Rachel Young scored highly for visual learning preferences and found that multimedia technologies like screencasts and quizzes helped her learn effectively. She explored different learning pathways and activities in her class, finding screencasts and quizzes especially helpful due to allowing her to learn at her own pace and reinforce her understanding. Going forward, she plans to continue using screencasts and quizzes if available and apply various learning strategies, while also hoping to have more opportunities to use digital textbooks and media sharing sites in her future classes and career.

1. Synthesis Project for
Multimedia Learning
Rachel Young

2. Learning Preferences
At the beginning of the class I scored a 1-3 of all the scales except for visual and
verbal where I scored a 9 for visual. My thinking about my learning preferences has
not really changed at the end of the semester. I just now know different ways I can
incorporate my preferences into my different classes. My thinking about learning
preferences overall has changed. I just see so many different ways that professors
can teach their classes using different technologies so that all their students can
learn the material. Yes knowing about learning preferences makes a difference in
personal learning success.
Rachel Young

3. Learning Pathway
The pathway I chose was Learning Warrior. I was successful in getting a deeper
knowledge of multimedia technologies. I never knew what creative commons, RSS
feeds, or concept maps were before taking this class. It was great though to get a
deeper knowledge of how things like screencasting, eBooks, digital quizzes, and
media sharing sites can help learning. I did not change my pathway throughout the
course as I thought this pathway was the most beneficial to my learning.
Rachel Young

4. Learning Acitvities
The activities that helped me get a deeper sense of mobile/personal learning were
the quizzes. They really challenged me to apply my knowledge that I had learned
from this class. It is hard for me to go through power points and really retain the
information that I was reading. The quizzes were a great way to see how much of
the information I had actually learned so those were definitely the most helpful.
Rachel Young

5. Screencasts
The first technology multimedia technology quest I explored was screencasts.
Screencasts are something that work really well for me because you can learn at
your own pace. They allow you to pause, rewind, and rewatch which is great for
most people trying to learn something. Most of the time the include audio and
visual. Although screencasts are good for any type of learners, I think they are best
for visual learners. You are able to see what you are being told and that is really
important to visual learners who are using screencasts.
Rachel Young

6. Multimedia
Another obvious technology quest that was helpful within this learning guild was the
multimedia one. Since multimedia covers so many different topics and so many
different things are consider multimedia, it appeals to a lot of learners. Depending
on your preference you would most likely be able to find some type of multimedia
that would help you because it is such a broad concept. Personally I think it would
help me a lot with my learning preference as it incorporates a lot of visual things.
Even if visual learning is not your preference, I think that this would beneficial to just
about anyone.
Rachel Young

7. Online Quizzes
It was not a technology quest but just something that was kept the same throughout
the class and that was online quizzes. It may be that most students do not liked
getting quizzed on the material they are learning in class. It may not be a way the
learn, they may just cram for the quiz and forget it right after they are done.
Technology has offered a new thing, online quizzes. Students are given the
opportunity to take a quiz multiple times. It allows a student to test what they have
been learning and then maybe if they did not do so well the ability to retake the
quiz. It lets students know if they have been successful in their learning
immediately. This is one of the best thing technology has offered to modern
learners.
Rachel Young

8. Interesting Learning Tools
The multimedia technologies that interested me most as learning tools were
definitely screencasts and media sharing sites. The technologies that surprised me
most as learning tools would definitely be media sharing sites as well as digital
comics. The ones that do not seem to work as learning tools would be creative
commons and then digital comics. They are not very effective when it comes to
learning concepts or information. I want to explore media sharing sites further
because it would be great to know how I could utilize them more and make them
work to my advantage. Screencasting is also something that I would be interested
in learning more about and using in the future because I could learn at my own
pace with those.
Rachel Young

9. Best for Learning Preferences
The multimedia technologies that work best for my learning preference would
definitely be the screencasts. It has so much to offer me as a learner. As a visual
learning it would be great to see the concepts being taught before my eyes but also
have the audio to go along with the video. I love the idea that I can learn at my own
pace, because sometimes I may need to watch things multiple times for the
concept and/or information to really stick. This new technology offers something
that used to be impossible, watching a lecture more than once. This is definitely a
technology that all professors should use, it is not something that should be limited
to an online class.
Rachel Young

10. Learning after class?
The learning strategy that I will use after this class is probably just a combination of
all of them. I will want to start off with my first learning preference which is of course
visual. Then try to learn the same thing another way. I have realized, from this
class, that is important to try different and new learning strategies even when it
differs from what you prefer or what you are used to. It can be used at a job just by
showing flexibility and knowing different ways to do the same task is always
valuable.
Rachel Young

11. What’s next?
I, of course, will continue to use screencasts if they are available to me in my
classes. They are just something helpful I can watch anywhere and be learning
something everywhere. Also, even though it is up to my professors, I hope I have
classes that give digital quizzes as though are most effective to my learning if I do
not understand. They are also helpful if I do understand because I know I am doing
well with the concepts I am learning in class. Digital textbooks will be helpful to
have saved on a computer later in life because if you were to have a job related to
your major you would always be able to refer back to those. I will continue to use
media sharing sites for non learning purposes. Digital comics are something I will
never see myself using again after this class is over.
Rachel Young
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