Multimedia instruction has the ability to encourage a classroom culture of tolerance, diversity, and freedom of opinion. My goal with using multimedia teaching is that students will learn more deeply from materials involving words, illustrations, narration, and animation. With this learning comes an awareness of people and events outside of our classroom, city, and country.
When I start planning a lesson involving multimedia instructional materials I explore what methods will be most successful in developing this culture of tolerance and awareness. For example, this past week I used www.tumblebooklibrary.com with my kindergarten and first grade students. I began the lesson with a question about summer travel plans. Some students were traveling very far and some had no travel plans at all. Then I asked the class if there were other ways to explore new lands and cultures without getting in a car or on a plane. Many students raised their hands and named books, computers, and movies as a way to experience new places. I then allowed students to go to the travel and culture section in the Tumble Book Library Internet site. The students read and listened to books about Canada, Florida, Mexico, and Australia. The animation really engaged the students and they were eager to take the Tumble quizzes after each story.
There are challenges to using multimedia instructional materials. Proper time and research should go into exploring the validity of programs used in the classroom. Some materials may be expensive or may need to be shared among school staff. But many of these challenges are outweighed by the relative advantage for the teacher, enthusiasm of the students, and the promise of more meaningful learning experience for children.
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You are right, Holly, you don't just want to throw something together because it sounds good. Like any lesson, using multimedia needs to be well planned out. You also need to try to make sure it works before presenting it to the class.
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