Multimedia in the Classroom

Assignment questions: What are the benefits of using multimedia in the classroom?  Are there any drawbacks/problems with using multimedia?  What are some specific ways you might use multimedia in your classroom?

Using multimedia in the classroom broadens what you can teach, and how the students can learn.  It gives them more ways than one to assimilate information, and more ways than one to express what they have learned.  Using multimedia a teacher can make things come alive, and come "to the classroom" that are otherwise impossible to show.  Videos and internet research can introduce students to other cultures, countries, and ways of life that they may not experience on a day to day basis. 


Multimedia lessons take time, which some teachers may not have in enough excess to be able to create meaningful multimedia activities.  This is one of the drawbacks of multimedia use in the classroom.  Also, as with any time the internet is used, there is the issue of students safety, and students wasting time.  

For me, I could see coupling videos with books: for instance, reading a book out loud with the class, and then when we have finished, watching a movie based on that book.  In history, it would also be easy to couple learning about a time in history, and then watching a movie that takes place during that time.  Internet work could also be sprinkled about in any lesson.