I came across this article when I was using Academic Search Premiere and was intrigued by the fact that the author is on the faculty at Multimedia University in Malaysia and it focused on multimedia and constructivism. I requested the article last Sat. because the full text was not available through Webster's library and received it through e-mail Friday. As I began reading the article I became really curious about the school's name so I did some research and found the university's website http://www.mmu.edu.my/index.htm and became totally fascinated with the school. What an interesting place!
The article presents basic information about constructivism and reinforces the roles of the students and teachers. It reminds the reader that a teacher in a constructivist classroom is not the "sage on the stage" but "a guide on the side". The author also explains a six level multimedia development process. I was disappointed that this project was performed by students in a college level interactive multimedia course. I was hoping that it would show implementation with a junior high/high school setting. Also the author didn't mention until the 6th page of the article that Macromedia Director was the authoring tool they used in the class to create the multimedia projects. I'm not familiar with that program so I researched it and discovered it's now Adobe Director. After reading about it I think it would be too advanced for the students in my school. I would have also like to have more samples/examples of the projects created by the students in this course. There was only 1 page that showed 3 screens from one group's multimedia project.
Although overall I was disappointed in the lack of multimedia application for me, I found the general information about constructivism and using multi-media projects very useful. It reinforced that students enhance their critical thinking, problem-solving , and communication skills which is necessary for real-world situations. The more I read about constructivism the more I think about how it could be integrated in my school (grades 7-8). It seems that students need to be self-motivated in order to conduct the project research and need adequate background knowledge. My school has a very large ELL population and it's very challenging because often they get very frustrated due to their lack of vocabulary and background knowledge. Has anyone successfully implemented a constructivist activity/project in their classroom?
Neo, M. (2007). Learning with multimedia: Engaging students in constructivist learning. International Journal of Instructional Media, 34(2). Retrieved January 29, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.
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