Lesson XV

PROJECT – BASED LEARNING AND MULTIMEDIA

                                             

A class that effectively employs project-based multimedia learning is highly animated and actively engaged. Together with other students, every student is absorbed in a task in line with the goals and objectives made clear at the start. Time has wings. Time flies so fast that students don’t feel its passing. Teacher does not just stay in front of the class lecturing. She monitors students as they work. Students consult her for guidance and comments. She does not impose her will on students. With her guidance, she allows students to make decisions for themselves. She has more time for those students in need of greater help and attention. By going around, she can sense if students are on the right track and if the goals and expectations set at the start are not set aside but remain to be the governing factor behind every activity. The students’ intellectual power are very much challenged as they read research for basic information and as they analyze and organize from their computer courses and creativity and imagination are demanded when the students produce multimedia presentation by using multimedia produced by others.

Dimensions of Project-Based Multimedia Learning has seven key dimensions

·         Core curriculum

·         Real-world connection,

·         Extended time frame

·         Student decision making

·         Collaboration

·         Assessment

·         Multimedia.

 Simkins (2002) explains each of them briefly:

·Core Curriculum. At the foundation of any unit of this type is a clear setoff learning goal drawn from whatever curriculum or set of standards in use. We use the term core to emphasize that project-based multimedia leaning should address the basic knowledge and skills all students are expected to acquire, and should not simply be an enrichment or extra-credit activity for a special few. Often, these project lend themselves well to multidisciplinary or cross-curricular approaches.

·Real- word connection. The project seeks to connect student” work in school with the wider world in which students live. It is critical that the students-not only the teacher-perceive what is real about the project. The content chosen, the types of activities and the types of products must be real in life.

·Extended time frame. A good project is not a one-shot lesson. It extends over a significant period of time. The actual length of a project may vary with the age of the students and the nature of the project. One project may take days or weeks. Others may take a month or two. It is important that students are given enough time to enable them come up with a substantial final product from which they can derive pride and a clear sense of accomplishment.

·Student decision making. In a protect-based multimedia learning, students have a say. But it is clear to them that the teacher is in charge and so the students understand that there are decisions which only the teacher can make, Student, however, are given considerable leeway n determining what substantive content would be included in their projects as well as process for producing them.

·Collaboration. Protect-based multimedia learning demands collaboration. Collaboration is working together jointly to accomplish a common intellectual purpose in a manner superior to what might have been accomplished working alone. Students may work in pairs or a team as many as five or six. Whole class collaboration are also possible. The goal is for each student involved to make a separate contribution to the final work and for the whole class accomplish greater things than what each individual student can accomplish all alone.

·Assessment. There are tree (3) assessment concerns in protect-based multimedia learning, namely: 1) activities or developing expectations; 2) activities for improving the media products; and 3) activities for compiling and disseminating evidences of learning. Students must be clarified on what is expected of them and on how they will be assessed. In project-based multimedia learning, they are expected to show evidence that they gained content information, became better team members, could solve problems and could make choices (for instance on what new information they would show in their presentation). Students are also expected to assess their own media products so they can improve on them.

·Multimedia. In multimedia projects, students do not learn simply by “using” multimedia produced by others; they learn by creating it themselves. The development of such programs as HyperStudio, Kid Pix, and Netscape Composer has made it possible for students of all ages to become the authors of multimedia content. As students design and research their projects, instead gathering only of written notes, they also gather-and create-pictures, video clips, recordings and other media objects that will later serve as the raw material for their final product. The black plague project was exemplary in terms of the seven (7) dimensions given in the foregoing paragraphs. It addressed the standard set by the Department of Education trough the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum in social studies, and science. The real world connection to the AIDS Epidemic made the project relevant to students. The project extended over many weeks, and students were allowed to choose perspectives and make decisions about the design and interface for their presentations. Students collaborated in small groups to research and implement each perspective in the presentation. Assessment was on-going and multifaceted. Students’ presentations included in the variety of media: text, original art work, scanned images and animations. (Adapted from Simkins, 2002) Why use project-based multimedia Learning? Because it is “value added” to your teaching. It is powerful motivator as proven in the classes of Teacher Nachielle and teacher Nicole described earlier in this lesson. It actively engages students in the learning task. Students are likewise engaged in the production of multimedia presentation. What can be some limitations of the use of project-based multimedia learning strategy? One limitation that we see in the need for the extended period of time. You need time to orient the students on what bare expected of them, guidelines, goals and objectives of the project, and more so for the students together and organize their data, work on their presentations and the like. this strategy requires technical skills on your part of your students. Remember, they will be using a combination of several media, which includes, of course, the computer, if the basic computer courses did not teach them these skills demanded by this strategy, there will be a problem. To address this problem, some days need to be devoted to learning the technology. This can be another limitation. A third limitation can be the tendency to lose track of the goals and objectives of your lesson because the technology aspect has gotten the limelight. You may get so occupied learning the multimedia presentation that your lesson objectives get derailed and your project ends up as mere technology lesson. So, you have to be sure that the technology aspect of your lesson does not eclipse the academic content which is the core of your lesson and therefore is most important.