The impact of technology on Education has been tremendous. By adopting the various technological tools that are available today we have been able to enhance learning and teaching at the same time. As a teacher, facilitator reading or speaking out the information to the students is not sufficient. A class or a session is like a presentation, and the presenter (teacher) needs to plan and prepare his/her session. Along with rendering information, it is the learning outcome to be achieved that has to be kept in mind. Technology helps and aids teachers to enhance this learning outcome.
We all know that video games are a huge success with the today’s generation. Video games are using Multimedia to get the youngsters hooked on action games and different ways of learning. Similarly, Multimedia is a tool that can be used to increase the learning outcome of a session. In fact, it is a combination of multiple techniques. The content is presented using multiple techniques like audio, video, animation, text etc. It is a pre-recorded video of information which is presented in a session.
The Benefits of resorting to the multi media technique of instruction are:
1. Presents complete visuals of information complemented by the audio, graphics and texts. This creates a real life situation for the learner. Multimedia is proving a very good technique in teaching and learning anatomy. It is very commonly use in Aviation Trainings as it helps to increase situational awareness.
2. When information is received with appropriate sound and visuals it enhances the impact of information on the mind of the learner.
3. It serves well in giving uniformity to information. Multimedia session or presentation prepared once can work for a long time to come in a teacher's instructional toolbox. But, this also requires that the session should be flexible to be able to take any subsequent modifications.
4. It gives more opportunity to be creative. A boring or a complicated matter could be presented in an interesting manner using a multimedia format. For example: In a disaster management session, visual comparisons could be shown to explain the effect of global warming, followed by clippings of the regions already feeling the impact.
5. Multimedia proves useful for trainings where hands on trainings could be risky for example in the chemical laboratories. To educate the students regarding the harmful effects of certain chemicals it is not necessary to make them experience a chemical emergency. Better learning can be achieved with multimedia demonstration than just by learning the subject of chemistry theoretically.
6. It leaves the teacher with more time to interact with the students. A teacher has more time on his/her hands to discuss the topic and queries arising from the presentation.
Multimedia is machinery or technological dependent technique. It is important for the classrooms to be able to support all the necessary equipment. It cannot be ignored that technology comes at a price. Every school, college, or vocational institute may not be able to afford the same quality of multimedia at least in developing countries. Multimedia as a tool of learning cannot replace hands on learning and effective teacher instruction. Technology is to be used as an aid not a replacement for any of the elements. None of the elements are self sufficient or independent. The modern techniques dependent on technology are meant to aid the traditional techniques of teaching and learning in the classroom for students with special needs..
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia
