2. Reaching all Students Student Centered Learning in the constructivist classroom shifts the focus of activity from the teacher to the students. (http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Student-Centered.html) Students are given opportunities to build upon what they already know through investigation, invention and inference. (http://www.odu.edu/educ/act/). But there is only one teacher and classroom full of students with individual needs Multimedia gives us the tools we need to guide them all through the process of constructing new of knowledge. For example: A preschooler that was being evaluated for Autism had never answered a question in the classroom, either verbally or on paper. When his class came in to play a multimedia educational game the smart board, the teacher discovered that he had learned the phonetic lessons she had been teaching.
3. Learning Styles There are 7 different learning styles: visual, auditory, verbal, physical, logical, social and solitary. (www.learning-styles-online.com/overview) Traditional teaching only addresses one or two styles, ignoring the needs of those that prefer the others. Multimedia allows the teacher to provide instructional opportunities in all of the different styles, and the forum to deliver them all at once. Allowing the student to navigate through them. An instructional website created by a constructivist teacher can provide text, art, sound, animation, videos and opportunities for group and individual contributions. For example: A multimedia presentation about marine biomes can include text, pictures of the plants and animals found in the biome, links to definitions of terms, a link an online game about the food chain in the ocean, and a link to an animation about protecting the aquatic biome.
4. Open-ended Lessons Constructivist teachers invite their students to contribute to and modify the lesson. (http://saskschoolboards.ca/research/instruction/97-07.htm#) Multimedia tools make additions and changes easy. The teacher can invite the students to do some research and offer suggestions for additions or improvements to the multimedia presentation For Example: The teacher can provide an message board where students can post suggestions or links. These suggestions would be reviewed by the teacher and added when appropriate. A student’s idea may change the direction of the lesson or suggest the next subject to be explored.
5. Open-ended assignments The days of paper and pencil will soon be over. In the corporate world paper is slowly disappearing and the educational system needs to catch up. Multimedia provides a forum where students can, research, investigate, imagine, and invent. For Example: The teacher can allow the students to demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways. Students can create a power point presentation, a video demonstration, write and record a song or use other multimedia tools to demonstrate how much they have learned. The process of creating the multimedia response becomes an added learning experience, giving them technological skills they will be able to use in the workplace.
