Multimedia

Usually, when I blog for class, I go to the online database for my university and find an article about the topic I’m looking for.  This time, since we’re blogging about multimedia, I just wanted to search the phrase “multimedia in elementary education” to see what I could find.  We spoke in class about how this term is very broad, and no one REALLY knows what it means or refers to all the time.  I came across a website: Classroom Aid and showed a posting titled Multimedia Resources for Teaching in a 21st Century Classroom.  It seemed like you could log in to get more benefits of the site, but I was able to read the page without logging in.  

The page is a list of free multimedia resources teachers can use in their classrooms.  It turned out to be a lot of videos, but that just opened my eyes more to what people most commonly think is “multimedia”.  Some of the resources included in the website were:

• iTunes U - access to primary resources, and inspiration for enhancing teaching
• Knowmia - educational videos from a variety of subjects areas
• Next Vista - online library of videos made by students or teachers around the world
• SnagLearning - documentary type films
• Khan Academy - video library that explains math concepts with practice modules
• Qwiki - makes multimedia presentations from what you search on it

The webpage also used multimedia like it’s definition and included links to click on, screenshots, and pictures to involve multiple forms of displaying content.  

As I reflect on the word multimedia and what I read on this webpage, it focuses me on what my instruction should look like.  I have the capability to have information displayed in multiple ways and to make the content I deliver, visually appealing and interactive, with videos and links, so I should make the effort to do that!  The graphic below is one I captured from the Classroom Aid 

website,

and I want to keep it in mind as I continue on this Teaching with Technology journey.  We have all of these tools at our fingertips, and everyone always talks about using them the right way, being efficient and effective with it, but I don’t want thinking like that to deter me from just trying to use it!

"Multimedia Resources for Teaching in a 21st Century Classroom."Classroom Aid. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.