Multimedia Projects in Education: Designing, Producing and Assessing Third Edition

Citation

Ellis‐Barrett, L. (2007), "Multimedia Projects in Education: Designing, Producing and Assessing Third Edition", Library Review, Vol. 56 No. 3, pp. 264-265. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530710736145

Addressing the changing nature of education, mainly at the secondary level, Multimedia Projects is concerned with teaching children through the medium of technology, and allowing them to create their own projects using the variety of media available today to educators at little or no additional cost. The ultimate aim of the authors is to make learning interactive and a fun experience, and what better way to do this than to use multimedia – for example, encouraging children to create their own websites or even videos.

For anyone not convinced that multimedia projects are worthwhile, the authors are keen to emphasize that using these projects can provide students with life‐skills – self‐confidence, presentation, team working, planning, management and creative thinking are just some of those emphasized. This is an excellent justification for trying some of the suggested project ideas. Aimed primarily at teachers, though also useful resource for learning/resource centre staff, Multimedia Projects sets out in minute detail how to undertake these projects. It also offers a number of suggestions for lessons, presenting possible scenarios as mini case‐studies at the opening of each chapter.

Having set out the aims of the book in the preface, and explained their target audience, the authors provide an overview of the impact that multimedia learning has had on education. They use this opportunity to explain what exactly they mean by the term multimedia – “the use of several media to present information” (p. 2). This could include a combination of text, graphics, animation, pictures, video and sound. They argue that hypermedia (video clips and graphics) as well as hypertext have provided more complexity and also sophistication to the learning process. They also provide a number of examples of other studies to demonstrate how these have been successfully used in education.

There follows a justification for the use of multimedia, which again refers to a number of studies showing how it has impacted on learning styles. Specifically, they highlight Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences and show how it can be applied to multimedia projects. They use a number of tables to demonstrate the various methods of learning proposed in Gardner's theory and the way in which they relate well to multimedia. This chapter usefully introduces some theories of learning, applies them to multimedia teaching methods, and provides justifications as well as suggested educational outcomes. It is a good basis for deciding whether using a multimedia project would be appropriate to the task.

After Chapter 2 the remainder of the book is concerned with the projects themselves, beginning with a suggested model for the delivery of lessons and the structure of the projects. This model is particularly useful and could perhaps be adapted for use with other lessons and or subjects. Known as the “DDDE‐Model” it allows all of the various aspects of the project to be planned and accounted for. The “DDDE‐Model” (Decide, Design, Develop, Evaluate) emphasizes the need for careful planning and fore‐thought. Usefully, the authors provide a diagrammatic approach to the model as well as a textual explanation detailing how at each stage both teachers and students are involved.

The following chapters each assess one element of the model, providing a scenario and a chapter outline before expanding the details. The authors are thorough in providing enough information but not condescending to their readership. This should allow both experienced and less experienced teachers and educators to use the book and follow the model, particularly with the many helpful tables and diagrams. As well as the useful text and models, where relevant a number of photocopiable sheets are appended to the chapters in order to provide teachers and students with outline worksheets and evaluation forms. Having discussed each element of the model, the authors finally provide chapters on specific projects – hypermedia, web pages, presentation tools and videos. Each of these contains sample projects and photocopiable resources.

There is no general introduction or conclusion, although each chapter contains its own summary as well as a useful list of references and websites. There is a brief but useful glossary of terms and an index. Multimedia Projects is a very useful and thorough book which provides enough information for complete lessons. It is good food for thought, too.