top of page
Week 4 Topic 4: Multimedia and Creativity
Mayer (2018 p.2) defines the term 'multimedia' as more than one form of presenting learning. Such as printed text or spoken text and pictures; illustrations, photos, animation and/or video (Bower, 2023 lecture).
Google Sites is a structured, designable web page platform that includes a variety of tools for students to present their learning. Students use Google Sites in a multimedia way, as they have access to generating a website that uses printed/ spoken text, photos, videos and more.
Google for Education
For learning to be a 'multimedia' format, Google Classroom (that includes Google Sites) allows students and teachers to have access to an 'easy to use, accessible and collaborative all-in-one place for teaching and learning' (Google Workspace for Education, n.d).
Google Sites - Fostering students' creativity in KLAs
Trust, 2019 suggests that writing a web in Google Sites (example) fosters students' creativity through the opportunity of 'creating content that is captivating, engaging, and informative while also being easy to scan'.
How does Google Sites foster students' creativity in History?
As students learn about the world, they can generate their understanding of historical landmarks through the multimedia style of a web page. Students' generating a webpage about historical landmarks is creative in-itself, because students' put forward their own understanding of the topic and can become artistic in doing so. 'Artistically', creating a multimedia form of learning, 'breaks away from the traditional mold of educational multimedia being captured through, lecture videos, documentaries, infographics full of information' (Trust, 2019). As students build a webpage about famous historical landmarks, they are exposed to the opportunity to have their audience feel a sense of seeing the landmark in 'real-life' (visuals) (Trust, 2019).
Students include visuals through using the 'map' tool.
Students add pages to their site, for interactivity.
Students use built-in 'content blocks' for main information/ ideas.
Students 'publish' their site, for other creators to see (creative community learning).
Google Sites - Pedagogical Issues:
Google Sites is in no doubt a great tool for students presenting their learning in a multimedia style. As it invites viewers to be interested in students' creativity when collating their own understanding about what they've learnt in class. Similarly, Trust, (2019) suggests that 'while producing creative, educational websites may increase access to information, they also present their own challenges'.
Bower, 2023 suggests that 'there has been extensive research into the effect of combining different types of modalities together, with results (for instance) including'...
-
Multimedia effect
-
Modality effect
-
Redundancy effect
-
Spit-attention effect
-
Signaling effect
-
Personalisation effect
(Mayer, 2018 & Bower, 2023)
References
Bower, M. (2023). Digital Creativity and Learning: Multimedia and Creativity [PowerPoint Slides]. iLearn.
Mayer, R. E. (2018). Designing multimedia instruction in anatomy: An evidence-based approach. Clinical Anatomy, 33(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/ca/23265
Trust, T. (2019). Writing For The Web. Web Design Basics for Educators. https://edtechbooks.org/webdesign/writingfortheweb
Comments (3)
bottom of page
Hi Shekane,
I am really impressed by the settings and interface of your blog website. The website is clear to read and is visually appealing, with an eye-catching selection of colours making the website significantly engaging.
Through reading your blog on how Google sites can be incorporated into learning to foster students creativity, I have accumulated a detailed and thorough understanding of how this can occur. The blog post of yours provided valuable knowledge in many areas. I really appreciate how you chose a specific subject in the education curriculum to further expand and provide detailed discussion, in this case history. The images you included throughout the blog post of yours can be indicated to be logically displayed, which promotes the potential Google sites can offer. Furthermore, the pedagogical issues evaluation of yours was particularly unique and noteworthy. Personally, I feel you have mentioned possible problems which interests and initiates curiosity amongst viewers, which encourages them to conduct further research to seek for explanation and solutions towards these issues.
A small difficulty I experienced when accessing your blog site was the tab in which the blog posts were allocated. At first when pressing on the site blogs tab it displayed a list of blog posts in purple boxes in which I believe many people, including myself will try to press, in which we viewers will likely identify as an error. This can lead to interest and engagement loss amongst viewers.
Overall, your blog post was a brilliant read and provided critical analysis and evaluation which would be significantly useful knowledge to possess.
Viet Bach Nguyen (12/04/2023)
Hi Shekane!
It was really nice to see you delve into how Google Sites can be used to foster creativity in a classroom, especially in History! As a History Major myself, sometimes I find it initially difficult to see how technology can be integrated as we look at a digitally absent past, but as you have explained, it's about how we present our information and explore it, where it excels. Multimedia is really such a diverse option for students to collate and collaborate their learning.
Your pedagogical reflection brought up some key points in the various different application multi-Media such as Google Sites can be used, and the effects that students can gain from that experience.
I also found the images you used throughout your blog to be influential in describing your point. I would gladly read this again and take into consideration the promotion of multi-Media in my future classroom.
Beate Mannes [09/04/2023]