Multimedia Creativity refers to the use of different media types such as videos, photos text, and audio to create different types of content. In education, we would use it to create informative types of media and combine the use of these media types for students to keep engaged with the content. We could also get the students to create their own multimedia projects thus fostering creativity. Researchers have found that multimedia helps engagement and can enhance traditional teaching methods, however, it cannot replace them. (Vagg et al., 2020).
There are a fair amount of pedagogical issues that come with multimedia in the classroom these can be things such as;
- Distractions - Whilst when used correctly multimedia can be a strong learning tool, it can also cause major distractions from students in the classroom. Teachers must be aware of this and provide guidance and observe students closely to ensure the correct use
- Critical Thinking issues - Whilst multimedia can be a great way to foster creativity in the classroom if used correctly. It can also have the opposite effect. It tends to portray information that sometimes is not true or correct and this can be extremely persuasive, especially to young students. Students should be encouraged to question things they read online to cast a critical eye on everything online and not to believe it all.
If these issues are accounted for multimedia can be a very effective learning device and can be an extremely creative tool for students of all ages.
In Class, we were tasked with using a few different multimedia applications and briefly testing them out here are some of them.
APPLE CLIPS
This is a free video editing software that is free on any apple deice it allows you to take a video to add pictures backgrounds, filters, voiceover anything you can really want and for free it would be a great tool for students in a classroom.
STOP MOTION
This is a free-to-download app that allows you to take pictures and then plays them back to back which makes them appear as a mini video. It can be used for a wide variety of things from telling stories to informative videos.
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
Photoshop is an image editing software that allows users to manipulate, enhance and transform digital images. It can be used to create digital art, design graphics and edit images. Here is a photoshop design I have done.
Overall, multimedia if used correctly can be a great way for students to create their own videos, photos, or anything they want and thus fosters creativity in the classroom. The examples above are just a few applications that can be used in the classroom.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CContributor, W. (2007). Proceedings of the International Workshop on Educational Multimedia and Multimedia Education. https://doi.org/10.1145/1290144
Kaur, M., Mehta, H., Randhawa, S., Sharma, P. K., & Park, J. H. (2021). Ensemble learning-based prediction of contentment score using social multimedia in Education. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 80(26-27), 34423–34440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-021-10806-2
Vagg, T., Balta, J. Y., Bolger, A., & Lone, M. (2020). Multimedia in education: What do the students think? Health Professions Education, 6(3), 325–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hpe.2020.04.011
Hi Euan,
You have mentioned two good pedagogical issues but would've like to see them supported by literature. Perhaps focus on one issue to expand on. For example, state how teachers 'provide guidance and observe students closely to ensure they are using the multimedia platform correctly'? (tasks scheduling, hand-in progress work, set specific tasks and set boundaries in the multimedia platform). Students hand-in 'progress' work after each lesson, for teacher to see how far the student has come in designing their multimedia product. Teacher evaluates how students' are using the multimedia platform 'correctly', depending on their (students) progress.
Good to see your own work examples, using apple clips, stop motion and adobe photoshop. Would've like to see how one of…