( 1993 ) reports that students who build and use hypermedia apparently develop a proficiency in organizing knowledge about a subject in a more expert-like fashion . They are able to represent multiple linkages between ideas and organize concepts into meaningful clusters . In turn , these superior knowledge representations support more complex arguments in written essays . These studies indicate that the conceptual organization skills acquired through building hypermedia / multimedia are sufficiently robust to allow students to generalize these skills to content that they acquire from other sources .
The studies reviewed above support the conclusion that designing multimedia is a complex process that engages many skills in learners . Carver , Lehrer , Connell , and Ericksen ( 1992 ) list some of the major thinking skills that learners learn and use as multimedia designers :
Project Management Skills
• Creating a timeline for the completion of the project .
• Allocating resources and time to different parts of the project .
• Assigning roles to team members . Research Skills
• Determining the nature of the problem and how research should be organized .
• Posing thoughtful questions about structure , models , cases , values , and roles .
• Searching for information using text , electronic , and pictorial information sources .
• Developing new information with interviews , questionnaires and other survey methods .
• Analyzing and interpreting all the information collected to identify and interpret patterns .
Organization and Representation Skills
• Deciding how to segment and sequence information to make it understandable .
• Deciding how information will be represented ( text , pictures , movies , audio , etc .).
• Deciding how the information will be organized ( hierarchy , sequence ) and how it will be linked .
Presentation Skills
• Mapping the design onto the presentation and implementing the ideas in multimedia .
• Attracting and maintaining the interests of the intended audiences . Reflection Skills
• Evaluating the program and the process used to create it .
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