syAitAn Itu KreaTIf
Pernah satu ketika saya diminta belajar daripada syaitan oleh seorang yang ulama yang dihormati. Saya terkejut. Benarkah ini?
“Belajar tentang kreativiti dan inovasi syaitan menyesatkan manusia,” jelasnya.
Saya tersenyum. Ada kebenarannya. Syaitan begitu kreatif mencipta dan mempromosi kejahatan. Ada-ada sahaja cara dan jalannya. Tidak pernah kaku, jarang yang beku. Sentiasa ligat dan cepat. Sentiasa ada pembaharuan. Malangnya, acapkali orang yang memperjuangkan kebenaran…tidak se’dinamik’ dia. Tumpul kreativiti dan beku inovasi. Asyik-asyik yang semacam itu juga.
Begitulah. Semoga kisah dialog di bawah boleh dijadikan cabaran untuk minda bagi terus memperjuangkan kebenaran. Kita mesti lebih kreatif daripada syaitan!
KISAH TIDAK LAMA DULU
Bertemu dengannya dahulu merupakan satu penghormatan. Apa tidaknya, dia sudah berubah ke arah kebaikan.
“Mengapa tiba-tiba?” tanya saya.
“Hidayah bang…” jawabnya si dia pendek.
“Bagaimana dengan segalanya?” Risau saya dengan profesyennya.
“Allah ada. Allah akan membantu segalanya.”
“Syukur,” kata saya perlahan.
Setahun kemudian.
“Lihat ini..” kata seorang sahabat sambil menghulurkan sekeping gambar.
“Betul ke ni?”
“Apa kau ingat ini ‘super-impose’?”
Saya terdiam. Kaku.
“Mana pergi tudungnya?”
“Itu..” tuding jari saya kepada tudung merah di atas kepalanya.
“Itu tudung?”
“Yalah, bertudung tapi tidak menutup aurat.”
“Bertutup tapi terbuka, tahupun…” katanya seakan menyindir.
Bila kenalan itu pergi, saya tatap sekali lagi gambar yang ditinggalkan. Kasihan saya melihat wajah si dia yang terbaru. Terasa, betapa kekadang hidayah datang dan pergi berselang-seli. Masih terbayang tangisannya tempoh hari, ketika menceritakan bagaimana terbuka pintu hatinya menginsafi dosa-dosa lampau.
“Bang saya insaf bang…“
Lantas, tanpa sesiapa yang memaksa… dia mengenakan tudungnya. Lengkap, labuh, menutup aurat berpandukan syariat. Tidak jarang, tidak ketat, tidak mengundang fitnah bertandang. Sempurna. Sejuk, mata memandang. Dingin kalbu merasakan. Betapa hidayah itu singgah tanpa mengira siapa, di mana dan bila? Dulu si dia terpilih, sekarang kembali tersisih?
Kini tiba-tiba segalanya semacam ‘ditarik’ kembali. Tudungnya makin singkat. Dari mulanya di bawah paras dada, naik ke paras leher dan akhirnya kembali membuka leher, dagu dan… Paling malang, tingkah yang dulunya mula terjaga, kini lepas bebas kembali. Kata sesetengah yang setuju, biarlah… itu lambang Islam dinamik. Bertudung tapi masih boleh meliuk-lentuk, terkinja-kinja dan bersuara manja. Yang penting hati… Asal hati baik, tidak mengapa. Yang penting isi, kulit tak apa. Kalau begitu kenapa dulu perlu bertukar kulit? Insaf dan taubat sahajalah, tak payah bertudung litup seperti kelmarin!
Saya teringat kuliah yang pernah disampaikan oleh seorang ulama satu ketika dahulu:
“Syaitan terlalu kreatif…” Kreatif? Bisik hati saya.
“Kekadang syaitan tidak menghasut manusia meninggalkan daerah putih menuju daerah hitam… Tetapi dia mengujudkan lebih banyak daerah ‘grey’ – warna keperang-perangan, yang hakikatnya bukan lagi kebenaran.” Terfikir saya, inilah jerangkap kebatilan yang dianggap kebenaran. Topeng baik bagi melempiaskan kejahatan yang dulunya terpendam. Ya, syaitan terlalu kreatif. Ada-ada sahaja ‘was-was’ baru yang ditiupkan ke jiwa insan agar meminggirkan jalan Tuhan.
Hasilnya, sekarang kita dapat lihat bagaimana ada gadis bertudung di kalangan Mat Rempit. Ada wanita bertudung yang melalak dengan gaya bebas terbabas dari nilai akhlak dan kesopanan. Atau peragawati bertudung dengan langkah ‘catwalk’ dengan dada, ‘make-up’ galak sambil yang mengundang pesona dan ‘aura’ dosa. Dan lebih ‘daring’ lagi kita dapat lihat tarian ala-ala gelek oleh gadis bertudung… Atau sekarang pun sudah ada bunga-bunga munculnya Rockers wanita bertudung? Ah, apa ni? Daerah ‘grey’? Atau segalanya sudah hitam, kelam, kusam.
Teringat juga saya pesan daripada seorang yang saya sangat hormati kerana ilmu dan kewarakannya:
“Tudung wanita itu ada empat… tudung pada wajahnya, tudung pada mata, tudung pada suara, tudung pada hati.” Apa ertinya? “Tudung pada wajah… jangan sampai wajahnya mengundang fitnah. Kecantikan adalah pingitan buat suami, bukan pameran untuk lelaki ajnabi. Tudung pada mata… jangan matanya memandang lelaki lain selain muhramnya. Solehah yang hakiki, tidak dipandang, tidak memandang. Tudung pada suara… jangan dilunak-lunakkan dengan tujuan memikat dan mempersona. Tudung pada hati… mengingati Allah… dengan tasbih Siti Fatimah, subhanallah, alhamdulillah dan Allahu Akbar…”
“Jangan terlalu ekstrem,” tegur seorang kawan bila saya lontarkan pandangan betapa wanita bertudung masakini sudah semakin hilang ‘penghormatannya’ (baca betul-betul… bukan ‘kehormatan’). Bagi saya kuantiti orang bertudung meningkat tapi kualitinya merudum.”
“Bukan begitu. Menutup aurat ada tujuannya… tercapaikah tujuan dengan penutupannya. Jika tidak, hakikatnya mereka masih terdedah,” balas saya perlahan.
“Aku tak faham. Maksud kau?”
“Seperti juga solat. Tujuannya mengingati Allah, kesannya pasti dapat mencegah kejahatan dan kemungkaran. Begitu maksud Al Quran apabila menjelaskan tujuan solat didirikan.”
“Lantas?”
“Jika solat tidak mencapai tujuan pasti ada sesuatu yang menyimpang. Samalah seperti hukum menutup aurat, tujuannya menjaga akhlak dan kehormatan. Maknanya kalau sudah menutup aurat, tetapi masih tercalar akhlak dan kehormatan… tentu ada yang salah dalam penutupannya.”
“Jangan ektreem sangat. Tutup aurat bukan ertinya kita menutup keindahan. Tak salah berhias, menarik, cantik.”
“Keindahan mesti didasari oleh kebenaran. Ingat, setiap keindahan tidak semestinya satu kebenaran…”
“Jadi kebenaran menolak keindahan?”
“Keindahan itu satu kebenaran!” balas saya cepat. Ya, atas alasan bertudung tidak menafikan keindahan pelbagai ‘aksesori’ ditokok-tambah menjadikan tudung lebih dimertabatkan sebagai ‘fesyen’ orang ‘baik-baik’ dan orang ‘cantik-cantik’ berbanding syariat wanita yang beriman!
“Hormati, itukan era transisi” kata seorang sahabat seakan memujuk saya.
“Transisi? Apa maksud mu?”
“Sebelum lengkap bertudung… err… maksudku menutup aurat, biarlah mereka berskaf dulu. Tu pun dah baik daripada sebelumnya yang tak menutup kepala langsung.”
“Transisi, ke arah mana? Aku tidak bercakap tentang orang yang tak bertudung langsung. Tetapi aku bercakap tentang individu yang dulu tak bertudung, lepas tu bertudung, kemudian berskaf sahaja… ini transisi ke arah mana? Nak bertudung semula atau nak tak bertudung semula?”
Dia diam. Bungkam. Marah sayapun kerana sayang.
“Langkah pengalihan mesti diiringi oleh pengisian. Jangan tutup kepala sahaja, tetapi isi kepala yang ditutup itu dengan ilmu. Mereka yang tidak menghadiri majlis lebih 40 hari, hati menjadi gelap. Kemudian cari kawan-kawan yang sehaluan. Penghayatan agama kita dipengaruhi oleh kawan-kawan kita…”
“Kau kata mereka tidak ada ilmu?’”
“Bukan begitu. Menuntut ilmu mesti berterusan. When you stop learning, you stop leading – maksudnya, jika kita berhenti menuntut ilmu kita akan berhenti memimpin. Sekurang-kurangnya memimpin diri sendiri,” kata saya.
“Sekali lagi. Kau meragui ilmu mereka?.”
“Ada sebab untuk aku meraguinya? Maaf, aku pun bukan baik. Tetapi kita tidak boleh berdiam melihat kejahilan berkata-kata.”
“Maksud kau?”
“Ada yang berkata, dia masih menutup aurat kerana dia memakai rambut palsu! Bayangkan apa yang orang begini faham tentang hukum menutup aurat? Pernahkah dia mendengar tafsir Surah An Nur? Pernah dia belajar tafsiran hadis tentang aurat wanita Islam? Peliknya, suara semacam ini semakin nyaring sekarang.”
Aku diam. Tafakur. Semua itu imiginasi untuk tulisan ini semata. Namun itu bukan ilusi. Aku tidak pernah punya kesempatan untuk menuturkannya. Lalu Kemudi Hati ini menjadi wadahku berbicara. Untuk diri, isteri, anak perempuanku dan anda wanita-wanita Islam semua. Antara syaitan bisu dan syaitan yang licik berkata-kata, kekadang kita jadi semakin bungkam… menjadi ‘malaikat’ yang diam? Oh, tidak… Rasul berpesan: katakan yang benar walaupun pahit!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
multimedia
DEFINITION
Multimedia combines five basic types of media into the learning environment: text, video, sound, graphics and animation, thus providing a powerful new tool for education
INTRODUCTION
The world in which we live is changing rapidly and the field of education is experiencing these changes in particular as it applies to Media Services. The old days of an educational institution having an isolated audio-visual department are long gone! The growth in use of multimedia within the education sector has accelerated in recent years, and looks set for continued expansion in the future.
Teachers primarily require access to learning resources, which can support concept development by learners in a variety of ways to meet individual learning needs. The development of multimedia technologies for learning offers new ways in which learning can take place in schools and the home. Enabling teachers to have access to multimedia learning resources, which support constructive concept development, allows the teacher to focus more on being a facilitator of learning while working with individual students. Extending the use of multimedia learning resources to the home represents an educational opportunity with the potential to improve student learning.
The elements used in multimedia have all existed before. Multimedia simply combines these elements into a powerful new tool, especially in the hands of teachers and students. Interactive multimedia weaves five basic types of media into the learning environment: text, video, sound, graphics and animation. Since the mode of learning is interactive and not linear, a student or teacher can choose what to investigate next. For example, one does not start on the first page of a linear document and read to the end. Interactive multimedia learning mode is more like constructing a spider’s web, with one idea linked to another, allowing choices in the learner’s path. The multimedia technologies that have had the greatest impact in education are those that augment the existing curriculum, allowing both immediate enhancement and encouraging further curriculum development. For example, the WWW serves as a storehouse of information that individual learners can search for subject matter content that specifically fits their learning agendas. Multimedia applications for computers have been developed for single computing platforms such as the PC, Apple Mac and games machines.
The Elements of Multimedia in Education
It is very tempting to use the latest computer wizardry to represent information and develop computer enhanced learning materials. However, the instructional design of these systems should be based on a careful examination and analysis of the many factors, both human and technical, relating to visual learning. When is sound more meaningful than a picture? How much text is too much? Does the graphic overwhelm the screen? For a student, this allows them to test all of their skills gained in every subject area. Students must be able to select appropriate multimedia tools and apply them to the learning task within the learning environment in order for effective learning to take place.
A Multimedia Learning environment involves a number of components or elements in order to enable learning to take place. Hardware and software are only part of the requirement. As mentioned earlier, multimedia learning integrates five types of media to provide flexibility in expressing the creativity of a student and in exchanging ideas.
Text
Out of all of the elements, text has the most impact on the quality of the multimedia interaction. Generally, text provides the important information. Text acts as the keystone tying all of the other media elements together. It is well written text that makes a multimedia communication wonderful.
Sound
Sound is used to provide emphasis or highlight a transition from one page to another. Sound synchronized to screen display, enables teachers to present lots of information at once. This approach is used in a variety of ways, all based on visual display of a complex image paired with a spoken explanation (for example, art – pictures are ‘glossed’ by the voiceover; or math – a proof fills the screen while the spoken explanation plays in the background). Sound used creatively, becomes a stimulus to the imagination; used inappropriately it becomes a hindrance or an annoyance. For instance, a script, some still images and a sound track, allow students to utilize their own power of imagination without being biased and influenced by the inappropriate use of video footage. A great advantage is that the sound file can be stopped and started very easily.
Video
The representation of information by using the visualization capabilities of video can be immediate and powerful. While this is not in doubt, it is the ability to choose how we view, and interact, with the content of digital video that provides new and exciting possibilities for the use of digital video in education. There are many instances where students, studying particular processes, may find themselves faced with a scenario that seems highly complex when conveyed in purely text form, or by the use of diagrams and images. In such situations the representational qualities of video help in placing a theoretical concept into context.
Video can stimulate interest if it is relevant to the rest of the information on the page, and is not ‘overdone’. Video can be used to give examples of phenomena or issues referred to in the text. For example, while students are reading notes about a particular issue, a video showing a short clip of the author/teacher emphasizing the key points can be inserted at a key moment; alternatively, the video clips can be used to tell readers what to do next. On the other hand, it is unlikely that video can completely replace the face-to-face lecture: rather, video needs to be used to supplement textual information.
One of the most compelling justifications for video may be its dramatic ability to elicit an emotional response from an individual. Such a reaction can provide a strong motivational incentive to choose and persist in a task.
The use of video is appropriate to convey information about environments that can be either dangerous or too costly to consider, or recreate, in real life. For example: video images used to demonstrate particular chemical reactions without exposing students to highly volatile chemicals, or medical education, where real-life situations can be better understood via video.
Animation
Animation is used to show changes in state over time, or to present information slowly to students so they have time to assimilate it in smaller chunks. Animations, when combined with user input, enable students to view different versions of change over time depending on different variables.
Animations are primarily used to demonstrate an idea or illustrate a concept. Video is usually taken from life, whereas animations are based on drawings. There are two types of animation: Cel based and Object based. Cel based animation consists of multiple drawings, each one a little different from the others. When shown in rapid sequence, for example, the operation of an engine’s crankshaft, the drawings appear to move. Object based animation (also called slide or path animation) simply moves an object across a screen. The object itself does not change. Students can use object animation to illustrate a point – imagine a battle map of Gettysburg where troop movement is represented by sliding arrows.
Graphics
Graphics provide the most creative possibilities for a learning session. They can be photographs, drawings, graphs from a spreadsheet, pictures from CD-ROM, or something pulled from the Internet. With a scanner, hand-drawn work can be included. Standing commented that, “the capacity of recognition memory for pictures is almost limitless”. The reason for this is that images make use of a massive range of cortical skills: color, form, line, dimension, texture, visual rhythm, and especially imagination.
Educational Requirements
Employing multimedia tools into the learning environment is a rewarding, but complex and challenging task. All of the multimedia formats available: text, sound, video, animation and graphics, already exist in one form or another in most libraries. Students can explore an almost infinite variety of information. All these explorations can certainly lead to new discoveries, but unless consumption is followed by production, the story ends. Without a chance to use their new discoveries and demonstrate what they have learned, the knowledge gained soon becomes the knowledge forgotten.
Giving students an opportunity to produce multimedia documents of their own provides several educational advantages. Students work with the same information from four perspectives: 1) as researcher, they must locate and select the information needed to understand the chosen topic; 2) as authors, they must consider their intended audience and decide what amount of information is needed to give their readers an understanding of the topic; 3) as designers, they must select the appropriate media to share the concepts selected; and 4) as writers, they must find a way to fit the information to the container including the manner of linking the information for others to retrieve.
MULTIMEDIA
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun (a medium with multiple content forms) or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which only use traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material. Multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms.
Multimedia is usually recorded and played, displayed or accessed by information content processing devices, such as computerized and electronic devices, but can also be part of a live performance. Multimedia (as an adjective) also describes electronic media devices used to store and experience multimedia content. Multimedia is distinguished from mixed media in fine art; by including audio, for example, it has a broader scope. The term "rich media" is synonymous for interactive multimedia. Hypermedia can be considered one particular multimedia application.
Categorization of multimedia
Multimedia may be broadly divided into linear and non-linear categories. Linear active content progresses without any navigational control for the viewer such as a cineme presentation. Non-linear content offers user interactivity to control progress as used with a computer game or used in self-paced computer based training. Hypermedia is an example of non-linear content.
Multimedia presentations can be live or recorded. A recorded presentation may allow interactivity via a navigation system. A live multimedia presentation may allow interactivity via an interaction with the presenter or performer.
Major characteristics of multimedia
Multimedia presentations may be viewed in person on stage, projected, transmitted, or played locally with a media player. A broadcast may be a live or recorded multimedia presentation. Broadcasts and recordings can be either analog or digital electronic media technology. Digital online multimedia may be downloaded or streamed. Streaming multimedia may be live or on-demand.
Multimedia games and simulations may be used in a physical environment with special effects, with multiple users in an online
Terminology
History of the term
The term "multimedia" was coined by Bob Goldstein (later 'Bobb Goldsteinn') to promote the July 1966 opening of his "LightWorks at L'Oursin" show at Southampton, Long Island. On August 10, 1966, Richard Albarino of Variety borrowed the terminology, reporting: “Brainchild of songscribe-comic Bob (‘Washington Square’) Goldstein, the ‘Lightworks’ is the latest multi-media music-cum-visuals to debut as discotheque fare. Two years later, in 1968, the term “multimedia” was re-appropriated to describe the work of a political consultant, David Sawyer, the husband of Iris Sawyer—one of Goldstein’s producers at L’Oursin.
In the intervening forty years, the word has taken on different meanings. In the late 1970s the term was used to describe presentations consisting of multi-projector slide shows timed to an audio track.However, by the 1990s 'multimedia' took on its current meaning. The German language usage society, Gesellschaft fur deutsche Sprachgebrauch, decided to recognize the word's significance and ubiquitousness in the 1990s by awarding it the title of 'Word of the Year' in 1995. The institute summed up its rationale by stating "[Multimedia] has become a central word in the wonderful new media world"
In common usage, the term multimedia refers to an electronically delivered combination of media including video, still images, audio, text in such a way that can be accessed interactively. Much of the content on the web today falls within this definition as understood by millions. Some computers which were marketed in the 1990s were called "multimedia" computers because they incorporated a CD-ROM drive, which allowed for the delivery of several hundred megabytes of video, picture, and audio data.
Word usage and context
Since media is the plural of medium, the term "multimedia" is a pleonasm if "multi" is used to describe multiple occurrences of only one form of media such as a collection of audio CDs. This is why it's important that the word "multimedia" is used exclusively to describe multiple forms of media and content.
The term "multimedia" is also ambiguous. Static content (such as a paper book) may be considered multimedia if it contains both pictures and text or may be considered interactive if the user interacts by turning pages at will. Books may also be considered non-linear if the pages are accessed non-sequentially. The term "video", if not used exclusively to describe motion photography, is ambiguous in multimedia terminology. Video is often used to describe the file format, delivery format, or presentation format instead of "footage" which is used to distinguish motion photography from "animation" of rendered motion imagery. Multiple forms of information content are often not considered modern forms of presentation such as audio or video. Likewise, single forms of information content with single methods of information processing (e.g. non-interactive audio) are often called multimedia, perhaps to distinguish static media from active media. In the Fine arts, for example, Leda Luss Luyken's ModulArt brings two key elements of musical composition and film into the world of painting: variation of a theme and movement of and within a picture, making ModulArt an interactive multimedia form of art. Performing arts may also be considered multimedia considering that performers and props are multiple forms of both content and media.
USAGE
Multimedia finds its application in various areas including, but not limited to, advertisements, art, education, entertainment, engineering, medicine, mathematics, business, scientific research
and spatial temporal applications, see Banerji & Ghosh (2010).
Several examples are as follows:
Creative industries
Education
In Education, multimedia is used to produce computer-based training courses (popularly called CBTs) and reference books like encyclopedia and almanacs. A CBT lets the user go through a series of presentations, text about a particular topic, and associated illustrations in various information formats. Edutainment is an informal term used to describe combining education with entertainment, especially multimedia entertainment.
Learning theory in the past decade has expanded dramatically because of the introduction of multimedia. Several lines of research have evolved (e.g. Cognitive load, Multimedia learning, and the list goes on). The possibilities for learning and instruction are nearly endless.
The idea of media convergence is also becoming a major factor in education, particularly higher education. Defined as separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications) and video that now share resources and interact with each other, synergistically creating new efficiencies, media convergence is rapidly changing the curriculum in universities all over the world. Likewise, it is changing the availibility, or lack thereof, of jobs requiring this savvy technological skill.
Newpaper companies all over are also trying to embrace the new phenomenon by implementing it's practices in their work. While some have been slow to come around, other major newspapers like The New York Times, USA Today and The Washington Post are setting the precedent for the positioning of the newspaper industry in a globalized world.
Engineering
Software engineers may use multimedia in Computer Simulations for anything from entertainment to training such as military or industrial training. Multimedia for software interfaces are often done as a collaboration between creative professionals and software engineers.
Industry
In the Industrial sector, multimedia is used as a way to help present information to shareholders, superiors and coworkers. Multimedia is also helpful for providing employee training, advertising and selling products all over the world via virtually unlimited web-based technology
Mathematical and scientific research
In mathematical and scientific research, multimedia is mainly used for modelling and simulation. For example, a scientist can look at a molecular model of a particular substance and manipulate it to arrive at a new substance. Representative research can be found in journals such as the Journal of Multimedia.
Medicine
In Medicine, doctors can get trained by looking at a virtual surgery or they can simulate how the human body is affected by diseases spread by viruses and bacteria and then develop techniques to prevent it.
Document Imaging
Document Imaging is a technique that takes hard copy of an image/document and converts it into a digital format
Miscellaneous
In Europe, tlolreference organization for Multimedia industry is the European Multimedia Associations Convention (EMMAC).
Structuring information in a multimedia form
Multimedia represents the convergence of text, pictures, video and sound into a single form. The power of multimedia and the Internet lies in the way in which information is linked.
Multimedia and the Internet require a completely new approach to writing. The style of writing that is appropriate for the 'on-line world' is highly optimized and designed to be able to be quickly scanned by readers.
A good site must be made with a specific purpose in mind and a site with good interactivity and new technology can also be useful for attracting visitors. The site must be attractive and innovative in its design, function in terms of its purpose, easy to navigate, frequently updated and fast to download.
When users view a page, they can only view one page at a time. As a result, multimedia users must create a ‘mental model of information structure’.
Patrick Lynch, author of the Yale University Web Style Manual, states that users need predictability and structure, with clear functional and graphical continuity between the various components and subsections of the multimedia production. In this way, the home page of any multimedia production should always be a landmark, able to be accessed from anywhere within a multimedia piece.
Multimedia combines five basic types of media into the learning environment: text, video, sound, graphics and animation, thus providing a powerful new tool for education
INTRODUCTION
The world in which we live is changing rapidly and the field of education is experiencing these changes in particular as it applies to Media Services. The old days of an educational institution having an isolated audio-visual department are long gone! The growth in use of multimedia within the education sector has accelerated in recent years, and looks set for continued expansion in the future.
Teachers primarily require access to learning resources, which can support concept development by learners in a variety of ways to meet individual learning needs. The development of multimedia technologies for learning offers new ways in which learning can take place in schools and the home. Enabling teachers to have access to multimedia learning resources, which support constructive concept development, allows the teacher to focus more on being a facilitator of learning while working with individual students. Extending the use of multimedia learning resources to the home represents an educational opportunity with the potential to improve student learning.
The elements used in multimedia have all existed before. Multimedia simply combines these elements into a powerful new tool, especially in the hands of teachers and students. Interactive multimedia weaves five basic types of media into the learning environment: text, video, sound, graphics and animation. Since the mode of learning is interactive and not linear, a student or teacher can choose what to investigate next. For example, one does not start on the first page of a linear document and read to the end. Interactive multimedia learning mode is more like constructing a spider’s web, with one idea linked to another, allowing choices in the learner’s path. The multimedia technologies that have had the greatest impact in education are those that augment the existing curriculum, allowing both immediate enhancement and encouraging further curriculum development. For example, the WWW serves as a storehouse of information that individual learners can search for subject matter content that specifically fits their learning agendas. Multimedia applications for computers have been developed for single computing platforms such as the PC, Apple Mac and games machines.
The Elements of Multimedia in Education
It is very tempting to use the latest computer wizardry to represent information and develop computer enhanced learning materials. However, the instructional design of these systems should be based on a careful examination and analysis of the many factors, both human and technical, relating to visual learning. When is sound more meaningful than a picture? How much text is too much? Does the graphic overwhelm the screen? For a student, this allows them to test all of their skills gained in every subject area. Students must be able to select appropriate multimedia tools and apply them to the learning task within the learning environment in order for effective learning to take place.
A Multimedia Learning environment involves a number of components or elements in order to enable learning to take place. Hardware and software are only part of the requirement. As mentioned earlier, multimedia learning integrates five types of media to provide flexibility in expressing the creativity of a student and in exchanging ideas.
Text
Out of all of the elements, text has the most impact on the quality of the multimedia interaction. Generally, text provides the important information. Text acts as the keystone tying all of the other media elements together. It is well written text that makes a multimedia communication wonderful.
Sound
Sound is used to provide emphasis or highlight a transition from one page to another. Sound synchronized to screen display, enables teachers to present lots of information at once. This approach is used in a variety of ways, all based on visual display of a complex image paired with a spoken explanation (for example, art – pictures are ‘glossed’ by the voiceover; or math – a proof fills the screen while the spoken explanation plays in the background). Sound used creatively, becomes a stimulus to the imagination; used inappropriately it becomes a hindrance or an annoyance. For instance, a script, some still images and a sound track, allow students to utilize their own power of imagination without being biased and influenced by the inappropriate use of video footage. A great advantage is that the sound file can be stopped and started very easily.
Video
The representation of information by using the visualization capabilities of video can be immediate and powerful. While this is not in doubt, it is the ability to choose how we view, and interact, with the content of digital video that provides new and exciting possibilities for the use of digital video in education. There are many instances where students, studying particular processes, may find themselves faced with a scenario that seems highly complex when conveyed in purely text form, or by the use of diagrams and images. In such situations the representational qualities of video help in placing a theoretical concept into context.
Video can stimulate interest if it is relevant to the rest of the information on the page, and is not ‘overdone’. Video can be used to give examples of phenomena or issues referred to in the text. For example, while students are reading notes about a particular issue, a video showing a short clip of the author/teacher emphasizing the key points can be inserted at a key moment; alternatively, the video clips can be used to tell readers what to do next. On the other hand, it is unlikely that video can completely replace the face-to-face lecture: rather, video needs to be used to supplement textual information.
One of the most compelling justifications for video may be its dramatic ability to elicit an emotional response from an individual. Such a reaction can provide a strong motivational incentive to choose and persist in a task.
The use of video is appropriate to convey information about environments that can be either dangerous or too costly to consider, or recreate, in real life. For example: video images used to demonstrate particular chemical reactions without exposing students to highly volatile chemicals, or medical education, where real-life situations can be better understood via video.
Animation
Animation is used to show changes in state over time, or to present information slowly to students so they have time to assimilate it in smaller chunks. Animations, when combined with user input, enable students to view different versions of change over time depending on different variables.
Animations are primarily used to demonstrate an idea or illustrate a concept. Video is usually taken from life, whereas animations are based on drawings. There are two types of animation: Cel based and Object based. Cel based animation consists of multiple drawings, each one a little different from the others. When shown in rapid sequence, for example, the operation of an engine’s crankshaft, the drawings appear to move. Object based animation (also called slide or path animation) simply moves an object across a screen. The object itself does not change. Students can use object animation to illustrate a point – imagine a battle map of Gettysburg where troop movement is represented by sliding arrows.
Graphics
Graphics provide the most creative possibilities for a learning session. They can be photographs, drawings, graphs from a spreadsheet, pictures from CD-ROM, or something pulled from the Internet. With a scanner, hand-drawn work can be included. Standing commented that, “the capacity of recognition memory for pictures is almost limitless”. The reason for this is that images make use of a massive range of cortical skills: color, form, line, dimension, texture, visual rhythm, and especially imagination.
Educational Requirements
Employing multimedia tools into the learning environment is a rewarding, but complex and challenging task. All of the multimedia formats available: text, sound, video, animation and graphics, already exist in one form or another in most libraries. Students can explore an almost infinite variety of information. All these explorations can certainly lead to new discoveries, but unless consumption is followed by production, the story ends. Without a chance to use their new discoveries and demonstrate what they have learned, the knowledge gained soon becomes the knowledge forgotten.
Giving students an opportunity to produce multimedia documents of their own provides several educational advantages. Students work with the same information from four perspectives: 1) as researcher, they must locate and select the information needed to understand the chosen topic; 2) as authors, they must consider their intended audience and decide what amount of information is needed to give their readers an understanding of the topic; 3) as designers, they must select the appropriate media to share the concepts selected; and 4) as writers, they must find a way to fit the information to the container including the manner of linking the information for others to retrieve.
MULTIMEDIA
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun (a medium with multiple content forms) or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which only use traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material. Multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms.
Multimedia is usually recorded and played, displayed or accessed by information content processing devices, such as computerized and electronic devices, but can also be part of a live performance. Multimedia (as an adjective) also describes electronic media devices used to store and experience multimedia content. Multimedia is distinguished from mixed media in fine art; by including audio, for example, it has a broader scope. The term "rich media" is synonymous for interactive multimedia. Hypermedia can be considered one particular multimedia application.
Categorization of multimedia
Multimedia may be broadly divided into linear and non-linear categories. Linear active content progresses without any navigational control for the viewer such as a cineme presentation. Non-linear content offers user interactivity to control progress as used with a computer game or used in self-paced computer based training. Hypermedia is an example of non-linear content.
Multimedia presentations can be live or recorded. A recorded presentation may allow interactivity via a navigation system. A live multimedia presentation may allow interactivity via an interaction with the presenter or performer.
Major characteristics of multimedia
Multimedia presentations may be viewed in person on stage, projected, transmitted, or played locally with a media player. A broadcast may be a live or recorded multimedia presentation. Broadcasts and recordings can be either analog or digital electronic media technology. Digital online multimedia may be downloaded or streamed. Streaming multimedia may be live or on-demand.
Multimedia games and simulations may be used in a physical environment with special effects, with multiple users in an online
Terminology
History of the term
The term "multimedia" was coined by Bob Goldstein (later 'Bobb Goldsteinn') to promote the July 1966 opening of his "LightWorks at L'Oursin" show at Southampton, Long Island. On August 10, 1966, Richard Albarino of Variety borrowed the terminology, reporting: “Brainchild of songscribe-comic Bob (‘Washington Square’) Goldstein, the ‘Lightworks’ is the latest multi-media music-cum-visuals to debut as discotheque fare. Two years later, in 1968, the term “multimedia” was re-appropriated to describe the work of a political consultant, David Sawyer, the husband of Iris Sawyer—one of Goldstein’s producers at L’Oursin.
In the intervening forty years, the word has taken on different meanings. In the late 1970s the term was used to describe presentations consisting of multi-projector slide shows timed to an audio track.However, by the 1990s 'multimedia' took on its current meaning. The German language usage society, Gesellschaft fur deutsche Sprachgebrauch, decided to recognize the word's significance and ubiquitousness in the 1990s by awarding it the title of 'Word of the Year' in 1995. The institute summed up its rationale by stating "[Multimedia] has become a central word in the wonderful new media world"
In common usage, the term multimedia refers to an electronically delivered combination of media including video, still images, audio, text in such a way that can be accessed interactively. Much of the content on the web today falls within this definition as understood by millions. Some computers which were marketed in the 1990s were called "multimedia" computers because they incorporated a CD-ROM drive, which allowed for the delivery of several hundred megabytes of video, picture, and audio data.
Word usage and context
Since media is the plural of medium, the term "multimedia" is a pleonasm if "multi" is used to describe multiple occurrences of only one form of media such as a collection of audio CDs. This is why it's important that the word "multimedia" is used exclusively to describe multiple forms of media and content.
The term "multimedia" is also ambiguous. Static content (such as a paper book) may be considered multimedia if it contains both pictures and text or may be considered interactive if the user interacts by turning pages at will. Books may also be considered non-linear if the pages are accessed non-sequentially. The term "video", if not used exclusively to describe motion photography, is ambiguous in multimedia terminology. Video is often used to describe the file format, delivery format, or presentation format instead of "footage" which is used to distinguish motion photography from "animation" of rendered motion imagery. Multiple forms of information content are often not considered modern forms of presentation such as audio or video. Likewise, single forms of information content with single methods of information processing (e.g. non-interactive audio) are often called multimedia, perhaps to distinguish static media from active media. In the Fine arts, for example, Leda Luss Luyken's ModulArt brings two key elements of musical composition and film into the world of painting: variation of a theme and movement of and within a picture, making ModulArt an interactive multimedia form of art. Performing arts may also be considered multimedia considering that performers and props are multiple forms of both content and media.
USAGE
Multimedia finds its application in various areas including, but not limited to, advertisements, art, education, entertainment, engineering, medicine, mathematics, business, scientific research
and spatial temporal applications, see Banerji & Ghosh (2010).
Several examples are as follows:
Creative industries
Education
In Education, multimedia is used to produce computer-based training courses (popularly called CBTs) and reference books like encyclopedia and almanacs. A CBT lets the user go through a series of presentations, text about a particular topic, and associated illustrations in various information formats. Edutainment is an informal term used to describe combining education with entertainment, especially multimedia entertainment.
Learning theory in the past decade has expanded dramatically because of the introduction of multimedia. Several lines of research have evolved (e.g. Cognitive load, Multimedia learning, and the list goes on). The possibilities for learning and instruction are nearly endless.
The idea of media convergence is also becoming a major factor in education, particularly higher education. Defined as separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications) and video that now share resources and interact with each other, synergistically creating new efficiencies, media convergence is rapidly changing the curriculum in universities all over the world. Likewise, it is changing the availibility, or lack thereof, of jobs requiring this savvy technological skill.
Newpaper companies all over are also trying to embrace the new phenomenon by implementing it's practices in their work. While some have been slow to come around, other major newspapers like The New York Times, USA Today and The Washington Post are setting the precedent for the positioning of the newspaper industry in a globalized world.
Engineering
Software engineers may use multimedia in Computer Simulations for anything from entertainment to training such as military or industrial training. Multimedia for software interfaces are often done as a collaboration between creative professionals and software engineers.
Industry
In the Industrial sector, multimedia is used as a way to help present information to shareholders, superiors and coworkers. Multimedia is also helpful for providing employee training, advertising and selling products all over the world via virtually unlimited web-based technology
Mathematical and scientific research
In mathematical and scientific research, multimedia is mainly used for modelling and simulation. For example, a scientist can look at a molecular model of a particular substance and manipulate it to arrive at a new substance. Representative research can be found in journals such as the Journal of Multimedia.
Medicine
In Medicine, doctors can get trained by looking at a virtual surgery or they can simulate how the human body is affected by diseases spread by viruses and bacteria and then develop techniques to prevent it.
Document Imaging
Document Imaging is a technique that takes hard copy of an image/document and converts it into a digital format
Miscellaneous
In Europe, tlolreference organization for Multimedia industry is the European Multimedia Associations Convention (EMMAC).
Structuring information in a multimedia form
Multimedia represents the convergence of text, pictures, video and sound into a single form. The power of multimedia and the Internet lies in the way in which information is linked.
Multimedia and the Internet require a completely new approach to writing. The style of writing that is appropriate for the 'on-line world' is highly optimized and designed to be able to be quickly scanned by readers.
A good site must be made with a specific purpose in mind and a site with good interactivity and new technology can also be useful for attracting visitors. The site must be attractive and innovative in its design, function in terms of its purpose, easy to navigate, frequently updated and fast to download.
When users view a page, they can only view one page at a time. As a result, multimedia users must create a ‘mental model of information structure’.
Patrick Lynch, author of the Yale University Web Style Manual, states that users need predictability and structure, with clear functional and graphical continuity between the various components and subsections of the multimedia production. In this way, the home page of any multimedia production should always be a landmark, able to be accessed from anywhere within a multimedia piece.
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