Chapter 8

Objective #2:
When authoring a multimedia presentation it is important to consider these guidelines: consider the basic building blocks for content, who the audience is, background elements, tools for transition, and ways to enhance the presentation. The basic building blocks for the content are important to remember because it is essential that the content of the presentation presents the most useful and influential information for the presentation. In other words, what format will allow for the greatest comprehension of ideas. The format must also consider the audience. The audience is important in forming the presentation because different audiences may require different means of presentation and different sources in order to communicate the ideas effectivly. When designing the presentation it is useful to remember to use background elements to add depth and interest to the project, but it is also important to remember not to use too much in ways that it will distract the audience from what is actually trying to be portrayed. Each slide or new scene of a presentation will be more influential and entertaining if they are incorporated with great transitions. That is why it is important when making a presentation to consider how each scene will be transitioned to the next. Also, when considering making a presentation, it is also important to add elements that will enhance the presentation, like oral clips or background music. These enhancing elements are to be used like the background though, too much is not a good thing and can become distracting.

In reading this chapter I felt that a mass majority focused on very extensive multimedia projects, like making a movie. For myself, these projects seem to large for a history course and appear as if they would distract the class from the overall theme. Is it alright, in a social studies course, to avoid large projects like these and instead incorporate technology by effective but less extreme means?

This chapter provided many useful ideas for multi-media projects to incorporate in the classroom. Although, some of the ideas seemed a lot more in-depth and time consuming than I would possibly want to pursue, they were great ideas all the same and allowed me to think of ideas for my own classroom.