Chapter Nine Reflection

1.    How can my students use multimedia for their projects?

I feel that a teacher could have student use multimedia on any problem or question they give the class to answer.  The students can use multiple from media to collect information whether is through video or audio recording they have made and/or re-existing information they have found online.  In the field of special education, it would be difficult to have these children on his or her own create a multimedia presentation, but these students can benefit from multimedia. Younger learner at elementary age would benefit from the multimedia presentation a teacher could create for the lesson.  Presentations allow teacher to include visual and audio pieces to the presentation that will engage the students in the lesson.  Multimedia lesson adds more components to a lesson to appeal to more students.  The Step-By-Step Guide to Using Multimedia Tools in Special Education I found had good basic online on how a special education teacher could use multimedia within their classroom (http://www.pacer.org/stc/pubs/MultimediaCR.pdf ).

2.    What applications are available for creating a multimedia presentation?

I am not sure of all the applications that are used within the county in which I work.  As the textbook stated, that PowerPoint is the most common form of multimedia presentation we see in the classroom.  I am not sure of all the other software and application they have for the county, but teacher and student high rely on PowerPoint presentations to present content knowledge and information and result or conclusions of projects. The positive thing about PowerPoint is that you can include all the different components of multimedia sound, video, graphics, animation, and text.

3.    Should I place limits on how my students use multimedia?

Yes, I think that teachers in to put limits on what should and should not be include within a presentation.  Like the Technology FAQ, on page 252, “My students are more interested in using the bells and whistles of PowerPoint than focusing on their message.”  This is completely true. I know when I was introduces to PowerPoint in middle and high school I thought the point of using this software was to make the presentation as flash as possible, but my senior year of school and college I final learned that is not the point.  Teachers need to setup limits and explain the importance and the reason for this presentation.  Presentations are used to grab the audience attention and presentation your material in a neat and clear way so people will understand the information or message.