Critical Issues in Multimedia /Web Page Development
"Life is full of growing opportunities, carefully disguised as unsolvable problems (Dr. David Satcher, U.S. Surgeon-General, January, 2000)."
How do you believe multimedia technology will affect the future of schooling?
Multimedia technology will definitely have a profound affect on our school systems, however, not until several issues in education have been addressed and resolved. According to Kearsley (1998), he believes that there is no reason to expect multimedia technology to make much of a difference until we can properly deal with the common problems of education, such as, ineffectual teachers, inept administrators, irrelevant curricula, weak leadership and political interventions. For example, most educators are often ill prepared, lack of adequate teacher training and good leadership in creating multimedia technology. Furthermore, since most educators work alone or lack formal training (Bickerstaff, 1993) in developing multimedia technologies these problems will continue to exist. In order to develop a good understanding to use technology well in the classroom, years of extensive training must be involved. There is no quick fix for these problems with our current conceptual framework – the way we apply technology and to resolve them will take quite some time.
Technology has effectively revolutionized American society. An unexpected byproduct of this revolution has been the emergence of a generation of children weaned on multidimensional, interactive media sources, a generation who’s understanding and expectations of the world differ profoundly from that of the generations preceding them. At some point in the future the superhighway would serve all of the nation’s educational software to children at home, but before that happens Web-Based Instruction have to undergo some major enhancements. A few design issues have surfaced in the development stages of Web-Based Instruction, such as, ignoring the forms and styles required by the medium, using the structure of a traditional lecture course as the structure for a Web-Based Instruction course (Peraya, 1994), and the transferring of existing course material verbatim to Web-Based Instruction without considering using the medium's capabilities, such as graphics or communications (Parson, 1997). Often there is a lack of interest in interface design, because authoring systems are expected to provide attractive and easy to use interfaces (Squires and Preece, 1996). The need to replicate the best classroom environment and distance education by taking advantage of Web capabilities (Welsh, 1997) also needs to be considered and if it’s not addressed then converting solely to multimedia technology will be useless. In addition, use of Web characteristics that are unlike traditional software applications, such as access to interfaces which cannot be controlled by the application (Pernici and Casati, 1997), and the incorporation of screen and interface design at the same time the course is being designed and developed (Jones and Okey, 1995) are all usability issues in the design of Web-Based Instruction.
These issues pose a threat to the effectiveness of learning within Web-Based Instruction. Boling and Sousa (1993) state, "If people cannot use what is being delivered to them, or if they will not use it because it fails to support them in crucial ways, the promise of technology is subverted before it can begin to be fulfilled...training groups with direct responsibility for learning outcomes can not afford to lose a measure of learner motivation to poor interface decisions, or to a lack of awareness that these design issues must be addressed." (p. 54).
Are there any aspects of schooling that technology cannot replace?
It concerns me that as a society we are leaning further and further towards distant learning programs. I am an advocate of distant learning because it gives learners the freedom to learn when obstacles may prohibit them from attending a learning facility. However, distant learning does not always provide learners with expert feedback or discussion. This is an advantage schooling has over technology. There are situations where learners want and/ or need to acquire the understandings and skills of an “expert” as defined by “objectivist cognitive psychology” (Reigeluth, 1983). For example, most distant learning programs are set up with lesson plans already intact, which may not be completely clear. Furthermore, teaching assistants are employed by the professor to grade student’s work, peer-to-peer chat rooms or discussions are encouraged and teacher/ student interaction is totally neglected. Where is the expertise? These are just a few reasons why technology cannot replace schooling.
Can multimedia technology help to put the fun back into learning?
Through the use of simulations, computer-based instruction can help to put the fun back into learning. “Computer simulations are fun and challenging; they exercise a student’s problem-solving and decision making skills, and they can be used in any subject domain” (Kearsley, 1998, p. 48). According to Schank( 1995 ), all learning takes place in the context of failure. When a student makes constant mistakes, expertise is inevitable, therefore, if learning does not involve failure then learning is not accomplished. Students are motivated to try again and again if they are not at risk of embarrassment. The old proverb, for example, "Practice makes perfection" is a good analogy of this concept. The students keep practicing the simulations until they reach success. This allows the student problem-solving and decision-making skills to evolve; thus, fun and effective learning takes place.
Boling, E.S., & Sousa, G. (1995). Interface Design Issues in the Future of Business Training, Business Horizons, 36, (6), 54.
Jones. M.G., and Okey, J.R. (1995).
Interface Design for Computer-based Learning Environments
[On-Line]. Available http://www.hbg.psu.edu/bsed/intro/docs/idguide
Kearsley, G. (1998, March-April). Educational Technology: A Critique, Educational Technology, 47-51
Parson, R. (1997). An Investigation into Instruction available on the World Wide Web [On-Line] Available http://www.osie.on.ca/~rparson/out1d.htm
Pernici, B., and Casati, F. (1997). The Design of Distance Education Applications Based on the World Wide Web. In B.H. Khan (Eds.), Web- Based Instruction (pp. 246). Englewood Cliffs, N J: Educational Technology Publications.
Peraya, D. (1994). Distance Education and the WWW [On- Line] Available http://tecfa.unige.ch/edu- ws94/contrib/peraya.fm.htm
Rao, S. (1995). Putting Fun the Back into Learning, 44-48
Reigeluth, C. (1983). Reflections on the Implications of Constructivism for Educational Technology, Constructivism and The Technology of Instruction. A Conversation, (pp. 150). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
Squires, D., and Preece, J., (1996). Usability and Learning: Evaluating the Potential of Educational Software, Computers Education, 27, (1), 15.
Welsh, T.M., (1997). An Event-Oriented Design Model for Web- Based Instruction. In B.H. Khan (Eds.), Web-Based Instruction (pp. 164). Englewood Cliffs, N J: Educational Technology Publications.