Multiple Intelligences and Multi-media

Multiple Intelligences and Multi-media
Howard Gardner, Professor of Harvard University and author of Frames of Mind (New York: Basic Books, 1983) from Multimedia Book, ITTE wrote that:

• Seven or more "multiple intelligences" that are of equal importance in human beings and develop at different times and in different ways in different individuals.
• Multi-media can go along way to addressing these intelligences, much more than traditional teaching methods.
• Below is a list of the intelligences and the technology tools that can be used to teach to them

Verbal/Linguistic intelligence: The ability to think, communicate, and create through words both in speech and in writing.

• Computer software which allows young children to write and illustrate their own stories before their fine motor skills are developed enough to allow them to do so by hand.
• Word processing software stimulates learners to interact more closely with their work.
• Audio and video recording can give students instant feedback on their story-telling skills and can help them develop them further.
• Multimedia software helps students produce multimedia reports.
• Telecommunications programs link students who correspond in writing.

Logical/mathematical intelligences: Memorize and perform mathematical operations, ability to think mathematically, logically, and analytically and to apply that understanding to problem solving.

• Multimedia products that graphically illustrate physics concepts.
  • Providing challenging visual/spatial tasks which develop mathematical and logical thinking .
  • Develop higher-order mathematical thinking by making abstract ideas concrete.

Visual/spatial intelligence: The ability to understand the world through what we see and imagine and to express ideas through the graphic arts.

• "Paint" programs that allow students who are unskilled with paper and brush create art on computer screens.
• Databases of art work.
• Desktop publishing.
• Camcorders to create documentaries.
• Internet links to museums and virtual tours.

Bodily/kinesthetic intelligence: The ability to learn through physical coordination and dexterity and the ability to express oneself through physical activities.

• Educational games which challenge fine motor coordination while developing logical thinking skills and mastery over abstractions.
• Construction of lego robots and program their movement through the computer.
• Electronic fieldtrips - programs that allow students to interact electronically with a scientist who is exploring the depths of the Mediterranean or the inside of a volcano.

Musical intelligence: The ability to understand, appreciate, perform, and create music by voice or instruments or dance.

• Students can hum into a synthesizer and make it sound like any instrument they want.
• Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) makes it possible to make music on an electronic keyboard, which can be made to sound like any instrument and then can be orchestrated electronically.
• Interactive presentations of renowned classical music let students understand music on many different levels; listening to it, seeing the score as it is played, hearing individual instruments played alone, reviewing biographical material about the composer and learning about the music’s historical and cultural backgrounds.

Interpersonal intelligence: The ability to work cooperatively with other people and to apply a variety of skills to communicate with and understand others.

• Clusters of students working together on computers learn more than individual students working alone.
• Electronic networks linking students with their peers within the community and around the world.
• Lumaphones allow students to see a picture of the person with whom they are speaking.

Intrapersonal intelligence: The ability to understand, bring to consciousness, and express one’s own inner world of thoughts and emotions.

• Multimedia gives teachers the tools to turn the classroom into centers of student-directed inquiry.
• Technology offers tools for thinking more deeply, pursuing curiosity, and exploring and expanding intelligence as students build "mental models" with which they can visualize connections between ideas on any topic.
• Individual growth plans, developed jointly by the student, parents and teacher can encourage the development of intrapersonal intelligence. Technology supports such plans with electronic records, videotaped interviews, and multimedia portfolios of student work.

Connecting Students to a Changing World
The following quotes were taken from Connecting Students to a Changing World: A Technology Strategy for Improving Mathematics and Science Education. A Statement by the Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development 1995:
"Fortunately, the same rapid technological changes that have made these new workplace competencies so important and greater knowledge of mathematics and science so critical also provide new and effective tools to help raise the knowledge and skills of teachers and the achievement of students." (page 4)
"Currently available technologies, the most important of which are computers, communications systems (including Internet connections), and interactive videodisk and CD-ROM systems, provide a learning environment in which problem solving and intellectual inquiry can flourish." (page 4)
"The technology also allows students to work at their own pace and encourages them to take initiative and learn independently." (page 4)
Better Students Through Technology
Visit the site http://www.cast.org/stsstudy.html and learn more about the following:

• The Role of Online Communications in Schools: A National Study" is a report of a study conducted by CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology), and independent research and development organization, and sponsored by the Scholastic Network and Council of the Great City Schools.The study compared the work of 500 students in fourth-grade and sixth-grade classes in seven urban school districts (Chicago, Dayton, Detroit, Memphis, Miami, Oakland, and Washington, DC) with and without online access. Results show significantly higher scores on measurements of information management, communication, and presentation of ideas for experimental groups with online access than for control groups with no online access.

Is technology making an impact on education?

"Technology is making a significant, positive impact on education. Important findings in these studies include:

• Educational technology as demonstrated a significant positive effect on achievement. Positive effects have been found for all major subject areas, in preschool through higher education, and for both regular education and special needs students. Evidence suggests that interactive video is especially effective when the skills and concepts to be learned have a visual component and when the software incorporates a research-based instructional design. Use of online telecommunications for collaboration across classrooms in different geographic locations has also been show to improve academic skills.
• Education technology has been found to have positive effects on student attitudes toward learning and on student self-concept. Students felt more successful in school, were more motivated to learn and have increased self-confidence and self-esteem when using computer-based instruction. This was particularly true when the technology allowed learners to control their own learning.
• The level of effectiveness of educational technology is influenced by the specific student population, the software design, the teacher’s role, how the students are grouped, and the level of student access to the technology.
• Students trained in collaborative learning, had higher self esteem and student achievement.
• Introducing technology into the learning environment has been shown to make learning more student-centered, to encourage cooperative learning, and to stimulate increased teacher/student interaction.
• Positive changes in the learning environment brought about by technology are more evolutionary than revolutionary. These changes occur over a period of years, as teachers become more experienced with technology.
• Courses for which computer-based networks were use increased student-student and student-teacher interaction, increased student-teacher interaction with lower-performing students, and did not decrease the traditional forms of communication used. Many student who seldom participate in face-to-face class discussion become more active participants online.
• Greater student cooperation and sharing and helping behaviors occurred when students used computer-based learning that had students compete against the computer rather than against each other.
• Small group collaboration on computer is especially effective when student have received training in the collaborative process.