There’s a revolution going on (“What another one?” you say) concerning the ease with which multimedia can be produced. In the last 12 months, there have been some major breakthroughs in technologies. These developments have brought the production of multimedia from the realm of the professional agency, with a team of highly skilled experts, to the realm of the desktop, thereby making it available to the rest of us.

This white paper is going to address the following questions

1. Why use multimedia in an online learning environment?
   
   
2. What have been the past barriers? (The technology, complexity of the software, lack of available training, lack of time for faculty to develop the pieces, inexperience - not having had the chance to see it themselves, etc.)
   
   
3. What are the current issues in terms of faculty use of these methodologies?
   
   
4. What are the latest technologies (including software) that enable faculty to produce multimedia projects that reflect best practices, using Interactive Desktop Education Applications (what a good I.D.E.A.)? The paper will focus on their strengths and weaknesses.

Until recently, multimedia production required the collaboration of numerous specialists. In 1998, Apple Computers (1998) detailed the complex world of professional multimedia development, analysing each contributor’s role in depth. Since then, models have become more refined, with specific focus on educational multimedia. Lee and Owens (2000) walk through the process, from the Needs Assessment to Evaluation and provide tools to streamline each phase. Liu and Jones (1998) also provide valuable research from a practitioner’s perspective on how multimedia production works. These conventional methods of multimedia production used such tools as Photoshop, 3D Modelling, Macromedia Director and Authorware, powerful, high-end software solutions that are expensive and require intensive learning curves.

However there are some “new boys on the block” that may have the potential to impact multimedia production on a scale comparable to the effect made by Pagemaker on publishing in the early 80’s, for there DTP was born. eZediaMX, and the soon to be released QuickTime Interactive (QTI) are exciting new software programs which free the user to create more quickly and easily than ever before. Also, Apple’s Digital Hub marketing philosophy has helped the digital camera come of age and spawned such exciting programs as iMovie and iPhoto.

This white paper is designed to help members of an academic faculty from a typical university to better manage their I.D.E.As. Its scope will cover simple forms, such as those that the Multimedia Development Tools Website Georgia Tech (1998) describes, to how this new low-cost software can create multimedia pieces for online curriculum with ease and at the lowest possible cost. The paper will also examine how these tools can produce effective, pedagogically sound, creatively constructed, and engaging interactive learning experiences.

In preparation for this research, I emailed eZedia and have been introduced to Dr. Jane Madden, an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Francis Marion University S.C. USA. Dr. Madden is the co-author of two large federal grants that have focused on facilitating the integration of technology into curricula by faculty across her entire campus. In recent electronic communications, her personal comments, based on her experience in applied circumstances, strengthens the argument that there is a need for this research:

When I think about all of the guidelines, all of the points for consideration, all of the preplanning that is part of formal multimedia development, people will stop dead in their tracks faced with that. I'm a firm believer in templates, in modules, and in embedding the critical elements, so they are part of the environment. That way, people can't help but do it right at a basic level.

I think that, as people get more involved with creating multimedia, the features they will access and employ will grow. I suppose what we are really looking at are classic scaffolds in this process. While it might be argued, from a purist perspective, that all multimedia pieces must adhere to the information that has been taught about creating it in the few thousand pages of material on the books on my walls behind me, reality says that we have to "cut to the chase."

Ultimately, I think the main reason a faculty person, like some of the people with whom I work, would choose to use multimedia is because it is an effective communication tool. If we think of design from that perspective, I believe we'll simplify the process and attract more users.

Dr H. Jane Madden (personal email communication, August 22, 2002)

References

Books

Inc Staff Apple Computer.(1998) Multimedia Demystified: A Guide to the World of Multimedia from Apple Computer Inc. Random House/New Media Series.

Lee, W.W., & Owens, D.L.,(2000) Multimedia-Based Instructional Design: Computer-based training, Web-based training, Distance broadcast training. San Francisco CA., USA., Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer Inc.

Websites

Liu, M. and C. Jones (1998). Interactive multimedia design and productive processes. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 30(3), 254-281. (EBSCOHost AN 614874). https://www.usqonline.com.au/shell/secure/library/ebscohost.htm
Secure site requires Login(19 Aug 2002).

Georgia Tech (1998). Multimedia Development Tools. http://mime1.marc.gatech.edu/MM_Tools [19 Aug 2002].

Ezedia Inc. (2002) [Website] http://www.ezedia.net (22 Aug 2002)

Ezedia Inc. (2002) News Releases: eZedia Introduces eZediaQTI at Macworld New York 2002 [Website] http://www.ezedia.ca/company/news/press/press071702.html (19 Aug 2002)

Apple Computer Inc., (2002) iMovie [Website] http://www.apple.com/imovie/

Apple Computer Inc., (2002) iPhoto [Website] http://www.apple.com/iphoto/