Technology-Centered Approaches
The most straightforward approach to multimedia design is technology centered.
Technology-centered approaches begin with the functional capabilities of multimedia and ask, “How can we use these capabilities in designing multimedia presentations?” The focus is generally on cutting-edge advances in multimedia technology, so technology-centered designers might focus on how to incorporate multimedia into emerging communications technologies such as wireless access to the World Wide Web or the construction of interactive multimedia representations in virtual reality. The kinds of research
issues often involve media research (i.e., determining which technology is most
effective in presenting information). For example, a media research issue is whether students learn as well from an online lecture – in which the student can see a lecturer in a window on the computer screen – as they can from a live lecture – in which the student is actually sitting in a classroom.