Reflecting on What I Know~ Chapter 9

How can my students use multimedia for their projects? There are many ways students can use multimedia for their projects at school. The tools for creating presentations alone have many options like Apple's iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, PowerPoint, and Adobe Flash. They can create digital videos, create presentations, add media like additional videos, clips, music, etc. They can make slide presentations with added features like hyperlinks and animation. Multimedia also encourages creativity, research for information and acquiring new knowledge of technology and how it operates. In these ways, multimedia is very useful as a teaching tool but the teacher needs to be aware of the possibilities that students can get side tracked or off course. Knowing the "bells and whistles" that comes along with multimedia is helpful and necessary for the teacher to keep students on track, (Morrison and Lowther, 234). Make sure that the students are clear on the purpose of the project to keep them on task. What applications are available for creating a multimedia presentation? PowerPoint is the main presentation tool for creating presentations in the classroom. Thinking outside the box of our text book, iPad/iPod has created many apps that help you to make easy presentations using the iPad. Doodlecast Pro is one for example. The app records your voice as you draw to create quick presentations. ShowMe allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online. Podcasting is another brilliant use of multimedia for presentations in the classroom. It's typically an audio file that you download and listen to. Podcasting is useful for recording a teacher's lesson or a student conversation. It can be used to create a newscast or run a radio show. Students could use it to read their own essays or stories. They could record guest speaker and make their presentation available online. The list of applications and ideas for creating presentations is endless! Should I place limits on how my students use multimedia? Yes, I think that as a teacher it is important to place limits on multimedia use just like you would any other boundary in your classroom. I liked how Morrison and Lowther on page 238-239 said that students should focus on specific points for their presentations so that they do not get side tracked with their multimedia usages. When creating a presentation using multimedia they should: 1. Think about who the presentation is intended for 2. What is the topic? 3. What is the information that they need to share? 4. What is the goal or purpose for the presentation? By following these guidelines, students should stay on task and it limits what they can do with the multimedia.