Managing Multimedia Mania: Taming The Technology Beast

Abstract

Harnessing student energy for the positive use of technology in the classroom requires significant change for many educators. Students today exhibit a one-click mentality when using computers in the classroom, and are frustrated when they are not provided with instant gratification.  Gone are the reading and higher level thinking skills of the pen and paper years.  With today’s multimedia mania, students see the computer and its programs as toys, and it is extremely difficult to get them to move from toys to technology tools.  Educators are misgauging student learning when technology is involved, mainly because it is extremely difficult to assess.  It is important for teachers to tame this multimedia beast and model millennial skills, and thus guide students to focus on the computer as a tool, not merely a toy, in the process of learning.