One Small Jump

In Sumer, 10,000 years ago, an inventive educator pushed a sharpened reed into a tablet of we t clay, and wrote the first textbook. About 8,000 years later, Roman children were still sitting around the market square pushing sharpened metal styluses into soft wax, learning how to form their letters. In 199-5,it Brooklyn College, many of us continue this ancient tradition by scratching soft sticks of calcium carbonate onto blackened surfaces in our class rooms. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But no matter how conservative educational tradition, there are stirrings of change seeping into the way we teach. After a long and successful run, a few people think it is time to consign blackboard and chalk to the artifacts of history and move forward 10,000 years into the educational electronic age. It is a daunting prospect and not an easy jump to make.

Modifying 10,000 year old educational techniques should not be undertaken lightly. Often, a jump into the dark results in a drop off a long cliff. The first lesson should always be, "Look carefully where you are going before taking that first, small jump." For the past couple of years, however, I have been tentatively putting an educational the ability to adapt commercial foot forward into the next age, So far the results have been encouraging and the lessons learned not too painful. In this article I would like to share some of these lessons with you, in the hope that, if you are thinking of adding multimedia to your pedagogical tool chest, it can save you some time and a lot of frustration.

Lesson One: The Tool Chest

In this article the term "multimedia" will mean "any product or process arrived at by use of a computer." It follows, therefore, that the first tool you need in your chest is a computer. The second is the ability to flex the chips in your machine creatively. Both of these are topics for other articles, so I will assume that either you are computer literate, or can get that way.

Very broadly, the raw materials that you will need to create or buy before beginning your project fall into four general categories:
1) Text-based materials (lecture notes, exams, outlines, memos, etc.)
2) Static images (graphs, tables, fine art, drawings, and such)
3) Animations (anything that can be made to move on screen)
4) Modular programmed segments that perform an operation or process

Assembling these "raw materials" into a multimedia product is the next step. There is almost no limit to the ways in which they can be made to work together, but very broadly there are four main types of multimedia product possible:
1) Presentation or display software
2) Interactive products that are either stand alone or co-dependent
3) Simulations that recreate a process or phenomenon
4) Linear presentations such as video tapes or audio tapes

Any or all or these can also be combined into a larger product, and any or all of these can be accompanied by traditional materials such as printed workbooks, textbooks, notes, or other written materials.

Lesson Two: What Next?

Picking up a stick of chalk sounds a lot easier than jumping into a full scale production of a video tape that illustrates the principles of thermodynamics, but the same basic concepts apply to both. Before beginning an attempt to create or use multimedia in your classroom, take the time to think through the pedagogical issues and consider which multimedia tool will enhance your lesson. For example, when I wished to illustrate the very dynamic process of protein synthesis, I reached for the tool of animation. Only the moving images on the screen adequately reveal this sub-cellular concept. On the other hand, when I needed to give my students the opportunity to perform a lot of enzyme assays, a computer bio-simulation that mimics an assay was the obvious choice.

A careful analysis of your lesson plan is the foundation for all that follows, so don't skimp on this stage. Plunging ahead into all the fancy hardware and software that Brooklyn College now makes available, without a detailed plan or campaign, will only cause you pain.

Lesson Three: Handmade or Commercial?

Initially, much of your multimedia materials can be of a commercial grade. These days there are a lot of entrepreneurs willing to do the hard work of development for you and, for a consideration, provide you with a use able product. Such materials come in a variety of media and formats, but the market is quickly hardening into a CD-ROM-based mode that is flexible but less degradable than other media. If you don't have access to CD-ROM, start thinking about it. Hours spent on the Internet can be rewarding, but be prepared for a high level of frustration.

My own experience with commercial CD-ROM-based materials is that they are professionally produced, slick, and packed with great graphics and a lot of bells and whistles. Dedicated packages allow voyages into the world of dinosaurs and Greek texts, while more general packages let you examine dictionaries, encyclopedias, art galleries, and classical music. The range is very broad. A good lesson plan, a CD-ROM drive, a student workbook (either hard copy or online), and you are off to the multimedia races.

But don't expect the commercial producer to think the way you do. For the most part, these products do an excellent job of enhancing or expanding on a topic, but rarely do they fit in exactly with the way you like to do things. Which brings us to the topic of "development," meaning, "make it yourself." Sooner or later you will say to yourself, "If only I could show my students a copy of George Washington's expense account," or "It would be so much better if I could interrupt this QuickTime movie of Howard Hughes in the Spruce Goose and ask the students some questions about capitalism." At that point you are hooked.

Developing your own multimedia products is not difficult, but it will require two things: lots of time and the acquisition of a few new skills. Even when you have all the skills you need, plan on spending 25 hours of development time for every 10 to 35 minutes of final product (depending on its form and complexity). Low-end products may take less time, but high-end products (such as your own video), will take four times as long.

Skills first. Text in multimedia is not as simple as it seems. The key is brevity, something I have had hard time learning. Fight the temptation to try and place 132 items of information on a single screen that only has a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and will only be seen for 3.2 seconds. To include static images you will need to learn how to "acquire" an image, manipulate that image and finally display that image in the right context. Good software is vital for all three stages. Modem versions of imaging software practically do the job for you. George Washington's expense account is usually only a scanner and a mouse click away.

Manipulating that image can be more tricky. If you are attempting to sepia tone the image of George's manuscript be prepared for some arcane journeys into software esoterica. But more often it is only a case of selecting and cropping the exact part of the image you need. Displaying the image depends on its context and final use, but once again, modern software makes even this task straightforward.

With the above skills great things as possible. A large number of commercial multimedia products are nothing more than assemblages of text and static images. When you get ambitious, add sound. The thump of Congress collectively fainting when they read George Washington's expense account can be most efficacious.

Beyond text and graphics, things become a little more tricky. Animation is not hard, but very hard work. I have a lot more respect for the Lion King artists at Disney Studios since trying it for myself. But basic animation (The Simpsons, not Aladdin) is simple. The computer will do most of the work and the only skill you need is familiarity with the appropriate software.

Computer programming and video production seem to be the types of multimedia that deter most people from trying to "make their own." They are both topics for other articles, but neither of them is so difficult that you should remove them from your consideration.

Lesson Four: Delivery

I have saved the bad news for last. Long before you start buying or making your own multimedia products, take the time to explore how you or your Students will get to use all this exciting, new material. A piece of presentation software on bio-energy I completed recently after a sweaty two-month development period almost came to grief the first time I tried to display it in the classroom. I gave my opening remarks, clicked on the icon, and proudly pointed at the screen.

Unfortunately the projector was so dark the images could not be seen beyond the second row of seats. Oooops! Alternatively, you show up for your first class, plug in the computer animation of Mozart conducting his 23rd symphony, and discover that the audio plug that connects the computer to the amplifier needs a quarter inch phone plug and you only have an RCA. Grrrrrr!

At the present time it is no good developing your own homepage on the World Wide Web and asking the 536 students you teach in the Core to log in and complete the 46 exercises you have left for them. Brooklyn College does not yet have the capacity to deal with such an influx.

As with most things, delivery is slower than development. Everybody in authority at Brooklyn College is working hard to improve this situation, and I for one take them at their word. I continue to create my own multimedia products, make mistakes, and learn a lot of lessons.

Lesson Five: The Results

"Ah," you are asking, "is all this effort worth it? Do the results justify changing from chalk to electrons?" My family would say an emphatic "NO!" When I am scripting a new video they have learned to keep out of the way as my creative juices flow, often all over the carpet. When the plumbing system in New Ingersoll decides to mimic the 14 shades of Hell right in the middle of a tricky shoot of me explaining why toast can be a dangerous weapon, the aggravation factor is definitely not good for the blood pressure. But ...

Although I have not yet developed enough product to assess its effect statistically on the grades in my course (the quantitative component), the clear and positive response given to the animations I use and the video segments I have shown, makes it all worth while (the qualitative component). Video age students respond to technology. That first round of applause you receive when you finish a strong multimedia session will amply reward you for your efforts. Even if the quantitative component does not change, my area of science, any qualitative enhancement is a major step for-ward.

I have not thrown away my chalk. Governor Pataki's budget may soon send us back to the classroom equipped with nothing more than our textbooks and our personalities. But if we survive, the next generation of Brooklyn College students may leave our institution having been exposed to the future not only in what we teach them, but also in how we teach them.