Focusing on Technology and Multimedia Projects

DID YOU KNOW?

The use of the Internet can provide educational benefits for students across subject areas and grade levels (Desjarlais, Willoughby, & Wood, 2008; Goodrich, 2008).

Interactive multimedia instruction can increase student interest and motivation when used appropriately (Guerrero, Walker, & Dugdale, 2004; Korakakis et al., 2009).

The impact of technology on learning has great potential benefit provided it is used wisely (Gulek & Demirtas, 2006; Knezek & Christensen, 2008; Mueller et al., 2008).

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Check out our related on-site course, Merging Educational Goals and Interactive Multimedia Projects ^®

For the online version of this course, click here .

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When you emphasize the importance of science, technology, engineering, and/or math (STEM) to your students, you are probably greeted by blank stares, rolling eyes, or the proverbial, “Why do I have to learn this?” question. The promise of a lucrative career as an engineer or an architect may not appeal to your students either. But what about a career as a game developer? Or in the music industry? A cinematographer? A forensic scientist, perhaps?

Even if you don’t specialize in a STEM field, you realize that today’s students must live and work in an increasingly complex and information-rich society. Standards of learning centering on STEM are emerging every day. Reformation of the traditional classroom is being required to prepare our learners for the real world—a real world of collaboration, problem solving, and resourceful quick thinkers—a world where STEM skills are becoming more important than ever.

Our feature this month spotlights the T in stem: technology. The technology strategies we share can be implemented in any classroom and at any grade level.

"When it comes to technology in education, you can create it, you can design it, you can produce it, you can legislate it, you can order it, restructure it, give it standards, and write outcomes for it. But the bottom line is that if it is going to happen, teachers have to make it happen." —Jacqueline Goodloe, Washington, D.C.,

TIPS - Technology strategies you can use with your students

The classroom teacher must establish a multimedia technology-rich environment where interactive projects, built on standards, facilitate students’ use of technology to learn, research, communicate, and develop responsibility. Student-centered multimedia environments empower learners to take charge of their own meaning making. Knowledge that we have learned meaningfully, that we have constructed from a union of our actions, feelings, and conscious thought is knowledge we control. Below are two types of interactive multimedia projects (IMPs): Competitions and Webquests. These IMPs don’t take a lot of extra time and can be done with any grade level or content area.

Competitions
Competitions require other Internet sites as gathering points to solve scavenger hunts. They are projects through which students must solve problems while competing with other classrooms or within their own classroom. Below are several links with more information about this IMP.

Cyberfair
http://www.gsn.org/cf
GeoGame Project
Students use atlases, maps, almanacs, and other reference materials to solve geography puzzles.
http://www.globalschoolnet.org/gsh/project/gg/
Mighty M&M Math
Teaching about fractions and percents, students use bags of M&Ms to answer questions about percentage of colors and comparing those results to other results from participating schools around the world.
http://www.iphysique.com/school/main.htm
Think Quest
http://www.thinkquest.org

WebQuests
A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet. Learners are given a task that requires them to access information from the Web and transform it in some way. There are two types of WebQuests, a short term WebQuest, which is designed to be completed in one to three class periods, and a long term WebQuest, which will typically take between one week to a month. Below are several links with more information about this IMP.

A Feudalism WebQuest: Japan and Europe
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/project2/feudalism/feudalism.html
A Rubric for Evaluating WebQuests
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquestrubric.html
Some Thoughts about WebQuests
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html
WebQuest Site
This site was funded by PacBell. It provides online resources that show teachers how to construct their own Web-rich research units.
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/
WebQuest Template
http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/buildingblocks/p-index.htm

The tips above are based on ideas offered in the PLS course Merging Educational Goals and Interactive Multimedia Projects®. PLS courses specializing in STEM subjects include:

Building Your Technology Education and Skills ® (onsite only)
Blended and Synchronous Learning Design™ Online
Building Online Collaborative Environments® Online
Developing 21st Century Literacy Skills™ Online
Geometry for Middle School Educators ™ Online
Merging Educational Goals and Interactive Multimedia Projects® Online (also offered onsite)
Simulations and Gaming Technologies for the Classroom ™ Online
Teaching Algebra to Middle School Students ™ Online
Thinking Mathematically: Elementary Edition™ Online
Using Online Resources to Bring Primary Sources to the Classroom™ Online
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References
Desjarlais, M., Willoughby, T., & Wood, E. (2008). Domain knowledge and learning from the
Internet. In T. Willoughby and E. Wood (Eds.), Children’s learning in a digital world
(pp. 249–271). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Goodrich, C. (2008). Using web-based software to enhance student learning of analytical and
critical skills. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 36, 247–253.

Guerrero, S., Walker, N., & Dugdale, S. (2004). Technology in support of middle grade
mathematics: What have we learned? Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science
Teaching, 23(1), 5–20.

Gulek, J. C., & Demirtas, J. (2006). Learning with technology: The impact of laptop use on
student achievement. Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment, 3(2), 4–38.

Knezek, G., & Christensen, R. (2008). The effect of technology-based programs on first- and
second-grade reading achievement. Computers in the Schools, 24(3), 23–41.

Korakakis, G., Pavlatou, E. A., Palyvos, J. A., et al. (2009). 3D visualization types in multimedia
applications for science learning: A case study for 8th grade students in Greece.
Computers & Education, 52(2), 390–401.

Mueller, J., Wood, E., & Willoughby, T. (2008). The integration of computer technology in the
classroom. In T. Willoughby and E. Wood (Eds.), Children’s learning in a digital world
(pp. 272–297). Malden, MA: Blackwell.