company markets an Expanded ToolKit that resembles the software used for its Expanded Books. This software makes it easy for students (and teachers) to create their own multimedia books. This kind of software authoring tool (and there are several others) gives teachers the opportunity to engage students in learning projects that involve actively making multimedia collections. Not only do these kinds of materials enrich the particular course setting, but allow students to engage in creating something that becomes a permanent legacy of their learning.
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Most of the programs discussed in this Guide and Bibliography are programs that run on CD-ROMs (compact discs), though in a few cases they run from loadable diskettes. Therefore, most of the programs in this project require a cd-rom player. None of the programs discussed or implied in these materials involves laser disc or video disc technology.
There are three basic questions that you should ask if you are interested in acquiring interactive multimedia programs:
QUESTION #1: What do you need to know before buying multimedia?
The first and most important thing you need to know is what kind of computer technology equipment you have available to you, whether in the library, computer lab, or classroom. Next, you need to know what platforms are being run on the computer technology that is available to you. Most multimedia, college- level educational packages run in either Macintosh or IBM- Compatible DOS or Windows environments. Although there are some DOS only programs, increasingly IBM compatible programs require Windows. The only exception to these two platforms are the IBM Illuminated Books--annotated in the bibliography--that run in the OS/2 operating environment rather than DOS. You also need to determine if the equipment available to you is powerful enough in terms of speed and memory to run multimedia packages, and whether the computer technology available to you has all the right components to run multimedia. This may sound like a lot of questions to answer, but there really are only about a half dozen aspects to a multimedia system that you need to account for. The next section addresses how to clarify whether or not your computer technology is sufficient to run multimedia programs.
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QUESTION #2: What do you need to have to run multimedia?
In very general terms, to run multimedia programs you need a computer with a reasonably fast CPU (Computer Processor Unit, or the "brain"), a sufficiently large hard disk (the storage), sufficient RAM (the operating memory), a CD-ROM player, a video card (installed in back of the computer to support video and graphics), a sound card (to support audio), and a mouse.
These are the basics. There is no single set of answers to the next obvious set of questions, such as, "how fast is reasonably fast?" or "how big is sufficient?" Because the term "multimedia" varies so much and can imply so many different kinds of programs, members of the computer industry got together and defined a basic standard that computers would meet for them to call themselves "multimedia computers." This standard is called The MPC Standard (Multimedia Personal Computer). This standard applies to all IBM compatible computers (Macintoshes are discussed later in the section "About Macintosh"). The MPC Standard and MPC Logo is applied to any computer that meets the minimum requirements for being called a multimedia computer. Some software packages use the label MPC, as well, to indicate that they will run on MPC compatible equipment.
The MPC standard had not been around very long before newer and more elaborate programs began coming out. Now there is a second set of standards called MPC2. Both of these standards are minimal level standards. For most components of a multimedia system, slightly higher specifications are an even better idea. Here is a comparison of MPC, MPC2, and "Even Better" specifications for the key components of a multimedia system.
The MPC Standard:
CPU: 16 MHz 386SX
Hard Disk: 30 Mb
RAM: 2 Mb
CD-ROM: single speed (150 kilobytes per/second)
Video Card: VGA (640x480 with 64 colors)
Floppy Disk: 3 1/2 inch
Sound Card: 8-bit with 8 note synthesizer.
The MPC2 Standard:
CPU: 25 MHz 486SX
Hard Disk: 160 Mb
RAM: 4 Mb
CD-ROM: double speed (300 kilobytes per/second)
Video Card: 640x480 with 65,536 colors
Floppy Disk: 3 1/2 inch
Sound Card: 16-bit with 8-note synthesizer; MIDI playback
"Even Better"
CPU: 50 MHz 486DX or better
Hard Disk: 340 Mb
RAM: 8 Mb
CD-ROM: triple speed (450 kilobytes per/second)
Video Card: 1024x768 with 65,536 colors
Floppy Disk: 3 1/2 inch
Sound Card: 16-bit with 8-note synthesizer; MIDI playback
The best advice is this: if you already own all or most of the necessary equipment to run multimedia programs according to the basic MPC standard, you will pretty much be able to run all of the IBM-compatible programs recommended in this Guide and Bibliography. (Text, graphics, and sound, for example, will run fine on a 386SX machine; demanding video needs a 486 machine). If you are in a position to buy new equipment, either a complete multimedia system or to add one or two components (for example, you have everything you need but a CD-ROM Drive), then buy the best and fastest components that you can, and you won t regret it (for example, if you re buying a CD-ROM, you should try to buy a double-speed at least). Multimedia programs are only going to get better, bigger and more demanding. That has been the trend in the last few years and there is no reason to believe it will change.
A WORD ABOUT MACINTOSH:
Macintosh computers are already better equipped, in general, for multimedia because of their graphics environment. Basic multimedia standards for the Macintosh (supporting sound, video, text and graphics) includes:
Any color capable Macintosh (25 MHz or higher);
A 68030 processor or better;
System 6.0.7 or higher, but preferably System 7
4 Mb of RAM, but preferably 8Mb of RAM
13 inch Color Monitor
Double Speed CD-ROM
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If you have insured that you have the right equipment to run mutlimedia, and that the programs you ve acquired are compatible with the platform you are running, then you have done the hard part already. Installing and running CD-ROM programs takes very little technical skill. Most CD-ROMs come self-contained with installation software and simple instructions for installation. Installing and running a CD-ROM usually involves only a couple of steps. In some cases it is as simple as pointing the mouse and clicking. In most other cases it is rarely more involved than typing a couple of commands that are provided by the instructions that come with the program. Usually a CD-ROM program reads some information onto your hard disk (which is why you need the most room possible). Once the CD-ROM is installed, the program runs jointly from both your hard disk and the CD-ROM drive automatically. Beyond a basic knowledge of the mouse and the menus of the particular platform you re using, no technical knowledge is needed to operate interactive multimedia programs.
AVAILABILITY AND ORDERING (see also list of publishers and distributors after "For Further Reading" Section).
Multimedia programs are always available directly from the publishers. Many programs are also available from distributors who distribute a wide range of programs. Often a distributor can get you material faster than the publisher, but not always. Also, distributors often bundle mutliple programs into packages at discounts. This can be a good way to acquire programs, though one should be careful that the packages are the kinds of programs that you want.
Multimedia programs vary widely in price from $19.95 to $500.00. Many programs come in two different forms: standard retail versions (that is, single copies) and school and library editions. These latter often include multiple copies and extensive supporting materials. As a rule of thumb, if you are spending over $200 (US Dollars) on a multimedia program, it should probably come with more than one site license (that is, more than one copy) and excellent documentation and supporting materials. This is not a rigid rule, but a caution.
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Menn, Don. "Multimedia in Education: Arming Our Kids For the Future." PC World 11 (October, 1993).
Rosenzweig, Roy, and Steve Brier, Historians and Hypertext: Is It More than Hype," Perspectives 32 (March, 1994): 3-6.
FOR FURTHER READING:
General Works on Multimedia and Hypermedia:
Ambron, S. and K. Hooper, eds. Interactive Multimedia: Visions of Multimedia for Developers, Educators and Information Providers Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 1988.
Barrett, Edward, ed. The Society of Text: Hypertext, Hypermedia, and the Social Construction of Information. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989.
Bevilacqua, Ann F. "Hypertext: Behind the Hype." American Libraries 20 (2), (February, 1989): 158-162 Delaney, Paul and George Landow. eds. Hypermedia and Literary Studies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991.
Galbreath, Jeremy. "The Educational Buzzword of the 1990's: Multimedia, or Is It Hypermedia, or Interactive Multimedia or...?" Educational Technology 32 (April, 1992): 15-19.
Hirschbul, John J. "Multimedia: Why Invest?" Interactive Learning International 8 (October-December, 1992): 321-33.
Megarry, Jacquetta. "Hypertext and Compact Discs: The Challenge of Multi-Media Learning." British Journal of Educational Technology 19 (October, 1988): 172-83.
Picciano, Anthony G. "The Five Points: The Design of a Multimedia Program on Social History." Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia 2 (1993):129-47.
Rathbone, Andy. Multimedia and CD-ROMS for Dummies. San Mateo, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, 1994.
Reeves, Thomas C. "Ten Commandments for the Evaluation of Interactive Multimedia in Higher Education." Journal of Computing in Higher Education 2 (Spring, 1991): 84-113.
Works on Multimedia, Hypermedia, and Classroom Teaching:
Campbell, Robert. "(I Learned It) through the Grapevine: Hypermedia at Work in the Classroom." American Libraries 20 (March 1989): 200-02, 204-05).
Fernlund, Phyllis Maxey, and Susan Cooper-Shoup. "A Realistic View of Hypermedia in the Social Studies Classroom." Social Studies Review 30 (Spring, 1991): 66-70.
Flanders, Bruce. "Multimedia Programs to Reach an MTV Generation." American Libraries 23 (February, 1992): 135-137.
Jonassen, David H. and Heinz Mandl, eds. Designing Hypertext/Hypermedia for Learning. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 1990.
Joyce, Michael. "Siren Shapes: Exploratory and Constructive Hypertexts." Academic Computing 3 (1988): 14.
Landow, George. Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1993.
Menn, Don. "Multimedia in Education: Arming Our Kids For the Future." PC World 11 (October, 1993).
Paske, R. "Hypermedia: A Brief History and Progress Report." T.H.E. Journal 18 (1990): 53-56.
Rosenzweig, Roy, and Steve Brier, Historians and Hypertext: Is It More than Hype," Perspectives 32 (March, 1994): 3-6.
Schick, James B. Teaching History With a Computer: A Complete Guide. Chicago: Lyceum Books, 1990.
Journals and Periodicals With Interest in Hypermedia, Multimedia and Education
Journal of Hypermedia and Education
Hypermedia
History Microcomputer Review
Social Science Computer Review
Journal of Computing in Higher Education
T.H.E. (Technological Horizons in Education) Journal
Computers and Education
Interactive Learning International
Educational Technology
Sources for Reviews of Multimedia Programs and Courseware (in addition to the above)
New Media
PC World
MAC World
BYTE
Software Reviews on File
List of Publishers and Distributors
Baker & Taylor Software (805) 522-9800
Bureau of Electronic Publishing (201) 808-2700
Compact Publishing (202) 244-4770
Compton's NewMedia (619) 929-2500
Context Systems Inc. (215) 675-5000
D.C. Heath Company (800) 854-8454
Delorme Mapping (207) 865-4171
Eden Interactive (415) 241-1450
Educorp (619) 536-9999
Eduquest (800) 426-4338
Facts on File (800) 322-8755
Grolier Electronic Publishing (203) 797-3530
Harcourt Brace College Publishers (800) 447-9457
IBM Multimedia Publishing Studio (800) 898-VTGA
Ingram Micro (800) 456-8000
Johnston & Company (801) 756-1111
Knowledge Adventure (818) 542-4200
McGraw-Hill (212) 337-5961
MECC (612) 569-1500
MediAlive (408) 752-8500
Media Resources (800) 395-3333
Merisel (310) 615-3080
Nararre Corp. (612) 535-8333
National Geographic Society (800) 368-2728
New Ray Software (410) 366-1452
Quanta Press (612) 379-3956
Queue (800) 232-2224
The Software Toolworks (415) 883-3000
Sony Electronic Publishing Co. (800) 654-8802
Time Warner Interactive Group (818) 955-9999
The Voyager Co. (212) 431-5199