What is multimedia?
Multimedia is any combination of different types of content. This content can include text, images (including photos), audio, video, animation, games or interactive content forms. In most cased the content is integrated via computers to enhance a user’s understanding of the information presented. The information has the potential to be a live broadcast or previously made. Multimedia has become inherent to the websites and blogs that makeup the internet.
Use as Design Elements
Multimedia can be used to contribute to the design of the webpage. Carroll specifically cites using images to to help with the “balance, contrast and unity” of web design. (Carroll 106) This can also contribute to the scan-ability of a web page by breaking up large chunks of text. Using these elements can improve the navigation and usability of a website dramatically.
Benefits in Educational Situations
Multimedia can be used to to show “what things look like, how they move and how they change” or to demonstrate “processes that learners may not otherwise have the opportunity to see,” furthermore this can be used to “bring the real world into the classroom” (Institute for Learning)
Examples
Image
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Animation
Audio
Works Cited
- Carroll, Brian. (2010). Writing for Digital Media. New York: Routledge. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- Institute for Learning and Research Technology. “Why Use Multimedia?” Young-Train.net. <http://www.young-train.net/multimedia/tutorials/video_audio_multimedia/page_04.htm>.Retrieved 11 July 2013.
Outside sources
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia
- http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/multimedia.html
- http://learningtechnology.wikispaces.com/What+is+Multimedia
- http://www.nngroup.com/articles/guidelines-for-multimedia-on-the-web/
- http://www.scribd.com/doc/48582319/Web-Graphics-Multimedia-Web-Design-Principles
- http://webdesign.about.com/od/multimedia/bb/multimedia-tips-for-web-pages.htm