Welcome to my EDCI 337 blog! I hope everyone enjoyed reading about my experience in EDCI 336, and I am excited to advance my technological understanding throughout this course. Before today, I had no idea what the term “multimedia learning” referred to. Over the next few weeks, I hope to gain a better understanding of multimedia learning and how we as educators can utilize it to support students. I think I am most apprehensive about using Microsoft as a platform for the course. I have always used Apple products and my experience with Microsoft is limited to Word. However, I am open to this new experience as it will only benefit my understanding of technology. 

After listening to Rich McCue speak about interactive/multimedia learning (along with the assigned readings), I began to consider where I have seen these forms of learning used in my own educational experience.  It reminded me of my French 10 class in high school, where our teacher had us watch music videos from popular French artists and we were asked to translate the songs and discover their meaning. One thing that made this a more enriching experience was by supporting our auditory and visual skills. When he played the videos, he provided us with a printed out copy of the lyrics. By doing this, we could use the words and images to help piece together the meaning of the song. I feel this is an excellent example of combine multiple mediums enriches the experience for the learner. This is the ultimate goal of all teachers.

In the first chapter of Mayer’s The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, “Introduction to Multimedia Learning”, the author discusses the difference between technology-centred and learner-centred interactive learning. I believe it is critical to distinguish between these two approaches as one focuses on adapting the learner to the tech where the other adapts the tech to the learner. In a world of evolving technology, I understand the struggle to keep up to date with the newest programs and apps. I feel that is would be more beneficial to students to take the “learner-centred” approach where the teacher chooses the tech that will best support their learning experience. For example, if you are want to develop students’ literary skills, as well as teach them introductory coding, a program such as “Scratch” would be an excellent tool to use.

If you are new to multimedia learning like I was, I recommend watching the youtube video below that quickly describes what it is, and gives an example to put it into a real-life perspective!

– Ms. G 🙂