Multimedia - What can it do for You? Good lessons are varied, but simply cramming your hour with different activities will not necessarily engage your students or impress inspectors! Students tire of endless Powerpoint presentations in just the same way as they find non-stop dictation tedious. Using multimedia in a flexible way helps to break the monotony without surrendering to 'putting on a video to keep them entertained' Getting the most out of Multimedia - choosing resources You do need to choose your multimedia resources carefully. Apart from reading descriptions and reviews, if they are available, you obviously need to decide whether the resource is suitable in terms of content. Other things to consider include:- How old is the recording? If we're talking about an old piece of research, this is not a problem, but for resources where the focus is methods, such as brain scanning, or newer theoretical models, even a decade can make a difference Are there any support materials? It's useful for students to have some focus while they are watching so a resource which is accompanied by a handout or user guide will give you a head start in terms of planning Is the resource indexed in any way? DVDs will have 'track numbers' and videos may be divided into sections (some are indexed by minutes from the start) - essential if you are going to use the resource in a flexible way Using multimedia resources Multimedia resources will continue to have a place for the exhausted teacher to cover staff absence and to provide a change of face for students, but how and why else should we be using varied resources? There are times when teachers want to use a whole video or DVD, for instance as an introduction to a topic, or as an overview of a completed section. However, it is becoming ever easier to use multimedia resources in a more integrated way as classrooms become better equipped. Students can then benefit from seeing short snippets to maintain interest, enhance learning or raise motivation. If employed judiciously, it is increasingly possible to use each resource in several different ways. For example, the first video in Uniview's Psychology Live series 'Cognitive Development' can be used, not only for developmental psychology, but also to illustrate the concept of ecological validity using the short section on conservation of liquid quantity with children having chipped glasses replaced with ones of a different shape. When can multimedia be incorporated into lessons? Here are some ideas for using short segments of multimedia within lessons. These use familiar examples, but there are endless other, less obvious opportunities. To provide authenticity when you don't have personal experience - brain scans for example - or through descriptions of research given by the psychologists themselves (eg Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory) To convey very visual ideas for which words alone are not enough - like the Stroop effect, or animations of complex ideas such as drug action Where the social context is important - such as the Asch conformity study or the therapist/client relationship When studies would be unethical or impractical to replicate in the classroom - such as Milgram's Obedience research or Walk & Gibson's visual cliff For studies that could be done in class, but there just isn't time - such as a video demonstrating Hughes' policeman-doll test for egocentrism or a ready-made version of Craik & Tulving's research into levels of processing To allow students to experience original research procedures and findings - such as interviews with Vygotsky and Zimbardo or footage of Bandura's Bobo doll study Contributed by Julia Russell, Head of Psychology, Queen's School Chester and author of several psychology textbooks. Please contact us with any feedback regarding this article. We are always delighted to hear from you.