Multimedia literacy |
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Definition
Multimedia literacy is a new aspect of literacy that is being recognised as technology expands the way people communicate. Literacy is the ability to read and write. In modern context, the word means reading and writing in a level adequate for written communication and generally a level that enables one to successfully function at certain levels of a society. Multimedia is the use of several different medium to convey information (text, audio, image, animation, video, and interactivity). With widespread use of computers, reading and writing are often done via a computer.
As personal computers and their software become more powerful they have the capacity to record and edit sound, still images and video and manage interactivity. This places multimedia creation in the hands of any computer user. As multimedia becomes a more prevalent form of communication it becomes important to understand the literacies of reading and writing using multimedia, and for these skills to be taught in schools and other education institutions.
The related study of mass media has long been part of the school program in many school systems either as a separate subject option in secondary schools or more often as a part of general literacy learning. Film Study has also been a school subject for some time using relatively expensive and complicated equipment to make film or video. The rapid development of multimedia via personal computing means that it is becoming a routine form of communication for a widening group of people. The line between mass media and personal media is becoming much more blurred. Non professional authors of multimedia products on the web or via podcasts can have large audiences.
==Constructivist learning and multimedia==
Multimedia literacy is a subset of the wider issue of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in schools. There is a widespread recognition that the rapid growth in the use of ICT in schooling is occuring in conjunction with the adoption of the .
Some educators see ICT as being a major driver of school reform. This reform is towards a more constructivist approach, using related terms such as: student-centred learning, Problem-based learning and experiential education. Others point to the slow pace of such reform and suggest that ICT may support reform but it is by no means inevitable that it will do so. (eLearning europa) [http://elearningeuropa.info/index.phppage=doc&doc_id=5947&doclng=6&menuzone=1]
Supporters of ICT as a powerful tool for constructivist learning point to its capacity to provide: *active and highly motivating engagement with students *powerful tools to create text, art, music, sound, models, presentations, movies etc. that produce high quality products and remove much of the tedium normally associated with such creation *an error-forgiving environment in which editing of a product fosters learning by trial and error *easy communication in text, voice, video *quick access to information and resources
Educators are finding, however, that while ICT can provide a technical environment for constructivist learning to occur, there needs to be high quality teaching to develop and sustain a human environment that will challenge and inspire students to learn.
==Multimedia Literacy in Schools==
Teaching literacy has always been the central business of schools. School literacy teaching had tended to focus on written literacy rather than on oral literacy, which is mainly learnt outside school. Literacy has never been a fixed body of skills but has evolved with the development of technology, such as pens and paper, and the needs of society as in the Industrial Revolution. For example, handwriting was a major focus of schooling during the 19th Century as the demand for clerks grew rapidly. Then the invention of the typewriter made neat handwriting a less important business skill. However, important literacy technologies such as the newspaper, the typewriter and the telegraph took decades to spread throughout society, giving schools time to adapt. Schools today are struggling to cope with the teaching of new literacies that are often less than five years old but are widespread in society.
Today the Internet is a major medium of communication and it is increasingly rich in multimedia. Children are regular users of the Internet and educators are recognising the importance of them being literate in its navigation, searching, authentication and other skills. Most school systems in the developed world are including computer literacy or similarly named programs, into the curriculum.
Children learn much of their mass media literacy, as recipients, quite intuitively from film, television and radio. However, until recently, few have had the opportunity to experience being multimedia authors. Now, with relatively cheap digital cameras, free software and access to powerful multimedia computers, there is both the opportunity and the need, for quite young students to become authors as well as consumers in the new media.
The following sections provides information on skills that students may learn in order to be multimedia literate.
===Video===
Film making has been a major technology and art form for over a century. Personal video making makes use of many but not all of the techniques of professional film making. Student movie makers need to be familiar with the basic tools and techniques of the art, including familiarity with: *camera shots: close up, medium, long shot, pan, fade etc in order to achieve different effects *story-boarding: a pictorial frame view of the story line, showing camera views, times and shot sequence which provides the Director with a simple shooting script for a video. *editing software replaces tedious and expensive film splicing with digital editing which is quick and forgiving of errors, and allows the insertion of audio tracks in sequence with the video track. *sound tracks allow music, sound effects and voice tracks to be added to an existing film (see Sound). *the so called Ken Burns Effect, in which the camera pans across a still image allows still images accompanied by a sound track to create quite powerful presentations.
External Links
[http://www.storycenter.org/cookbook.html Digital Storytelling Cookbook] A detailed overview of steps in authoring digital stories.
[http://www.tsof.edu.au/resources/video/ Making a video] Technology School of the Future - teacher development centre
===Sound===
Most people are very familiar with the use of sound as a powerful tool in television, radio and film, but have little experience in using it themselves. Digital recording allows the user much greater opportunity to experiment with the effect of sound features such as:
External Links
[http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity] open source audio editing software.
External Links
Learning to Change, 2001 OECD recovered from http://www.oecdbookshop.org/
A New Paradigm for School Education (2005) elearning europa, http://elearningeuropa.info/index.phppage=doc&doc_id=5947&doclng=6&menuzone=1|
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