Edification of Multimedia Resources: Aligning Technology for Student Empowerment

Multimedia offers exciting possibilities for meeting the needs of 21st century learners. Multimedia learning can be defined in a number of ways. Multimedia learning is the delivery of instructional content using multiple modes that include visual and auditory information and students' use of this information to construct knowledge. Today's students are very different from even their recently graduated peers. These students are digital natives. They live in a world in which digital technology is part of the texture of their daily lives. They have never known a world without technology. Technology is their native language and they expect to use technology in school. While some students have greater access to technology than others, computers with Internet access are now nearly universally available in schools. Internet-enabled computers and cell phones are pervasive outside of school. Use of technology by 5-18 year olds is at its highest level and is projected to increase. This increased reliance on technology combined with brain processing offers enormous potential for instruction. Research has shown us that the brain processes information using two channels--visual and auditory. When information is presented using both channels, the brain can accommodate more new information. By taking advantage of this multimodal processing capability and technology-based tools, we can dramatically enhance student learning through multimedia instruction. This document is intended to provide an introduction to the Merlot community. The paper will collect background information of multimedia, describe its usage, how it functions and key features, and provide further help to educators for integration of multimedia resources in the teaching learning process.