This Week we discussed Multimedia learning. This method of instruction involves using visuals such as pictures and video or audio instead of or in addition to text. We viewed this video by Dr. Ray Pastore.

Dr. Pastore explains that using multimedia learning helps improve student’s retention of the material learned. However, there are some specific ways multimedia learning should be implemented in order for it to be effective. For example, text is accompanied by an image it can be difficult for people to go back and forth between the two and absorb and retain all the details. You would get better retention with an image accompanied by an audio description. One thing the surprised me from this video was that adding extra visuals that aren’t necessarily related to the content to be learned can actually hinder learning. Throughout my education I have always been told to make presentation visually interesting to attract the attention of the audience (example below). Though I understand Dr. Pastore’s point that extra visuals are distracting from the content, maybe there is a happy medium?

I think that overall multimedia learning is a good strategy for teachers to implement especially when we consider all the different learners we are trying to accommodate in our classrooms. However, an over reliance on things like video and presentations is, in my opinion, equally as boring as lecture methods of instruction. The multimedia method also relies to an extent on the resources of the school and may not be accessible to all teachers or students.

We also learned about the flipped classroom. A flipped classroom is the idea that making interactive instructional videos allows students to gain the content knowledge before coming to class which allows for class time to be dedicated to hands on activities. I think this is a good practice for older students, maybe grade 4 and up but it might be difficult to get younger students to really engage with the content especially longer form content. Furthermore, the method requires that each student has access to a computer and reliable internet connection. If you get to know your students and their families and know that they do all have access I could see this being a good strategy to use. But again, I wouldn’t only resort to that method of instruction because of accessibility and it could be difficult to do formative assessments of student understanding of content if they just do it at home.

We got the opportunity to practice making an interactive video this week. Since I couldn’t think of any kind of tutorial I could demonstrate online that has to do with my inquiry I decided to just do a fun game I played a lot as a kid! I made an interactive tutorial of how to complete the first mission as a secret agent on Club Penguin! it was fun to make as I haven’t played in a long time. The screen casting was pretty simple for me as I have used the screen record function on my Mac before. I found adding the interactive pieces to be a little trickier. I couldn’t get my video to upload to the WordPress H5P content tab because the file was too large. Once I condensed it and played around with the different interactive elements I was able to figure it out. I was impressed with how many different interactive options there were! I could definitely see myself using it again in the future.