From the teachers’ perspective: A way of simplicity for multimedia design

Despite electronic information technologies are being transformed from expensive, exotic gadgets into indispensable basic classroom equipments in recent years, their extraordinary multimedia capabilities are rapidly becoming a routine part of many learning environments (Slawson, 1993). Multimedia is a generic term that can be applied to any form of presentation that combines a variety of digital media elements such as text, music, sound, graphics, pictures, movies and animations (Tannenbaum, 1998). By adding the term "interactive" to multimedia, it ensures that the definition includes the end user's ability to interact with the technology, not just sitting and watching, but seeing, hearing, thinking and doing (Anderson & Veljkov, 1990).

Using interactive multimedia programs while teaching enhances teachers’ management of instructional techniques and provides more flexibility while presenting during classes (URL-1). Multimedia provides students with very important resources for active learning (Barker & Tucker, 1990; Slawson, 1993). In other words, it helps students become more engaged in their learning through collaborative efforts, simulations and actively constructing information through new knowledge (Norton & Sprague, 2001).

Teachers are the primary agents for adopting and implementing educational change as information and communication technologies in the classroom (Tinker, Schoenberg and Nyland, 1994) and they are ultimately responsible for providing educationally effective multimedia programs (Barker and Tucker, 1990; Anderson, Knussen, and Kibby, 1993; Baker, 1994). Most teachers have been using commercially available multimedia packages that were usually created by professional designers and programmers, who are outside of the education community. The programs may display amazing technological sophistication, and the temptation may be great to "shoehorn" such items into the curriculum. However, if the content is not suitable, or if the emphasis is incorrect, then the software should be eliminated from consideration (Dryrli & Kinnamon, 1994). Additionally, teachers work with diverse groups of learners (Thorsen, 2006), and commercially available multimedia is often fast-paced and visually intense, creating inaccessibility for students with learning or motor difficulties (Houde & Sellman, 1994; Voelkerding, 2002). For this reason, teachers can’t share their own experiences and materials for specific knowledge level of each student by using commercially multimedia packages in their teaching (Alyazı & Gürsoy, 2002).

If teachers want to eliminate these negative aspects, they must create their own multimedia in order to construct their own teaching style (Alyazı and Gürsoy, 2002; Retnasamy, 2002). Teacher-created multimedia is a more powerful learning strategy than the traditional set-up of the student learning from instructor or designer produced materials (Jonassen, Peck and Wilson, 1999). But there is a significant educational problem: most teachers don’t have the technical background or expertise necessary to integrate content successfully into interactive multimedia instruction (Barker and Tucker, 1990; Anderson et al. 1993; Baker, 1994). Teachers need training with the "hard" technologies, such as computers, more than they do with "soft" strategies, such as innovative teaching methods (Baker 1994). The more teachers have the opportunity to practice using technology, the more likely they are to use it in their classrooms (Michaels & McDermott, 2003).

The aim of this study is to have teachers create their own multimedia reflecting their own teaching style for their students, who have different learning skills, cultural backgrounds and personalities. This study presents teachers with an alternative way of creating their own multimedia that includes digital media elements, interactive questions and several other features. Creating individual multimedia can be thought of as a laborious, complex and time consuming task, but some software authoring tools have been developed to aid non-programmers, including teachers.