Making Your Classroom a Multimedia Classroom (Part 3 of 3)
Looking to create a multimedia classroom?
A better questions to ask would be: HOW do we create a multimedia classroom?
Over the past few weeks in this mini-email series, we've been unpacking what the research says about the impact of using multimedia (spoiler: it makes a HUGE impact).
We also outlined what EFFECTIVE multimedia is (so that we get the biggest bang for our buck).
But - you still might be left thinking about how you can take action and create a multimedia rich learning environment.
Let's change that.
A GRADUAL APPROACH TO MULTIMEDIA
First off - when it comes to making changes or additions to the instruction in your classroom, you do not have to approach it with a "all or nothing" attitude.
Instead, you can take a more gradual approach.
Start simple.
Here’ are a few simple ways to add multimedia into your instruction.
Start by including a video the next time you introduce a new topic.
Offer opportunities for students to create their own videos, or PowerPoint and Google Slide presentations to showcase their learning.
Start by recording yourself reading text on a Google Slide and inserting that audio to help support a struggling reader.
Have students listen to podcasts during a center (or even create their own classroom podcast aligned with your curriculum!).
Sprinkle in activities that include using online tools like Google Earth where students to explore a location that you have talked about in social studies or a place featured in literature.
Offer both digital and print options for research projects.
Have students learn a song that helps them learn a new topic.
Simplify a topic by providing diagrams and infographics to support what you are teaching.
Before introducing a new unit, start by having students browse images that represent the topic to activate their minds.
The good news is you're likely already doing many of these things. Now, do more of these things! Gradually add them in, allow students to become familiar with them, then add another element of multimedia.
Continue seeking out ways that you can layer in multimedia instruction into other areas of your teaching.
Where you can add a multimedia component into YOUR teaching?