Collaborative Educational Multimedia Design by Children: Do All Learners Benefit Equally?.

This paper presents and discusses the results of a project in which seven teams of elementary school students were involved in designing and implementing interactive multimedia resources in science for younger children. During a period of 3 months, students in grades 5 and 6 were divided into teams and met regularly to program the multimedia applications. Findings indicated that students improved significantly in their science understanding and programming skills. The benefits and problems of integrating science content with multimedia design are discussed, as well as reasons why the quality of dynamic and interactive components in students' multimedia productions proved to be a better indicator of students' learning than the quantity of multimedia produced. Insights gained from these analyses will contribute to the design of multimedia tools and environments in which young designers create software for their own learning. (AEF) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** file:///DVNECC/PROCEEDS/KAFAI/PROCEED.HTM Paper Session Collaborative Educational Multimedia Design by Children: Do All Learners Benefit Equally? Yasmin Kafai KIDS-Kids Interactive Design Studios University of California-Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies 2331 Moore Hall, Mailbox 951521 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521 310.206.8150 kafaigseis.ucla.edu Sue Marshall KIDS-Kids Interactive Design Studios University of California-Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies 2331 Moore Hall, Mailbox 951521 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521 310.371.8371 suemucla.edu Cynthia Carter Ching KIDS-Kids Interactive Design Studios University of California-Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies 2331 Moore Hall, Mailbox 951521 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521 310.794.9503 cchinqucla.edu U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."