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Abram, S. (2009). The future of school libraries: Can school boards get on board? Multimedia &Internet@Schools, 16 (4), 12-15. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Summary:In his article, “The Future of School Libraries,” Stephen Abram addresses the ever-

changing technological world our students live in. Abram bases his article off of his reading of the Ontario Public School Board’s Association’s (OPSBA) discussion paper, “What If? Technology in the 21st Century Classroom.” This discussion paper presented a list of questions that they suggest all school boards must answer concerning multimedia approaches to education and their students’ lives. For example, one key question is how schools can incorporate the tools in students’ lives, like cell phones and IPods, into their education. Abram joins the OPSBA in supporting the use of multimedia software and teaching strategies in school systems. He claims that implementing technology isn’t optional, but is essential to keeping up with the technology based world that today’s students live in.

Abram fears that students today feel that what they learn in school has no real-life applications for them because of its lack of technology. He argues that while most schools do their best to include multimedia lessons and activities, their efforts fall far short of what students are exposed to and live in outside of school. He claims that schools and teachers don’t need to change in order to incorporate more technology, but instead need to be reinvented in order to keep up with a world that is now defined by technology and multimedia.

Abram closes his article by giving several website suggestions for educators to reference for new technology education trends. He cries out to media specialists to lead their schools in the effort to incorporate multimedia in the classroom. Ultimately, Abram doesn’t want schools to simply use multimedia and technology in lessons, he instead wants them to allow students to use these approaches in projects and assignments, allowing them to refine their technology skills and make connections between classroom content and real-life.

Critique:This article is a very easy and enjoyable read. It does not use heightened vocabulary or

educational jargon that is difficult for the reader. In fact, the vocabulary used makes it easy for anyone to read and understand the article, regardless of their profession. While the article seems to be written specifically to media specialists, it is definitely written in such a way that anyone can read it, and as a result, join the efforts to incorporate the use of multimedia in schools.

The fact that it is written to media specialist makes it more meaningful to me, as that is the career I am working towards. Abram stresses the fact that technology and multimedia integration can most easily start in the media center, which means it must start with me, as the media specialist. The websites and links he provides are very beneficial for furthering my knowledge about current multimedia educational trends and make the article more beneficial and better to me as an educator.

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While I would classify this article as an overall good article, its primary weakness is that it does not give specific examples for how to incorporate multimedia in the classroom. While Abram strongly suggests that technology should and must be incorporated to keep student interest, he doesn’t give any examples for how this should be done. For example, he says that teachers would make education more meaningful by incorporating the tools students already use in their daily lives, such as cell phones and IPods, but he gives no suggestions for how to do that. While the overall ideas are good, they should be further developed with specific examples to make them more beneficial to readers.

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Anderson, M. A. (2009). Authentic, technology-based activities. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 16 (1), 35-37. Retrieved September 24, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Summary:In this article, Mary Anderson outlines two ways of effectively utilizing multimedia

projects in the classroom. The activities are created for elementary classrooms, but interviews with other educators show that the activities can be easily modified for any grade level. Anderson suggests that the activities are the result of requirements instated through No Child Left Behind. Before NCLB, research suggests that teachers mainly incorporated technology for organization and management purposes; however, the new government program encourages technology centered and developed lessons. And that is what Anderson gives examples of in this article.

The first multimedia lesson she suggests is entitled “Eye Spy Math.” With this program, students are presented a series of pictures of different scenes. In each picture students are to pick out all of the different shapes they see. One example given was that students would say that a picture with Native American teepees in it has triangles in it. The presentation of the photographs can come in various different forms. The suggested method is to use the game as a whole class activity, presenting the pictures to students using a projection screen. Other options for presentation include allowing students to work individually through the photographs on separate computers or printing out the photographs for students to analyze them, if computers and a projection screen are not available. One of the advantages of using computers to present this lesson, rather than printed pictures, is that hyperlinks could be added to the photos for students to click on. These hyperlinks could provide extra information about the picture or the correct answers to that photograph.

The second lesson suggested by Anderson was an activity using Excel. In this lesson, students would use Excel to create a running record of their reading fluency scores throughout the year. Not only do they record their scores in Excel, but they also use the program to create charts and graphs of their progress. Though Anderson suggests creating spreadsheets for reading fluency scores in an elementary school, she points out that this same lesson could be used to keep up with any type of scores the students have throughout the year.

Not only does Anderson suggest these two activities for the classroom, she also suggests ways to extend them or modify their uses for different subject areas. For example, she says the “Eye Spy Math” game could be modified to include History aspects by including hyperlinks that take students to websites offering background information on the pictures they are asked to analyze. Another example of extending this game would be having it where students in a foreign language class label different objects in a photo, using the language they are learning. After giving these modifications to the assignments, she supports her activities by providing readers with a list of educational standards that these assignments meet.

Critique:This is a very well-written and interesting article. Readers of any background could read

the article and understand what it is saying, though it is obviously written to educators. Anderson does an excellent job of describing the two multimedia approaches she takes in her classroom, and leaves the reader with no questions about how the activities work. Also, by including the

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state standards that are addressed through the lesson, she makes the activities more meaningful and worthwhile for educators.

My favorite part of this article is the fact that she gives information on how to extend and/or modify the activities to better meet the needs of students, or to meet the needs of students in different subject areas. The importance of extending and refining lessons was always stressed at the school I previously worked at, so I love how this article provides ideas about how to do that. Also, she makes her article meaningful to a larger audience by providing suggestions for ways the activities can be implemented into different content areas.

And finally, Anderson addresses media specialists specifically in this article, saying they should ultimately be the chief pioneers of technology and multimedia integration at their schools. She even suggests that media specialists can make the “Eye Spy” activity work by having copies of pictures laminated and ready in the media center for teachers to use in their classrooms. This way, the media specialist makes the activity even easier for the teacher to implement. As a future media specialist, her comments are very beneficial to me. Overall, this article does an excellent job of showing how multimedia technologies can be utilized in the classroom.

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Chong, P.F., Lim, Y.P., & Ling, S.W. (2009). On the design preferences for ebooks. IETETechnical Review, 26 (3), 213-222. Retrieved September 23, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Summary:This article critically analyzes the design of ebooks. The authors explain the basic design

guidelines of ebooks, according to the usability guidelines established from the EBONI project. These guidelines deal primarily with the appearance of ebooks and the appearance and feel of hardware for ebooks. The authors, who are professors at the Multimedia University of Malaysia, focus on ebooks because of their growing presence in college libraries, and the argument regarding their general design.

For this particular study, the authors presented undergraduate and graduate students at the Multimedia University in Malaysia with three different ebooks. All three of the ebooks were set up differently according to the following three areas: navigation design, page layout, and content design. Students had the chance to work with all three books, and then complete an online questionnaire regarding the effectiveness of each book and its design standards.

When asked about the design of the ebooks regarding navigation, students preferred ebooks that allowed cross-referencing and hypertexts that made it easier to navigate to various parts and pages of the book. Also, page numbers were a must. Students also requested that ebooks have a search option and allowed them to highlight and annotate important information as they read. Overall, when participants evaluated the navigational design of the ebooks, they most valued ease of navigation.

When students addressed page layout, they generally preferred pages that were content heavy, but not crowded. They preferred pages that displayed plenty of white space and that employed text and figures for visual appeal. Overall, students wanted ebook pages that were organized, clean, and consistent throughout the ebook.

And finally, when students were asked to rate the content design of the ebooks, they wanted pages that were not too long, so they didn’t seem overwhelming, but weren’t too short either, where they required too much “page turning.” Also, participants preferred having the same font throughout the ebook, but with different size text to showcase headings and subheadings. All participants wanted a stark contrast between text color and background color as well, making the text easier to read. And finally, they preferred left aligned text because it made the content easier to skim.

Overall, students requested hyperlinks and cross-referencing to make the ebooks overall easier to use. And as for rating the overall impression of the ebooks provided, they valued the appearance of the ebooks. Graphics and illustrations were welcomed and enjoyed by the participants in the study.

Critique:

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This was a well-written and actually interesting article. As a high school Language Arts teacher, ebooks have been at the forefront of many department meetings I have attended. Therefore, a discussion about ebooks and their design principles is interesting to me. Also, the vocabulary in the article was easy to understand and inviting to the reader. The only part that was a little confusing was when the authors began to list all of the different attributes of the three different ebooks they provided for evaluation, Book A, B, and C. Listing these attributes out became redundant and confusing. However, they did provide tables that grouped together the attributes of each book, and that made it easier to understand.

I’m sure ebooks will be something that will be in all high schools in the very near future. And as a future media specialist, it will be my job to pick out appropriate and effective books for our library. By knowing the design principles that make ebooks more appealing to students, I can make sure that I select ebooks that students will like and use. Therefore, this is an article that will be very important in my reference folder for the future!

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Considine, D., Horton, J., & Moorman, G. (2009). Teaching and reading the millennial generation through media literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52 (6), 471-481. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Summary:The ever changing definition of literacy is addressed in this article by David Considine,

Julie Horton, and Gary Moorman. These authors attribute this changing literacy definition to the newfound presence of multimedia in daily life. No longer is literacy simply the ability to read and write, but now it is the ability to find, evaluate, and use the information at hand. Though there are several different types of media acknowledged by the authors, they group them all together in stating that overall “media literacy” is of upmost importance to our students.

Considine, Horton, and Moorman point out that today’s youth is surrounded by different types of multimedia. However, they suggest that while today’s teens know how to access the information available to them, they are incapable of evaluating and understanding it. Therefore, this must become a focus of education. By implementing multimedia resources and strategies in the classroom, students will be more interested and involved, while simultaneously learning traditional and contemporary content and life skills.

So how do we, as educators, implement multimedia in the classroom? First off, the authors point out that simply using multimedia in the classroom is not enough. Instead, they argue that teaching students how to use multimedia is a necessity. The model they suggest for effectively doing this is the T.A.P. model. T.A.P. is an acronym for Text, Audience, and Production. Using this model, students evaluate the form, or text type, that the information is being presented in (the T), consider the intended audience of the text (the A), and finally analyze the context that the text was created in and for (the P). Considine, Horton, and Moorman suggest that implementing this model helps students better understand the vast array of information they come into contact with.

The final section of this article gives an example of a lesson plan that implements the T.A.P. model. The lesson, which focuses on the Titanic, satisfies Language Arts and Social Studies standards. The Titanic example gives eight different forms of media for presenting the facts of the lesson, ranging from a video clip to a book. Other possible lesson topics for multimedia use are suggested and encouraged as well.

Ultimately, the authors of this article encourage educators to engage their students in meaningful lessons that implement the multimedia forms that they interact with outside of school daily. By doing so, lessons are more meaningful, and students are more interested.

Critique:While this article does an excellent job of presenting the need for multimedia instruction

in schools, it is repetitive in several places. However, the authors do an excellent job of presenting and supporting their viewpoints by providing several different websites and articles that readers can reference for further clarification. The authors made these references even

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clearer for readers as the references were given directly in the text, rather than only on a reference page at the end of the article.

Also, the way that the authors gave an example of an actual lesson plan that implemented the T.A.P. model that they supported was very helpful. Examples are easier to understand, and the Titanic example definitely made the T.A.P. model more meaningful for me as a reader. Suggesting other possible topics that would work well with the model was also very beneficial.

And finally, this article was beneficial to me because I am working to one day become a media specialist in the high school setting. As a media specialist, it will be primarily my responsibility to help teachers incorporate multimedia into their lessons and classroom instruction. Therefore, this article gave some very informative and beneficial suggestions of ways that this implementation can be done.

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Etuk, N. (2008). Educational gaming—From edutainment to bona fide 21st-century teaching tool. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 15 (6), 10-13. Retrieved September 22, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Summary:In this article Ntiedo Etuk focuses on the advantages of multimedia educational games in

the classroom. Etuk is the CEO of Tabula Digita, which is an educational gaming company devoted to providing quality, effective, multimedia games to enhance education. He begins his article by proving to readers the appeal video games have to students by claiming that research suggests that 93% of K-12 students play video games. It is because of this that Etuk suggests that educational video games are so effective in classrooms across the country.

Traditionally educators tend to question the true academic nature of educational video games, and many teachers refuse to use them in their classrooms because they deem them “edutainment” rather than truly educational. However, Etuk argues that educational video games that are designed based on the principles defined by Professor James Paul Gee are effective and truly educational. Among these multimedia design principles presented by Gee is the idea that educational games must present information in such a variety of ways that every learning modality is reached. Also, educational games should require students to be actively engaged in the learning process and to practice repeatedly the skills they are asked to master, in a setting that doesn’t feel as risky as an open classroom where they are surrounded by their peers and a teacher with a grade book. Etuk argues that when an educational game is designed in this way, students master their content area standards, and they have fun while they do it!

Etuk closes his article by citing information claiming that students who used his company’s educational gaming software, which was designed based on Gee’s design principles, doubled their benchmark test scores. And not only did their scores increase, but they were more motivated to learn, coming in before school and staying late after school to play the educational games. According to Etuk, educational games are a winning solution for everyone, as the students enjoy learning.

Critique:Though this article is very interesting and easy to read, I question its reliability. Etuk

obviously has a vested interest in the educational gaming market, as he is the CEO of one of the top competitors in the industry. The fact that he has such a strong bias makes me question exactly how slanted this article really is. For example, none of the cons of using multimedia gaming software are even mentioned. Though I believe multimedia technologies are extremely effective tools in the classroom, I wonder how much this article’s credibility would be questioned by readers who don’t support a multimedia approach, especially since I question it as a supporter.

I do like the design principles from Professor Gee that are highlighted in the article. It seems to me that anyone who designs a multimedia, educational game based on these principles will be creating an effective tool for student use. In fact, I think educators would see drastic improvements in student performance if they designed all of their classroom activities based on these principles. As an educator and future media specialist, this article helped me see what components I should look for in educational games that I purchase for the classroom or media center.

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Sox, A. & Rubinstein-Avila, E. (2009). WebQuests for English-language learners: Essential elements for design. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53 (1), 38-48. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Summary:In their article, authors Amanda Sox and Elian Rubinstein-Avila analyze the effectiveness

of WebQuests for English Language Learners (ELLs). The focus of the article is the use WebQuests in the high school classroom, as the authors claim secondary teachers are not well-prepared by post-secondary institutions to teach students who have a limited English proficiency.

The authors begin by stating the essentials of a WebQuest and acknowledge that WebQuests are common multimedia tools educators use to have students search through various websites to explore and master a given topic. While WebQuests are an obvious way to teach content material and integrate technology education into the curriculum, Sox and Avila claim that they are an effective way to teach English Language Learners the English language as well. The primary reason for a WebQuest’s effectiveness for ELLs is the multimedia available to students through it, which helps them build their English language comprehension while simultaneously mastering content material. The authors further their support for WebQuests by arguing that in today’s society, literacy is not simply the ability to read and write, but the ability to access, analyze, and use all information available. WebQuests help students to meet this goal by requiring them to search various websites to find answers to problems and deepen their understanding of the topic at hand.

In the article, the authors choose to analyze eight different WebQuests based on their linguistic, multimedia, and organizational features that promote learning for ELLs. They argue that WebQuests should be comprised of language that is easily understood by students, be well organized through the use of highlighting, bulleting, and paragraph and page breaks, and should implement various online multimedia tools, such as audio lessons, video clips, and read-aloud programs. After analyzing eight WebQuests that are found to be contextually sound for students, the authors fear that most WebQuests fail to implement the various online sources that will be most beneficial to ELLs. They continue to suggest different uses of multimedia that would strengthen the WebQuests, primarily for English Language Learners, but for other students, too. They suggest implementing read aloud software and bilingual dictionaries as a few multimedia approaches that would help ELLs succeed in the classroom. And furthermore, the content-related suggestions that Sox and Avila make could be easily remedied through the use of multimedia tools like online video clips. Finally, the authors stress the importance of WebQuests implementing effective methods of multimedia by claiming that even efficient WebQuests are not beneficial for students when their design does not implement effective multimedia tools.

Critique:This article was extremely easy to read and very beneficial to me. The vocabulary and

detail in the article make it easy to understand. Anyone could read this article, not just educators, and understand what the authors are talking about because of their thoroughness. For example, the authors begin by defining what a WebQuest is. That way, someone from any background or profession understands the basis of the article from the very beginning.

I was also intrigued by the fact that Sox and Avila focus on the secondary classroom, as I taught 9th and 11th grade Language Arts for two years. Therefore, my interest is primarily at the high school level. Not only was the age of interest to me, but I was also interested in the focus on

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English Language Learners, as I was partnered with the ELL teacher both years that I taught at the high school. I had students who had very limited English skills, and, as the authors stated many teachers are, I did not feel like I was prepared to teach them effectively. Therefore, the benefits of the multimedia WebQuest approach were interesting to me, and would be extremely beneficial in a blended classroom.

The primary weakness of this article is that while it did give examples of WebQuests that are not “up to par” for ELL learners, no examples are given of effective WebQuests for students who are not English proficient. The authors do an excellent job of explaining how to make a WebQuest beneficial for English Language Learners, but an example would have made it easier to understand.

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Kingsley, K. V., Boone, R. (2006). Effects of multimedia software on achievement of middle school students in american history class. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 41 (2), 203-217. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Summary:This research based article by Karla Kingsley and Randall Boone takes an in depth look

at the effect of multimedia software on student test scores. The authors completed a seven month study in middle school Social Studies classrooms. They support their choice of studying Social Studies classes by arguing that research shows students generally find Social Studies classes boring, impractical, and uninviting. Because students generally enjoy technology and the interaction that comes from a multimedia approach, the authors suspected that the use of multimedia software in Social Studies classes would increase student achievement and motivation. They began the article by citing several different sources that claim the use of multimedia software during instructional time is beneficial to students, primarily because of its appeal to multiple modalities.

An in-depth description of the study was provided. One hundred eighty-four students in four different classrooms at three different schools participated in the study. Control and variance groups were created. Students in both groups were taught Social Studies content through lecture and the textbook, but students in the variance group also were involved in the use if Ignite!, a multimedia, web-based form of computer assisted instruction. While the control group did receive some instruction from various supplemental resources, such as worksheets and websites, the variance group had 20% of their instruction made up of the Ignite! program. All four teachers taught one control group and one variance group. To measure student achievement, all students were given a fifty question pre and post-tests that were state standards based. The pre and post-tests were the same.

At the end of the study period, test scores showed that all students, in both the control and variance group, had an increase in test scores from pre to post tests. However, the average increase in test scores for the variance group was approximately 12%, while the average increase in the control group was approximately 6%. Therefore, there was a significant difference between the control and variance group test scores. This study supports the idea that multimedia software, like Ignite! increases student achievement.

The authors end the article by stating that even though some research exists on multimedia instructional strategies, much more is needed. They suggest that not only do educators need more research on the success of multimedia software in the classroom, but that teachers also need to know if more multimedia exposure leads to more success. They also ask if multimedia software prepares students for practical uses of the information they learn, or if it only helps them perform better on tests. Therefore, this article is not a definitive answer to the multimedia curriculum question. Instead, it is a cry out for more research and information on an education trend that is increasingly more prevalent in schools.

Critique:This article, though very thorough and informative, is not very interesting. It’s a research

article, and it reads like one. The language is dry, technical, and confusing. The data results section used terms like two-tailed test and Cronbach’s Alpha. Because of this technical jargon,

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this article would be a hard read for anyone not trained in the research field. Because I had a research class last semester I recognized some of the terms, but it was still very confusing.

Despite the fact that the article is a hard read, it does an excellent job of relaying to readers the impact of multimedia software on education. The authors do an excellent job of presenting data to prove that all, or most, current research finds a multimedia approach to education to be beneficial. Also, the authors present the information in a very unbiased way, so that no personal agendas or viewpoints are evident.

Finally, the information in this article will be very beneficial to me as a media specialist because it showcases the importance of multimedia in the classroom. This article would be an excellent reference to provide to skeptical teachers when I try to persuade them to incorporate technology into their classrooms. The fact that the article suggests that multimedia software improves standardized test scores makes it even more beneficial because so much pressure is put on today’s teachers for their students to perform well on these tests. Not only would the article come in handy with teachers, but it could also help me persuade a reluctant administration to invest in multimedia software for student use. So overall, while this article may not have been a fun read, it was a beneficial one.

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Seo, K., Templeton, R., & Pellegrino, D. (2008). Creating a ripple effect: Incorporating multimedia-assisted project-based learning in teacher education. Theory into Practice, 47 (3), 259-265. Retrieved September 22, 2009, from Academic Search Premiere database.

Summary:In their article, “Creating a Ripple Effect,” Seo, Templeton, and Pellegrino highlight the

advantages of teaching students using a project-based learning (PBL), multimedia approach. It is their belief that the project-based setting, where students are actively involved in creating multimedia projects to learn the material and prove their knowledge of it by the creation of a final product, is more meaningful and effective for students. They emphasize that projects assigned in this approach should be multimedia based because of weaknesses with short-term memory. As a result of these weaknesses, students need to be hands on, actively seeing and hearing the information they are learning. This active approach is possible only through the use of multimedia technology.

To test their hypothesis that students learn best in this project-based, multimedia setting, the authors conducted a study using pre-service teachers in the college classroom. They wanted to see if teaching these students how to teach by using the PBL method made them more effective and knowledgeable teachers. To incorporate the project-based multimedia setting in the college classroom, the pre-service teachers were required to create eight different multimedia projects throughout the semester. The projects ranged from PowerPoint presentations to newsletters or websites. The instructor did not “instruct” students on how to accomplish these tasks, instead he facilitated learning by monitoring their progress and answering their questions when they became confused. Students worked through websites and other material, at their own pace, to learn how to use the technology to accomplish their assignment. Also, all of the projects were content based, so students had to acquire a mastery-level knowledge base of their content area material.

Upon completion of the course, all of the pre-service teachers agreed that they felt better equipped to teach their students, and felt that what they would teach their students would be more meaningful. They also shared a feeling that they were more competent and stronger in their content area knowledge. Since they had to master their content area knowledge in order to complete the projects, simply “getting by” was not an option. Also, pre-service teachers went from 36% feeling competent and ready to implement technology in their classroom to 94%. All of these increases and changes in teacher thought were measured by surveys given to participants before and after the course, rating their competence and ability in areas such as technology usage and student motivation in the classroom.

Ultimately, the authors suggest that not only should pre-service teachers be taught using this project-based learning, multimedia approach, but that students in K-12 classrooms should as well. They argue that teaching student teachers in this manner makes them more likely to carry it over into their own classrooms when they graduate and begin teaching. The article suggests that students who learn in this way are more motivated to learn, develop problem solving and critical thinking skills at a higher level, and find what they learn to be more practical to real life scenarios. And, the best thing about this method is that students learn and master both content area knowledge and multimedia technology skills simultaneously.

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Critique:This article was very well written, easy to understand, and interesting. The authors did an

excellent job of proving their belief that multimedia project-based learning is effective and practical in the classroom. The fact that they experimented with pre-service teachers makes it more believable and relevant to many that will read this article. The article is obviously directed towards teachers, and is presented in such a way as to help them and highlight the benefits for them in incorporating this PBL method.

This article is an excellent addition to my reference folder as a future media specialist. It would be an excellent article to show technology resistant teachers to help persuade them to incorporate more multimedia projects in their classrooms. Also, it is a perfect model for how to structure a professional learning workshop. I can only assume that this method would work equally as well in the workshop setting as it did in the college classroom setting where it was implemented in the article. If teachers are asked to create a multimedia project during a professional workshop, they would pick up the same skills that the college students did in the article, and the hope would be that it would carry over to the classroom. As a media specialist, I could be in charge of organizing or even running some of the professional learning workshops at my school. This article would come in extra handy then!

And finally, this article does an excellent job of pointing out the weaknesses and problems with a multimedia, project-based learning approach. Often times educators become frustrated with new teaching techniques that are presented as being “perfect.” When the techniques are actually implemented in the classroom, they have multiple issues that teachers are forced to deal with or correct. Normally most of the problems are unexpected by educators because they are not acknowledged by the technique’s supporters. As a result, teachers are often reluctant to try new techniques and trends. However, these authors present possible problems with their teaching method from the very beginning, giving teachers a “heads up” on problems that could arise and allowing them to be better prepared to either avoid the problem all together, or quickly remedy it when it occurs.

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Sterling, J. (2009). Multimedia landscapes. Arts & Activities, 145 (3), 42-52. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Summary:In her article “Multimedia Landscapes” Joan Sterling demonstrates how to utilize

multimedia in an elementary art classroom. She notes that the purpose of her article is to prove that technology and a multimedia approach can be incorporated into any subject at any grade level. The article gives an in depth explanation of how she successfully mastered technology and art content standards in her elementary classroom. In fact, she goes so far as listing the Michigan state standards that are met through her multimedia art lesson.

So, how did she do it? How did she have students master technology standards in an art classroom? She had them create true acrylic paintings, followed by virtual paintings on the computer. Students learned the artistic concepts of foreground, background, and brushstrokes, and were then able to demonstrate their competence of the concepts on a true canvas and the computer. And not only were students able to demonstrate their newly learned art skills on the computer, but they were able to demonstrate their mastery of technology skills as well. Sterling claims that students did such an exceptional job on their virtual paintings that it was hard to distinguish them from the real paintings. The last seven pages of her article includes pictures of the real acrylic and virtual paintings for the reader to view.

Critique:This article does such an excellent job in describing the multimedia art lesson Sterling

taught in her classroom that an art teacher could teach the exact same lesson after reading it. The article goes into much detail about the lesson, even going so far as listing the needed materials and learning objectives that the lesson satisfies. In many ways the article is written almost like a lesson plan. This is extremely beneficial to readers, especially those readers who are educators.

The lesson is extremely beneficial to me because, as a future media specialist, it provides an excellent model for incorporating a multimedia approach in art classes, which are generally classes where few technology connections seem to appear. Also, the fact that it is an elementary focused lesson is beneficial since I will be certified to be a media specialist in any K-12 educational setting. However, I feel that this particular lesson plan could be modified to work at any grade level.

And finally, this article is an excellent addition to my reference folder because it shows how multimedia can be utilized in all areas of the curriculum, as art is typically not a content area one would associate with technology. As a media specialist, this could work as an “Aha!” reference, proving technology integration can occur.