Multimedia in education

Multimedia is any combination of text, art, sound, animation, and video delivered to you by computer or other electronic or digitally manipulated means.[1]

In terms of hardware and software, multimedia indicates a techno­logically modem, multitask device capable of high quality sound, high-speed graphics and video picture. Therefore, multimedia applications are often understood as software pieces designed for creation or handling of multiform and multi-purpose product (video sequences, sound effects, hyper-text and others).

In education, or to be more precise, in educational technology, the term (multimedia) means applying different media in one teaching process. Therefore, multimedia refers to methodology of teaching rather than software design (it is a set of teaching techniques which make use of different media).[2]

Table (1) shows a comparison between human-delivered training (The traditional method) and technology-based training.[3]

Training element	Human-delivered training	Technology-based training
Planning and preparation	Able to design training to correspond to the training plan; able to monitor consistency	Must be systematically designed to conform to the training plan
Expertise	Presenters hired from industry usually represent the most current knowledge and highest expertise	Must be designed to conform to industry standards; currency with standards must be maintained
Interactivity	Instructors tend to train the group, ignoring individual needs	Able to focus on individual needs in content, pacing review, remediation, etc.
Learning retention	Retention rates vary	Can be up to 50% higher than instructor-led group training
Consistency	Instructors tend to adapt to the audience , sacrificing consistency	Rigorously maintains standards but may also be designed to adapt to learner’s performance of preferences
Feedback, performance tracking	Human instructors especially good at constant, ongoing evaluation, response to trainee performance	Better at keeping records and generating reports, but designing cybernetic systems to adapt instruction based on feedback is costing and complex.

Table (1): A comparison between human-delivered training and technology-based training

According to Nunan (2001), a percentage of language educators cling to the transmission model, which emphasizes the teachers’ responsibility of conveying the knowledge and correcting the errors. In this model, students are just to receive and store information taught in the class. [4]

One way to solve this problem is depending on the use of modern technology, especially multimedia CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning).

The multimedia CALL in teaching English

Figure (1) shows the multimedia computer-assisted language learning. In this system, lessons are designed in a multimedia form and stored on the computer. The student demands a specific response through the multimedia interface. His demand is sent to the computer which seeks the suitable response in the stored data (the designed lesson). The student gets the response through the multimedia Interface.

Multimedia environments provide a further and possibly more powerful dimension to communication when the control and manipulation of meaningful information is passed into the hands of the learner. Thus we can say that multimedia has the following advantages:

·     Its ability to combine and to deliver to learners integrated, different source media.

·     Its interactivity and the links provided between the data.

·     The ease and instant accessibility of all the data and media.

·     The vast quantity of data that can be provided in the complete variety of media.[2]

References:

1. Tay Vaughan, Multimedia: Making it work, 7^th edition, Mc graw-hill, 2008

2. Keith Cameron, Multimedia call: theory and practice, Elm bank publication, 1998.

3. Sanjaya Mishra and Ramesh C. Sharma, Interactive multimedia in education and training, Idea Group Inc., 2005

4. Liu Fang, Using Multimedia to Motivate Efl Students’ Interest in English Language Learning, 2010.