"If it's worked for so many years, why change now?"

This can be an answer to many peoples reservations about using Multimedia in an educational environment.

Most educators who are used to using their traditional methods of teaching will often pose the question "If it's worked for so many years, why change now?" Well, here's my honest opinion of that -

Years ago, before computers and high speed broadband became a household item almost as essential as a shower, the old and more traditional methods of teaching used to work well. The children had no other experiences than the ones you taught them in school, so they used to absorb the information you gave them easier. Now, children spend most of their time in a virtual universe with gadgets and gizmos not everybody understands and then they come to school and look at a blackboard and a teacher reciting facts to them. It's almost a trip back in time.

Using technology such as the SMARTboard is great, but only if you use it to its full potential. If you use it like a blackboard then the interest of the students will be lost very easily. If you use the technology to it's full potential and use your knowledge and expertise as an educator to come up with new and exciting ways of getting the students to enjoy your lessons, you're lessons will be so much more rewarding for your students. As i've said before, there is a multitude of opportunities to learn multimedia, alot of software programs do not require a great deal of knowledge or time.

There is a common theme that implementing Multimedia is like slaying a dragon, a big Multimedia Dragon that you have to use all available time and knowledge to overcome. But when you consider the availablility of software, the sheer amount of software dedicated to teaching educators multimedia and the amount of online tutorials to help you through the transition, it's really more of a Multimedia Puppy that you have to take on walks once every so often.

The Importance of Inter-School Communication and Resource Sharing

Teachers nowadays are constantly trying to develop new ways to teach, or they are constantly having new technology thrown at them to bring into their teaching methods. Thing is, if one teacher comes up with a revolutionary way of teaching a lesson, one that brings both joy and knowledge to the pupils, they wont tell a soul. Why?

Truth is, everyone is too concerned over inspection results and reaching farther up the teaching ladder. It's not about that.

I was told that having something unique on the inspection report would get you extra points when it comes to your schools grading and having a unique teaching method would get you more likely considered for a higher position.

However, what if you shared this "revolutionary" teaching method, and it was being used all over the country - wouldn't you get much higher acclaim for that?

And during inspections, if the inspectors had been all over the country to see this method and then you told them you were the developer, the creator of this revolutionary teaching method then wouldn't you get even more points for that, with inter-school communication and your unique way of teaching to consider. Actually, come to think of it inter-school communication probably ranks highly on their scale of points, after all, it's essential in some areas.

What we really need is to use the VLE to talk to other schools of the "consortium" or even all other schools, to share resources and teaching methods with other teachers.

Think about this, 1,000 Geography teachers all transcribing the same lesson - tedious? How about 1,000 Geography teachers using a full combined effort to transcribe the lesson. Less work per teacher, and better ideas with the result of more innovative teaching methods.

The VLE is a great help with communications, if it was used in the manner that it was intended life would be so much easier, and all the pupils all over the country would benefit from this.

Learning For The Less Confident

Confidence in children has always been a potent issue among teachers, how to calm that loudmouth down and how to get that quiet one to speak up. Truth is, there's not a lot teachers can do, the confidence of a child is directly influenced by their home life and their roots, so anything a teacher does to change the child (better or worse) will go to waste as they will revert back to their old selves as soon as they leave school. This is a major issue. Some children know the answer to some really difficult questions that you may ask them, but are too lacking in confidence to say.

How can you fix this? What can one person do to help a poor confidence-challenged little child? The best way to do this is to get them to interact with the lesson in perhaps a different approach, an approach that doesn't involve them speaking in front of classmates or even yourself as a teacher. I have two words that will instantly prove a solution. Interactive Multimedia.

Yes, Interactive Multimedia. Getting the users sitting in front of a computer (all of them) and interacting with a fun, engrossing, interesting application and then getting them to dynamically interact with it by answering questions and playing games to test their knowledge. Would you feel more comfortable standing in front of a room full of people and saying something that you're not sure is correct (imagine the demoralising laugh from your peers after getting it wrong) or playing a game on a computer?