Subject: Third Summary of Student Hypermedia Composition Formal Discussion 29th Nov - 8th Dec
From: Jill Jameson (jjameson@easynet.co.uk)
Date: Tue 07 Dec 1999 - 21:43:20 MET
From: "Jill Jameson" <jjameson@easynet.co.uk> Subject: Third Summary of Student Hypermedia Composition Formal Discussion 29th Nov - 8th Dec Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 20:43:20 -0000
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Dear IFETS Colleagues,
The formal discussion on Student Hypermedia Composition (29th Nov - 8th Dec)
continued during 4th - 6th December, with contributions made by Dr Goswamy,
Meropi Hatzivei, Dennis Nelson, John Sechrest, Dr Eric Flescher, Glenn
Ralston, and myself as moderator.
Main themes emerging from this third stage of the discussion are the
following:
* CONTINUATION OF DISCUSSION: CAN MULTIMEDIA
AUTHORING HELP WITH COMPREHENSION?
The discussion initiated by Benjamin Choppy on the above question continued
with further input from Dr Goswamy, who commented on Benjamin's and Muhammed
Betz's contributions in some detail, stating that Muhammed's response should
clear up some of Benjamin's "doubts" about whether multimedia authoring aids
learner comprehension.
Dr Goswamy affirmed that from his point of view, when students author
multimedia they do not "merely 'select' and 'sequence' the information"
...but "there is a large amount of 'analysing' and 'thrashing the issues'
involved (often invisible as it occurs in the 'higher level of thinking')
before actually arriving at the final sequence". Therefore, Dr Goswamy noted
that it "is worth consideration that 'Can a learner or even a designer
arrive at a reasonably sound 'sequencing' without actually comprehending the
matter?' And if comprehending an idea and then presenting it in the best
possible manner is not 'comprehension' then what is?"
Dr Goswamy therefore felt that with effective 'sequencing' (unless this was
just 'mechanical programming') almost invariably comes some degree of
comprehension by the learner. The role of teachers, he felt, is to "think,
analyse and define clearly the 'learning outcome'.." the teacher, or, more
suitably, "mentor" having "...an important part to play" to "ensure
'multimedia authoring' does not degenerate into 'multimedia editing' or
still worse 'multi-media programming' .." Motivating learners to produce a
task with "sufficient scope of being 'creative' ... "involves more
comprehension work by the learner ..." and this is particularly the case
when they are "motivated to produce..." their "... own piece". Therefore,
Dr Goswamy concluded that "I have reasons to believe that in a 'learning' or
'teaching' situation the end result of 'multi-media authoring' (from the
angle of Benajmin's doubt) depends on the approach taken by the 'guide' or
'mentor' in 'setting up the project', what 'learning outcomes' are aimed at
and what is expected of the student as an 'author'.
* STUDENTS AS MULTIMEDIA DESIGNERS:
CRITICAL THINKING AND EXPRESSIVE LEARNING
Meropi Hatzivei continued the debate by shifting the focus from
'comprehension' into the concept of "developing critical thinking and
especially about evalulating critically the work of others" in multimedia.
Meropi expressed optimism about the potential of multimedia composition to
be "both motivating and effective for learning", but noted that others were
more doubtful of this, specifically about the capacity of multimedia to
engender critical thought. Meropi believes that "it is really important
for students to be able to evaluate, with the appropriate guidance,
their own learning materials" and that "multimedia composition can be
one of the most effective educational ways to enhance expressive learning".
* REGARDING HYPERSTUDIO
Dr Eric Flescher (5th Dec) commented on the use of HyperStudio,
noting that it is "best to update to the new 3.01 version, which
includes Internet use and more features and better animation sequence."
Giving some points about the use of graphics and sound in stacks,
Dr Flescher goes on to note that multimedia "can be a valuable tool
to teach history but you have to think how the multimedia tool can
make it different versus trying to fit the same old project into the
multimedia with sound, graphics and text".
He notes that teachers need to "frame the assignment" to make the best use
of multimedia ..."showing the way is more than just showing them the
software and how to use it".
* DYSLEXIA, DROPOUTS, THE WEB AND HYPERMEDIA COMPOSITION
Glenn Ralson (5th Dec) notes a number of web references in terms of the
"college dropouts that changed our real world", and indicates that
"that personal intellectual appliance - the PC - will have increased
a million times in power at the same cost over 25 to 30 years".
In this situation of the vastly increased power of the PC,
a "new learning space" is emerging. Glenn cites Carl Raschke,
in commenting on the revolution to education implied by these changes,
in which the "revolution is about "learning" not "teaching"....
"control of the content of curriculum must give place to an
explosion of self-crafted, ad hoc, and customized learning modules,
where the great historical divide between instructor and student
can be found in a state of meltdown".
The debate continues: I look forward to further comments on the above points
made by contributors.
Jill Jameson
Director, Student Programmes
Abingdon College
Northcourt Road,
Abingdon
Oxon, UK,
Tel 012350 216221/555585
jjameson@easynet.co.uk
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