The Effects of Enriching Classroom Learning with the Systematic Employment of Multimedia

K-12 schools and universities, as well as corporate America, are investing in approaches to deliver a variety of media, particularly visual media, to the classroom or workplace. This content may be delivered by means of live video conferencing, one-way video delivery, pre-recorded video tapes, laser disk, still photographs, xap shots, or graphics. The financial investment for this technology is being incurred more on an intuitive basis than as a result of solid evidence concerning the effects of deploying such technology. Interactive Educational Systems has analyzed educational technical research conducted in the late 1980s (Sevin-Kachula, 1990), and early 1990s (Sevin-Kachula, 1994). They have concluded that benefit to students is to be derived from computer based learning and the application of multimedia to classroom instruction. Further, O'Banion, 1993) has found comprehension level increase from employing class video instruction, Riel (1992a, 1992b) has found benefit from placing networks throughout and between school buildings. Smith (1992), has found a positive effect on student grades of employing on-line computer interactive learning. Kitz (1992), McWhirter (1991), Niedlman (1991), Bain (1992), Ziegler (1990), Johnson, and Woodruff (1990) have found a positive benefit from employing videodisk in the classroom. Stine (1993) has analyzed the positive effects of CD-ROM for reading instruction. Reed (1992) has found value in students creating hypermedia from Hypercard programming as part of a class exercise. Many studies of computer based instruction show improved learning benefits (Sevin-Kachula, 1990). But other than Smith's 1992 research showing grade improvement in a limited setting, most research results do not directly translate technology deployment technology deployment to grade improvement. Mindful of the difficulty of discerning grade point improvement with technology deployment, this research described by this paper employed a qualitative approach to studying two K-12 school systems which have placed school-system wide media distribution and display systems and assesses the qualitative effects that result from systematically employing such media. Information was gathered from teachers, students, technical support personnel, and school administrators. With recent emphasis on the Effective School and Outcomes Based Education, much concern is focused on grades as the target measure for educational effectiveness. While grades are easy to collect and the data is easily manipulated, grades alone don't reflect the indents of the classroom, particularly the longer term changes in behavior of the students and faculty and the associations that may be formed which create a mental structure for learning and relating future knowledge to the student's current base knowledge. Additionally, teachers tend to grade the members of a class as a unit. Each member is viewed as a member of the set. There is a distribution of the class performance from best to worst. One year's class and its members are not ranked against those of a previous year's class. Thus there is a tendency to create a distribution of grades that stays rather constant from year to year. For this reason, attempting to discern a group grade improvement a result of an action taken in teaching in one year over other years tends to be clouded by the performance and grading as an intra-class performance process which results in a common inter-year distribution of grades. In anticipation of this possibility, this study explored the complete range of effects discerned by teachers, students, technical personnel and administrators, beyond purely grades achieved, and elicits opinions as to the importance of these affected factors. The Investment Decision A small school system may invest $2 million, while an urban school system can invest up to $10-15 million in providing a comprehensive Video Information System to deliver a variety of media to the classroom to empower both teachers and students. …