This document discusses the learning preferences of two students, Jenna and Adrianne, and how they explored different multimedia technologies. Both students took a learning preferences quiz and found they were reflective and verbal learners. They learned about podcasts and screencasts and found these accommodated their learning styles. The students plan to use powerpoints and podcasts after class for work and personal interests.

1. Multimedia Technology Synthesis
Quest
Adrianne Manahrt-Hickey
Jenna Rudzwick

2. Personal Learning Preference
• At the beginning of the class when I first took the learning preferences survey my scores were
reflective: 5, sensory: 3, verbal: 5, and sequential: 3. At the end of the class my thoughts on my
learning preferences have remained relatively the same. I still don’t have a strong preference for
one style over another, and I don’t have too much difficulty in areas of learning that are not my
preferred style. I know I am still a reflective learner because I like to go at my own pace and take
time on my own to think about new information before talking about it. In all of my classes I benefit
from verbal stimulation, by having teachers explaining orally to me directions. (Jenna)
• At the beginning of this course my scores for the learning preference test were for active, 9, for
senses, 9, for visual, 11 and for sequential was 5. I have learned that the test results were accurate
because I know that I do have a very strong preference for active, senses, and visual learning
techniques. I believe that towards the beginning of the class I was very dependent using an active
and visual style of learning. I found that I was unable to grasp concepts if I was not learning in
either of those two styles. For example I had a hard time if the course was based solely off text and
there were no hands on activities or pictures to refer to. After finding out that I had such a strong
preference to certain learning styles, I tried to make myself become more aware and train myself to
learn how to learn through different styles while using the preferences I felt stronger in. Towards
the end of the class I began to realize that only being able to learn a specific way was holding me
back in succeeding in other classes. As this semester evolved I noticed myself getting better at using
learning styles such as, sequential preferences. (Adrianne)

3. Groups Thoughts About Learning
Prefrences
• After taking this course, we learned a great deal about learning preferences and how different
styles of learning affects how you take in and understand information. We now are more aware of
all the different styles of learning and the things we can do to become a better learner in a different
style if our own preference is not an option. For example, in a classroom setting to simply ask the
teacher if he or she can provide a visual while explaining something if we are visual learners to help
us understand the material. (Jenna)
•
Knowing about other learning preferences is very important in our personal learning success
because it is important to know where your strengths and weaknesses are. One reason being that
you can focus hands on learning activity if that is your strength and because you know your specific
learning preference you cannot focus on spending so much time on preferences that may not be so
beneficial to your preference. Another reason that it is good to be aware of other learning styles is
because one may be able to train themselves to become stronger in another area that your
professor may prefer and you have no other option. For example if your professor gives lecture
notes verbally then you must work on your verbal learning skills in order to become successful in
the course. (Adrianne)

4. Learning Pathways
• At the beginning of the course I chose learning warrior because I wanted to learn
more about fewer technologies. I feel like a gained a deeper knowledge of
multimedia technologies such as screencasts and podcasts because I knew nothing
about them before. I also realized that I’ve been exposed multimedia in my
classrooms such as the combination of powerpoints, pictures, and videos, that
have been very helpful to my learning. Adrianne and I chose the same learning
pathway, therefore we both participated in the same activities and learned about
similar multimedia’s. I did not change my pathway because I was content with the
one I chose.
• I also chose the learning warrior because I also wanted to learn more about fewer
technologies rather than a broad understanding of many technologies. I feel like I
learned many useful tips about how to use a variety of multimedia techniques. For
example I learned that multimedia combines five basic types of media into the
learning environment: text, video, audio, graphics and animation, thus providing a
powerful new tool for education. I also did not change my pathway because I
prefer to learn more and grasp overall knowledge of one technology, rather than
know a little bit about many different technologies.

5. Activities that contributed to our
learning prefrences
• The specific activity that helped us get a broader
understanding of how to use multimedia to learn was
the quiz, because we had to read the powerpoint in
order to answer the question which had very helpful
information. The activity that helped us get a deeper
understanding was the level 2 (predict, evaluate, use)
activity in the multimedia quest. Researching and
utilizing the list of sites specifically that employ
multimedia in different learning situations, in order to
answer questions in the activity gave us great insight
because we actually participated in the given website
to evaluate the effectiveness.

6. Top Multimedia Technologies
• I explored screencasts for my own learning by researching the
screencasts available about anatomy, as I am taking an anatomy
course. Screencasts accommodates my preference for verbal
learning because I can just listen to a lecture let’s say on my
computer about a given subject such as anatomy. This type of
technology also accommodates my reflective preference because
there is no interaction, and I can just listen to the information
without having to discuss what I just learned. (Jenna)
• My top multimedia technology was the podcast because I was not
only able to search podcasts relating to my coursework but I was
also able to search for things that I was interested in such as the
highlights for yesterday's San Francisco Giants game. The podcast
helped my reflective learning preference because I could easily stop
and restart the podcast to reflect on what was said. (Adrianne)

7. Our experience investigating the use
of different multimedia technologies
• The multimedia technology that interested us the most
was the podcast because both Jenna and myself knew
very little about podcast and how there are so many
didn’t topics you can listen and learn about. We also
really liked the idea of using the podcasts for learning
because they allow you to easily stop and reflect on
the material then start them back up. That way you
never miss vital pieces of the lecture. Not only are
podcasts the technology that surprised us the most but
they are also the technology that we’d like to know
more about. For example we both wanted to know if
we ourselves could create a podcast and how to go
about doing this.

8. How we will use this information after
class
• The multimedia technologies that we will use in jobs in the
future will be the power points because we can use them
for presenting information to our co-workers and
employers. The multimedia technologies that we will use in
the future for non-learning purposes will be the podcast
because we can use them to search for our personal
interests.
• We both do not think there are any multimedia
technologies that we should avoid using because they all
seem to be very useful in our educational career as well as
our professional career. However we may consider avoiding
using a multimedia technology that may not be helpful to
ours or others learning preferences.