Lead author: Nash Johnson || Co-author: Georgia Konstantinou || Editor/Contributor:
Multimedia Development/Authoring tools & the benefits of Multimedia learning
Multimedia Development or Authoring tools are software programs that allow the user to control, combine, and manipulate different types of media, such as text, sound, video, graphics, and animation in order to create digital content. This could entail building a complicated training course for thousands of students or something very simple as making a PowerPoint presentation.
Multimedia Development /Authoring Tools produce interactive content that help students engage and immerse themselves in their learning. According to Almarabeh et al "with multimedia, the process of learning can become more goals oriented, more participator, flexible in time and space, unaffected by distance and tailored to individual learning style, and increase collaboration between teachers and students". Richard Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning points out that information received via auditory and visual channels is processed in different parts of the brain, so students can acquire more sensory information and retain more of the lesson to their memory when they learn through both of these channels at the same time. Furthermore, according to a study titled “Problem-solving in a Multimedia Learning Environment” when multimedia are used students show high motivation, have a deeper understanding of their projects, and support the use of technology in their classrooms. Learners find multimedia learning to be far more enjoyable than reading long textbooks, and this can actually boost their understanding and enthusiasm for the subject being taught.
References
Almarabeh, H., Amer, E. F., & Sulieman, A. (2015). The Effectiveness of Multimedia Learning Tools in Education. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 5(12), 761–764. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290429349_The_Effectiveness_of_Multimedia_Learning_Tools_in_Education
Neo, M., Neo, K. T. K., Tan, H. Y.-J., Joyce, Kwok, W.-J., & Lai, C.-H. (2012). Problem-solving in a Multimedia Learning Environment: The MILE@HOME Project. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 64, 26-33. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042812049816?via%3Dihub
The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. (2014). United States: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Cambridge_Handbook_of_Multimedia_Lea/Cvw6BAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
iMovie
iMovie is an ideal introductory editing tool for Apple classrooms, especially 1:1 classrooms (with either tablets or Macs). It can support project-based learning and build students' digital storytelling skills. Before diving into iMovie, introduce students to storyboarding as a way to organize their ideas and design the video. Students can start using pen and paper, and then gather the necessary footage and images to create their vision. After shooting, have them transition to iMovie's built-in storyboarding tool. This allows them to quickly develop a plan for their finished project, and they can use that to begin selecting clips to drop into their timeline.
In terms of projects, iMovie can satisfy just about any need for demonstrating learning. Students can use iMovie to develop a digital portfolio, including everything from book trailers to interviews to collaborative conversations to presentations. Teachers can also record demonstrations and lessons for a flipped classroom or for students who need additional assistance and differentiation.
The Adobe Creative Cloud
The Adobe Creative Cloud is a collection of apps (more than 20) and services that provide users with access to software for graphic design, video editing, web development, and photography, as well as a set of mobile apps and certain cloud services. The company offers a free Creative Cloud membership that includes some perks. The most popular apps are the following.
Adobe Audition is a very powerful program with a lot of flexibility that can be used for creating original or remixed music, recording, editing & mixing soundtracks, cleaning up audio from video tracks, compiling and editing movie soundtracks, producing radio spots, recovering audio files, creating sound effects, podcasts and an abundance of other audio projects.
Adobe Dreamweaver is a web development tool created by Macromedia in 1997 and acquired by Adobe Inc. in 2005. It is used for website development and maintenance. It allows you to write code as well as create a website using a visual interface, as it has a WYSIWYG editor. The use of HTML editors, like Dreamweaver, has limited in the recent years because of the development of platforms such as Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, etc. that makes building a website a much easier process.
Adobe Photoshop is the leading image editing and manipulation software on the market. It can be used from editing photographs to creating from scratch digital images. Photoshop has evolve as the de facto enterprise standard, and the term "photoshopping" - despite its negative connotation - has emerge as a completely unique verb!
Adobe Premiere Pro is the most widely used professional video editing software. It can be used for all common video editing procedures required to create broadcast-quality, high-definition footage. It can input video, audio, and graphics, as well as create new, altered versions of videos that may then be exported to a specific format. All other Adobe files can be integrated into Premiere, allowing you to use images create in other adobe programs directly into your video.
Adobe Premiere Rush is a free - if you don’t mind the 2GB cloud storage limit - mobile and desktop video editing app for creativity on the go. Wherever you are, from your phone to your computer, you can create, edit, and share high-quality videos. The app is available for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows 10. As the name of the product suggests (Rush), the whole idea is to get from shooting to editing to sharing fast, so it doesn't have the advanced features of Adobe Premiere Pro.
Adobe Spark is an online and mobile design app. It makes it easy to create social graphics, web pages, and short videos. It consists of three design applications: Post (graphic design), Page (web design), and Video. It can be useful tool for teachers as it can be used as a digital storytelling tool.