Multimedia Learning
From my perspective, multimedia learning is a framework that sounds simple and intuitive but is much harder than expected to execute effectively. Watching and listening to Dr. Pastore, I reflected on the countless zoom classes, educational videos, and in-person presentations I’ve experienced in which the presenter misused multimedia learning tools. Of course, good intention was always there, I think the general understanding is that if you throw as many different modalities into your lesson as possible it’ll be beneficial to students of all learning types because every possible method of information delivery is present. I remember getting frustrated with myself for losing focus or failing to process the lesson. It was all right in front of me, in text, visual and audio format, why wasn’t any of it actually engaging me? Now I understand that there’s a lot more to consider when designing a multimedia lesson. It has as much to do with learning psychology as it does with technology. I think this goes to show that less is more sometimes, although students do appreciate opportunities to process information through diverse modalities, bombarding their senses with excess information is incredibly counterproductive. Looking forward into my future role as an educator, I’m going to be mindful of the way I design my lesson so that multimedia learning tools are incorporated mindfully and logically.
Here’s an article from PBS with some suggestions for multimedia learning in science classrooms: https://www.pbs.org/kqed/oceanadventures/educators/sciencemedia/
iNaturalist Observation Upload Tutorial
This is a tutorial I created for iNaturalist using screen record on my iPad. I incorporated some interactive elements including a multiple choice question, a true/false question, and a summary question.
Thinking of how I might incorporate H5P tools into secondary science classrooms, I like the idea of creating interactive videos to be posted on a platform like Google Classroom in case a student misses an in-person lesson. Compared to just passively watching a video of a lesson, having interactive elements like multiple-choice questions and fill-in-the-blanks provide opportunities for meaningful student engagement. I’m sure there are more H5P tools that are applicable for a science classrooms, but I’ll need to spend some more time exploring these tools first.