November 2005 — Kids on Technology
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The Enrichments of Rich Media
A high school student testifies to the benefits of bringing technology into the classroom.
I CAN’T REMEMBER a time when I didn’t use technology in my daily life. As a senior at East Windsor High School in Connecticut, I’ve seen the availability and integration of technology applications in our district grow to include the recent addition of rich-media technologies. Let me take a moment to define what I mean by rich media. Rich media refers to any content that emphasizes dynamic visual or aural media; typically, video, audio, or animation. The most common rich-media types include: rollover images, JavaScript/DHTML, Flash files, Real Media/Windows Media/QuickTime movies, and WAV/AVI/MPG audio.
During my years in school, and in my three summers fixing and updating our district’s technology applications, I’ve noticed certain things about teachers and their use of technology in the classroom: “New-age” teachers (as I call them) who have been using technology throughout most of their lives, tend to bring their personal experiences with them into their teaching, and are comfortable using technology to help them give a lesson accurately and efficiently. As for the “oldschool” teachers, they are not as adept in the world of technology and prefer the traditional methods of instructing with chalkboards and long lectures.
In school, rich media is often utilized through the use of CDs, which students receive along with their required textbooks. The CDs include visual depictions and audio lectures of the given lesson in order to help students better understand what they are discussing in the classroom. The CDs are used both at home and in our school’s computer lab.
It’s been my experience that rich media is put to greater use in science classes than in any other subject. Science (biology, chemistry, astronomy, etc.) is visual in nature; students would rather see the planets than listen to a teacher talk about them. Rich media allows a teacher to display visual examples of any topic the class may be discussing—whether it’s human anatomy or the chemical breakdown of a molecule. In other classes, the opportunities just aren’t the same. In English, for example, it’s not as effective to use rich media when discussing Shakespeare.
Overall, I feel that instructors could do a better job of incorporating rich media into the classroom. Teachers can sometimes get too comfortable and simply repeat what has worked for them in the past with little or no regard for any new technological tools. However, I also feel that the door swings both ways in this situation, and that students have to be responsible, too, and show that they can use technology appropriately and without any problems.
Rich media is a fixture on my home computer, as I’m always on the Web viewing funny videos of tricks and pranks performed by various people for entertainment. Another way I utilize rich media is by downloading and viewing movie trailers and music videos. Whenever I hear about a new movie, I immediately go online and check for the trailer to see if it’s going to be a movie I want to see.
