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1 -—. . Session 2547 :

-—. . . . . . . Multimedia in Technology Education: Who is Going to Pay? . Robert F. Abbanat, Jeffrey W. Honchell Engineered Multimedia/Purdue University

ABSTRACT

Multimedia is soon to be the way of the world in higher education. With almost all personal computers today utilizing CD ROMs, sound cards and improved graphics, comes the opportunity to include multimedia applications in many facets of technology education. Multimedia is currently being used in the classroom, by many faculty, to improve the student’s comprehension of difficult material. Since multimedia is an effective tool in the classroom, then why not develop applications that will allow the student to effectively utilize this tool outside the classroom, for educational purposes.

The problem is how to find the development and distribution of such applications, not whether or not they would serve as an effective aid to the overall learning process for students. Compared to the market size for most pi$rsonal computer software applications, the technology education market is an extremely small one. This fact coupled with the high cost of developing multimedia tools raises the question if such a venture would be financially feasible. However, as with all challenges there is a solution, it is just a matter of finding and implementing it. One possible approach to solving this problem is presented.

INTRODUCTION

Multimedia seems to be the “buzz” word of the day. With the addition of CD ROM’s, sound cards, and improved graphics to almost all personal computers sold today, comes the opportunity to include multimedia applications in many facets of technology education. Multimedia is currently being used in education, from , Power’Point lecturesl to virtual classrooms to improve the student’s comprehension of difficult material. Since multimedia is an effective tool in the classroom, then why not develop applications engineering technology that will allow the student to effectively utilize this tool outside the classroom for educational purposes. Support for this notion is derived from the favorable experience of several multimedia products in engineering courses. Multimedia Engineering Statics (MES) and Multimedia Engineering Dynamics (MED)3 are two titles that are currently available for undergraduate engineering students. These are self-contained multimedia programs that were developed to serve as a supplement to lectures and textbooks, illustrating topics befitting the audio and visual capabilities of multimedia. They are in no way intended to replace lectures and textbooks, but they do provide a type of information that is not available from either. Lectures (traditionally performed with chalk and a blackboard) and textbooks can be usefid for providing information on almost any topic, but from a pedagogical standpoint, both are lacking in three areas: a) both are constrained to two dimensions, b) both are static, and c) neither allows the student to interact with the material. With any field of education it is advantageous to allow the student to interact with the material, but the ability to effectively present dynamic material and material in

$i!iii’ } 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings ‘.,*,Hly’,.$

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Abbanat, R. F., & Honchell, J. W. (1996, June), Multimedia In Technology Education: Who Is Going To Pay? Paper presented at 1996 Annual Conference, Washington, District of Columbia. 10.18260/1-2--6199