My PhD. Endeavor - A Sign of Midlife Crisis

  Multimedia & M-Learning In the last week's presentations, I would like to applaud all of my colleagues for doing such great work. Their presentations were not only informative but they also effectively engaged me by developing an interest in the topic. Each presenter was confident, organized, spoke with passion, and clearly stated their part of the history of multimedia. I learned a lot from their works. I found that the newspapers were perhaps the first mass communication medium to employ multimedia -- they used mostly text, graphics, and images. Looking at the advancements in technology, we can say that multimedia has come a long way from its humble roots to today's cutting-edge modern animation and interactivity. Quite a few students discussed multiple learning theories discussed in the first half of the presentation. Here I would like to add my thoughts on a new concept worthy of being a new theory but has not found a notable place in the educational world.  It is ca...

    The turf of multimedia covers a wide range of technologies that aim to develop solutions for learning and delivering knowledge. " ... multimedia can be defined as integration of multiple media elements (audio, video, graphics, text, animation, etc.) into one the synergetic and symbiotic whole that results in more benefits for the end-user than any one of the media elements can provide individually" (Reddi, 2003). By this definition of multimedia, Reddi emphasizes that multimedia with all of its elements are more effective than any one component. Education encounters, in modern times, challenges in all aspects of social, economic & cultural life; the most important of which is over-population, over-knowledge, education philosophy development & the change of teacher's role, the spread of illiteracy, lack of the staff & the technological development & mass media (Aloraini, 2005, p. 30–32). This drove the teaching staff to use modern teaching technologies ...

  I am Addicted to Games How do you capture a learner's attention and bring topics or lessons to life in a way that won't easily be forgotten? This is the biggest challenge for any educator. One of today's significant movements aimed at increasing learner engagement is gamification or the incorporation of game elements into non-game settings. Ask any parent: What do kids today do more than watch TV, watch movies, or go to the mall, combined? Parents would give the obvious answer; "They Game."  Before we throw up our hands and conclude that our next generation is doomed because they are merely playing all the time, let's consider why games are so powerful and engaging, and how we can harness that power in education, a process known as gamification. Charles Coonradt may be considered the godfather of gamification. He realized that productivity in the United States was failing, but the sales of sports equipment were rising. Conrad (1973) discussed in detail i...

  My Concept about Life has a New Dimension The multimedia concept is based on a common denominator in the field of computers: items can be brought together from the field of videography, audiography, scriptography, and synthesis image which, after abandoning their atomic structure to be converted into the smallest computer unit of image synthesis - the bit    – are reorganized into a new entity incorporating characteristics of its initial components but progressively tending to assert itself as a medium with its own personality and specific characteristics. As educators, we owe a lot to Richard Mayer for applying the science of learning to education, with current projects on multimedia learning, computer-supported learning, and computer games for learning. His research is at the intersection of cognition, instruction, and technology, with a focus on how to help people learn in ways so they can transfer what they have learned to new situations. After my literature ...