Multimedia adds a fresh splash of color to the palette of educational alternatives. The strengths of computer-aided instruction—interactivity, personalized instruction, and multiple layers of complexity—can be further enriched through audio, live animation, and music. Opportunities for educational multimedia products exist in several categories:
Elementary and Secondary Education. The compelling nature of multimedia applications offer opportunities for creative instructional materials for youngsters in grades K-12. At lower grade levels, the courseware might resemble interactive games with flashy graphics, animation, and sound effects. At higher grade levels, these properties would still exist, but the information content would increase, taking advantage of the CD-ROM's extensive data storage.
Adult Education. This broad category includes many areas where multimedia applications can better serve to improve learning. For example, many adults want to learn a foreign language. A multimedia application could provide the student the phrase in both the native and foreign tongues, phonetic spelling, and an audio clip of correct pronunciation. Hypertext links could pop up windows with synonyms or related verb tenses.
Career-Oriented Self-Paced Instruction. The increasingly complex requirements of business mandate continuous retraining throughout a career. For example, you could produce a tutorial on giving oral presentations. It could explain the principles of public speaking, and also provide recordings and footage of great speeches. Other windows might display the text of the speech, with annotation to highlight conceptual techniques. An animated slide show could explain the pros and cons of different types of presentation graphics.
The quantity of information available from a CD-ROM fulfills the concept of information browsing. A student could explore the learning environment by strolling from one topic to the next. The gentle voice of a supportive, yet non-intrusive guide, might come along as the student examined an archive of fiction, photographs, and song.