MediaText
MediaText is a multimedia composition environment designed for middle
and senior high school students to use in learning to communicate in
multiple media. Unlike more sophisticated multimedia composition environments,
MediaText is designed (1) to be immediately usable and (2) to avoid
issues of synchronization and combination of media in favor of
emphasis on selection and definition of media.
A MediaText document has two parts. On the left 2/3, a MediaText document is
simply a word-processor. On the rightmost third, media annotations to the text
can be placed in the Media Margin where they appear as icons. MediaText includes
workshops for creating media clips to include (represented as icons) in the Media
Margin. Media types supported by MediaText include graphics, animations, sound,
videodisc, CD audio, hypertext links to other MediaText documents, links to
applications, and QuickTime movies.
One of the strengths of MediaText is its ability to facilitate
students connecting unfamiliar domains to concrete and motivating
domains. In one
student's document in a Physics class, concepts of mass were
related to fine art, the domain of most interest to this student. The
student selected an image of a woman holding rosary beads and wrote
that "one rosary bead is about one gram." While the analogy is not
exactly correct, the example shows how MediaText allows students to
bridge gaps.
MediaText was originally designed by Mark Guzdial and Elliot Soloway
at the University of Michigan. It was rewritten by Jim Merz and was
commercialized by Constructive Instruments. MediaText (and My
MediaText Workshop for younger students) was distributed by
Wings for Learning and Apple Computer. MediaText was one of six
software products named Technology and Learning magazine's Top
Educational Software of 1992 and was awarded Parent's Magazine's Gold Award.
References
- Finkel, L. (1992). Q&A on Multimedia. Electronic Learning, March,
14.
- Guzdial, M., Hay, K. E., & Soloway, E. (Eds.). (1994). The
MediaText Projects Book: Multimedia activities for the classroom.
Cresskill, NJ.:Hampton Press. In press.
- Hay, K. E., Guzdial, M., Jackson, S., Boyle, R. A., & Soloway, E.
(1994). Student composition of multimedia documents: A preliminary
study. Computers and Education. In press.
- Land, M. (1993). Multimedia with MediaText. Journal of HyperMedia
and MultiMedia Studies, 2(3), 23-25.
- Soloway, E., Guzdial, M., & Hay, K. E. (1993). Reading and writing
in the 21st century. EDUCOM Review, 28(1), 26-28.
- Soloway, E., Guzdial, M., & Hay, K. E. (1994). Learner-centered
design: The challenge for HCI in the 21st century. Interactions, 1(2).
36-48.
Contact information:
Ma
rk Guzdial
Graphics, Visualization & Usability Center
College of Computing
801 Atlantic Drive
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA, 30332-0280
404-894-5618
E-mail :
guzdial@cc.gatech.edu
