"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.

Answer To The Difficulty Debate - Part 2

Okay, this has been more frustrating than I thought. I created a simple Flash Application which I separated into Screens (I used the term because teachers would be familiar with it, from PowerPoints). Each screen (and there are 4) has it's own elements on it, one has text and an image, another has just text, another has text and a video and another has text and an animation. The idea being is that the teacher can duplicate the screen that they need, then pull it onto the stage where it can be adjusted to their own needs. That, in theory, is quite simple, in practice is very different.

I've had the notion that the teacher should already have some basic knowledge of flash, but should they have to? If the answer is no, I must create some sort of user guide for them to know how to change the various parts and get them to know how to move around the Flash Environment (risking countless confusion), if the answer is yes, then that severely limits the use of the template.

This has been quite a struggle.

I've now come to the conclusion that this template should be used by people with basic Flash knowledge but without the time to get in and create something from scratch, but for those with little or no experience of Flash, it would probably be best to use a software with a much higher "user-friendliness" than Flash, such as Adobe Captivate.

Answer To The Difficulty Debate - Part 1

Back from sunny Benidorm and into the cold, rainy, Welsh valleys once more, where I have had a slight (but nonetheless significant) epiphany.

The on-going argument about how difficult multimedia is to create and use has been a fruitful one, I had the wonderful idea of making a Flash Application that can be easily adapted and used amongst most subjects and topics. Now, this is no easy task, I have a few things to consider:

- How do I make the application so that each individual element can be edited
- How do I inform the user of what should be changed and what shouldn't be
- How do I make it all work and provide all the necessary elements for the teacher to adapt

You'll have to stay tuned to find out how I managed to do it.

Staggering The M-Conversion

We've already discussed that multimedia is a step worth taking, for the benefit of the teachers AND the students. However, it's now been brought to my attention that the hesitation in the conversion of multimedia, isn't the idea, its the practice. Multimedia can be difficult in some respects and time consuming in others, two things a teacher in Rhondda Cynon Taff are not interested in. So how can we spin this and make teachers in RCT want to use multimedia when there's no interest in taking the "large step for mankind" into this world.

The best way I can come up with, from the top of my head is to stress how easy some aspects of multimedia are, and I know what your thinking, it's all very well me saying this when I'm technically orientated anyway, but with the correct guidance it could be easy for everyone. Okay, learning certain multimedia programs can be like learning a new language altogether but where there's a difficult option, the world introduces a more user-friendly option and allows the same work to be carried out in a much easier way.

Take Flash for instance, to make a quiz in flash takes a huge amount of technical knowledge, to use ActionScript and components and it's all very complex, however, in Captivate, creating a quiz is as simple as choosing "insert quiz" from the menu and then typing the question and answers into the correct boxes.

What I'm really trying to say here is that, although conversion to multimedia is a huge push, it doesn't take a huge effort to do this. Especially with organisations such as our department at the University of Glamorgan (C.E.L.T) out there trying to cushion the fall for even the least technically minded teacher. We are here to help, we really are. I mean, we're not saying "everything should be Multimedia Now or Else", we're saying "we'll help you make the transition slowly and build the knowledge to advance on that transition in a smooth and easy way"

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.