Educational Requirements
Employing multimedia tools into the learning environment is a rewarding, but complex and challenging task. All of the multimedia formats available: text, sound, video, animation and graphics, already exist in one form or another in most libraries. Students can explore an almost infinite variety of information. All these explorations can certainly lead to new discoveries, but unless consumption is followed by production, the story ends. Without a chance to use their new discoveries and demonstrate what they have learned, the knowledge gained soon becomes the knowledge forgotten.
Giving students an opportunity to produce multimedia documents of their own provides several educational advantages. Students work with the same information from four perspectives: 1) as researcher, they must locate and select the information needed to understand the chosen topic; 2) as authors, they must consider their intended audience and decide what amount of information is needed to give their readers an understanding of the topic; 3) as designers, they must select the appropriate media to share the concepts selected; and 4) as writers, they must find a way to fit the information to the container including the manner of linking the information for others to retrieve.
When defining the appropriate medium to use it is vital to ‘know’ the audience and the technical specification of users’ machines. There may be technical reasons for choosing which multimedia element will best communicate certain concepts. Whatever medium is chosen, to apply a principle mentioned above to all digital media elements, visuals must be congruent, relevant, and consistent with other information presented in order to be effective. Whatever the latest technological advance, instructional design principles apply. For example, care needs to be taken when using visuals for aesthetic reasons. The misuse of a single visual element can cause misrepresentation of information and become a barrier to content and impede learning, even if the program overall may, in all other aspects, follow the principles of instructional design. It is important to bear in mind the nature of the audience, especially their age group and culture mix.