Reflection on MOST Multimedia Environments

What are your initial reactions to this theory/model? What are barriers to its use? What benefits might be expected for those who overcome the barriers?

First of all, can I make a confession? When I saw "MOST Multimedia Environments" on the syllabus and moodle, I did not realize MOST was an acronym and thought we would be learning about what the majority of multimedia environments are like. I caught on pretty quickly though when I read that MOST stands for Multimedia enviornments that Organize and Support Text.

I was excited about this model for several reasons. First of all, it is a departure from the previous models (Guided Design, Anchored Instruction, Goal Based Learning, etc) we've been learning about that, despite their different strengths, weaknesses, and parameters, seem very similar to each other. Secondly, I liked that this model specifically focuses on at-risk learners. In general, I think good teaching and sound learning theories address the entire spectrum of learners, but there are situations in which certain students need extra support and MOST Multimedia Environments provides one method to help reach these learners. And lastly, I could see this method being very applicable to many students that I teach in an elementary classroom- those who are struggling readers, have English as a second language (ESL), have not had a great deal of learning/life experiences outside of school, or who do not have strong vocabularies.

I love the quote from the introduction of the Bransford article that says "literacy is defined as the ability to read, write, speak, listen, compute, think critically, and learn on one's own." My first year teaching was at a school where 95% of the students were ESL. We were constantly encouraged to not only help students improve their reading and writing, but also consider their speaking, listening, and metacognitive skills. By using multimedia to help reach these learners, you can practice many of these skills concurrently.

As with other multimedia models, the barrier here is finding/creating the necessary videos, software and other resources to implement this type of teaching. With those types of instructive multimedia in place, however, I think that all students, those at-risk and not, can benefit from the language building activities using this method.

Would you attempt to use this theory/model with the students you are currently teaching or hope to teach in the future? Why or why not? Could elements of the theory/model be modified so that it would work with your current/future students?

I do use this method with my students using videos and clips from Learn360, UnitedStreaming, and TeacherTube. Of course, as mentioned in the Bransford article, it is important to make sure learners are actually interacting with the multimedia to be "active" rather than "passive" learners. When we watch a video in class, I am constantly pausing the video every couple of minutes (or even more frequently, depending on the content) so my students can discuss vocabulary, complete graphic organizers, share thoughts with their classmates, and pose and answer questions. Otherwise, multimedia alone just becomes a babysitter and does not necessarily add to the learning process.

Since we're taking learning theories/models that were not necessarily created with the Web in mind and turning them into Web modules, what Web-based tools or resources could be leveraged to carry out this learning theory/model online?

I feel like a broken record, because so many Web 2.0 tools and resources are useful for many different models. As I said, TeacherTube, Learn360, and United Streaming are good sources of instructional videos and clips. As Dr. Oliver shared in the lecture, Jumpcut and Muveemix are sites to edit video, and YouTube as a video editing feature as well. ToonDoo and Voki might be useful for retelling stories that were shared on video as well.