Week+3+-+Multimedia+in+Education+activity



** Week 3 Readings Barbara Richards **  ** // What does research say about using sound in multimedia education? // **  ‘‘Although aesthetically pleasing, feedback provided in text will go unnoticed by the student’’ (Alessi & Trollip, 1991, p. 72) and therefore, vision which is accompanied by sound is potentially more effective in a learning/instructional tool.  Lacina (2008) found that the use of iPods could enhance learning in school. After observing classrooms in which students were using iPods, she found that iPods can provide students with listening and vocabulary practice after school, leading them to learn new words and phrases at their convenience.. Lacina, I. (2008). Learning English with iPods. Childhood Education, 84, 247-249.  Sound can also provide a context for learning from multimedia, especially for poor and beginning readers. Whereas good readers can use their context-free word recognition skills, poor and beginning readers use repetitive sentence context. Poor readers gain more from context than good readers (Mann 2007).  Baddeley, additionally, provides a neuroscientific reason for using sound in multimedia: “memory for material presented in ** sound is more durable and resistant to interference ** from other modalities than visually-presented material, ** and more resilient to forgetting ** than visual traces (Baddeley 1986).  Sweller and Clark (1998?) also espoused a “cognitive load theory” where they suggested that working memory can only hold so much information and the rest is considered extraneous to the brain and is ignored…The mix of visuals with audio can put too much strain on the brain. Mann (2010) suggests that the removal of unnecessary visual information from the presentation can help overcome this sensory overload.  ** // What would the advantage be in the use of a digital audio book or e-book in class? // ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I believe that using a digital recording of a book or another event allows the students to fully exercise their imagination in a way that sound and image doesn’t always allow. Years ago I used to use a tape recording of the events of Cyclone Tracy to allow the students to imagine what it would be like to be in a pitch black house with just the noises around (for older students only). I am an English teacher and I believe that a well read audio book can serve the same purpose, to allow students to exercise their imagination – but only if the voice over is good! Hearing an expert reader can assist students with fluency and comprehension. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Audio File ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The World Book Club (on the BBC) has some excellent podcasts for senior English. Here is a link to one with writer John Boyne on his novel // Boy in the Striped Pyjamas //. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black','sans-serif';">http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/wbc/all