FM: http://rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it/~orlandi/

24/05/99 Multimedia and information dissemination: Jacques Souillot


The introduction to this sub-chapter will be left to the editor, since he has to link up the various contributions...

 

NEW COMPANIES

The production of multimedia CD-ROMs has led to the emergence of a new type of industry. New companies specialised in multimedia production have developed their activities in this field at a fast rate/pace. Traditional publishing companies have suffered from some inertia when concerned with integrating this new branch into their structures. Faced with the surge of new competitors they have felt threatened, but having understood that their health, or even their survival, could be at stake, they have reacted promptly and are now ranking among the majors in the multimedia production sector.
 
 

A LIVING AND GROWING MARKET

But who are the customers/users of the multimedia?

Though this powerful technological vector does not seem to develop rapidly nor massively in the educational sphere, it is very popular when used to cater for general public interests, whether it be cultural matters (the fine arts, history, encyclopaedias in general), domestic (cooking, gardening) or more ludic ones (all types of games).

Generally speaking the main multimedia products which have a clearly defined pedagogical strategy are the ones aimed at young children. Commercialised under the form of CD-ROMs they offer "friendly" courses aimed at facilitating, perhaps accelerating, the acquisition of reading competencies, arithmetic basics, or other fundamental skills/knowledge.

The second important bulk of multimedia CD-ROMs consists of the numerous language methods produced by so many companies, whose market analyses lead them to restrict their offer to a very low number of languages, and make their heaviest investments in the most widely studied language, i.e. English, with notably ESP products dedicated to business, management, commerce, sales.

This sketchy picture of the multimedia CD-ROM market shows that parents will be parents, and will always try to do as best as they can to help their children through their schooling. On the other hand these parents do express a thirst for knowledge when it comes to cultural or language products, and really appreciate to see their hobbies taken seriously by the multimedia publishers.

As a matter of fact the general public seem to be keen on multimedia CD-ROMs and on acquiring more knowledge. This established cultural phenomenon is there to stay and develop, as market results tend to prove. The educational world is quite aware of this societal evolution and most of its members are convinced that the multimedia can be a formidable asset to enrich the range of pedagogical tools, and, in a number of fields, improve the quality of learning(/teaching).
 
 

HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE MULTIMEDIA

Despite the tsunami effect of the multimedia on society at large and up to now, very few multimedia products have been available for the training of students at Higher Education levels, and particularly in the Humanities.

This fact is no so surprising though, since Humanities faculties are dramatically under-equipped as far as Information and Communication Technologies are concerned. This is of course a dissuasive element for publishing companies who would think of targeting this market segment. Then for these companies and their multimedia designers the subjects taught in the Humanities (at university) can look a bit complex and fuzzy, imply too many related copyrights issues, require too many experts or too much co-operation with university teachers. There follows that the evaluation of the return on Humanities projects will generally suffer from a negative prognosis, and that the private sector will not invest much in the Humanities under the present conditions.

Furthermore teachers are very few who have had time and interest enough to acquire advanced training in ICTs. Some of them who would really be ready to invest their energy in the domain keep back because their professional profile would then become atypical from an academic point of view, and thus jeopardise the progression of their career.
 
 

THE ADDED-VALUE OF THE MULTIMEDIA

Indeed, if the speed of the spreading of the multimedia in the Humanities at university level is not so high as in the rest of society, it is not because teachers are reluctant to it.

The advantages of using the multimedia for pedagogical, didactical purposes have long been recognised in their mist. Let us stress the main ones:

  •  - as a general rule we remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we hear and see, 70% of what we say, 90% of what we do. Multimedia addressing all these modes of acquisition is a tool that maximises the chances of memorisation.

    •  
  • - multimedia at its best can reach levels of simulation which allow the learner to be fully involved in his cognitive activities by optimising his concentration

    •  
  • - the teaching is individualised, as was already the case with CAT/CAL; it makes it possible for personal rhythms and heuristics, sensorial and cognitive profiles of all types to be taken into account.

    •  
  • - students autonomy is increased, individual time scheduling is respected

    •  
  • - self-tutoring, guaranteed by strong pedagogical safeguards, is effective and efficient.
    •  Furthermore the willingness of the teachers to adopt this technology is concretely expressed in their daily practice of ICTs.
     
     

    THE INTERNET

    Today, already, the Internet has become a quasi common place tool: university web-sites are part of the World Wide Web landscape, academic staff look for HTML information on a daily basis, and do not hesitate to download data or software. The use of the Web is even so ordinary that it has become a reflex for many.
     

    ODL

    Courses on the Internet.........TO BE DEVELOPED
    SOME COLLEAGUES HAVE MORE EXPERIENCE, NO DOUBT
    Who wants to develop it?  Unless you can provide the information and let me try to exploit it.  Thanks for your help, anyway.

    But

    On-line courses could be superseded by off-line ones (CD-ROM) for practical reasons:

    VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

    This could mean that the use of the Internet tends to be limited as an on-line vector for pedagogy, at least in the present conditions. The Internet is best at transmitting data and at distributing it. Courses on the Internet can be organised around transmission (consultation for the student) and distribution (downloading for the student) and accompanied by e-mail and forum exchanges. When the technology is widely available, and affordable, students-teachers, students-students exchanges can migrate to video-conferencing and the virtual classroom.

    But the Internet as a tool for teaching is not reduced to ODL. Teachers in the Humanities expect their students to use the Internet as much as libraries. The Internet is even given preference when the information that is looked for is so recent that it has not been published in the paper format yet.
     
     
    MULTIMEDIA
    CD-ROM
    Web
    CAL/CAT
    +
    ODL - complementary
    Information
    complementary
    +

    VIRTUAL LIBRARY

    Then the formidable advantage of the Internet is that it reduces the need for important numbers of copies of books and documents, thus preserving university libraries from suffocating, while offering a wider variety of publications. Copyrights issues related to university uses of these publications will have to be acknowledged to protect authors' and publishers' rights, taking into account that we are heading towards the creation of virtual libraries.
     
     

    QUALITY DEMANDS

    Humanities teachers, like the rest of contemporary society, have become so used to ICTs that they start expressing their needs. Getting more expert and more demanding, they expect in particular a high level of quality from the multimedia.

    Surface level

    First, multimedia products must have a sound ergonomy

    These various requirements are met through the use of multimedia methods and representations: However they are not easy matters and require lots of efforts and skills to be satisfactorily implemented, and will largely depend on the contents (hence the necessary presence, or collaboration, of the domain expert or "author" at this phase).
     

     Data level

    The second type of requirements teachers express is related to the quality of the data. The main issues here are:

    Those aspects of data quality requirement are to be contrasted with what occurs when working in the paper format:
  • - availability: books are not always available, or can be very difficult to get hold of
  • - validity: the name of the author, of the publisher, can be a guarantee
  • - up-dating: none - wait for a hypothetical revised version
  • - perennity:

    • 1- yes, if you know where to find it
    2- +/- yes, will be reprinted
    3- no, out of print
    Answering their legitimate scientific requests will necessitate a better appreciation of the solutions that could be systematised. This implies that European institutional policies should reflect a firm will to emulate the circulation and sharing of information and knowledge through innovative proposals and measures. There would seem to be an urgent set of decisions to be taken as regards electronic publishing, at least from an academic point of view, which will have to address the following issues among others:

    MULTIMEDIA CD-ROM TECHNOLOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

    If market mechanisms forced companies to jump into the multimedia bandwagon, universities did not have this feeling of urgency. Most of what was experienced or developed there was the fruit of the enthusiasm of some strongly determined individuals. Fortunately a few initiatives by national or European bodies, most significantly European Commission programmes, acted as strong incentives and support for those having a clear interest in the multimedia.

    The projects that were carried out were given scope for viability, through funding, technical assistance; and visibility, thanks to the institutional weight of the given framework.

    What was gained on that strong basis, apart from educational products, is of a strategic importance for the spreading of ICTs in Higher Education:

    Another important aspect of the results and side effects of those experiences is a greater awareness of the Humanities academia about the progressive renewal of their cognitive tools: domain knowledge representations, modelization, formalisation, to start with.

    Furthermore the traditional rhetorical discourse/approach, which is essentially linear, has been confronted with the multimedia one, which is multi-modal, and has encouraged teachers to re-appreciate how knowledge transmission can work best in various situations, and take into account a broader range of parameters.

    Whereas in the past preparing a document to present knowledge consisted in reading, taking notes, thinking of a plan and writing (generally a solitary work), then sending it to the printer, today, with the multimedia, the various steps towards the final document (CD-ROM for example) are more numerous. They also require more structuring, more accuracy, more trans-disciplinary competencies and more collaborative work with people from different fields.

    Indeed the experience of the multimedia and its production is certainly an influencing factor in the re-definition or refining of methodologies. One could say that ICTs are giving Humanities experts new responsibilities, and even re-modelling their identities: they could not only be discipline specialists, but knowledge engineers as well.
     
     

    MULTIMEDIA DESIGNING

    So as to fulfil their new responsibilities as knowledge transmitters, Humanities teachers will have to make theirs, on top of their own discipline and didactic concerns, the nuts and bolts of multimedia designing, from its technological to its more methodological aspects.

    The simple use of the Internet successfully played the role of a pre-school for basic skills in ICTs, and enabled people to apprehend them in a more critical manner. Today Humanities teachers feel they must acquire a more acute expertise in using them and producing with them, whether it be for academic publishing or teaching purposes.

    One should keep in mind that universities are meant to transmit and produce knowledge. They made the most of Gütemberg's invention to cater for society's needs; can they integrate ICTs further to keep true to their missions, or will multimedia producing companies substitute to them in the third millennium?
     

    RECOMMMENDATIONS

    The future of the multimedia in Higher Education, and with it the future of universities themselves, will then essentially depend on the cultural evolution of the university system with respect to ICTs.

    Adequate conditions:

    - work recognition: electronic publications are to be as valid and valuable as paper publications. Besides dissemination of information is fundamental for research; electronic products and tools dedicated to teaching/learning are vectors of this dissemination, and should be given us much credit as theoretical papers (or even possibly more credit, considering the fact that their production requires more time, work, transdisciplinary knowledge, and skills).

    - facilities


    - Recognition of interdisciplinary teams

    Collaboration is a necessity, not only between university staff (as in European projects), but with the private sector as well.

    All the necessary competencies and production structures will rarely be gathered in the same place!
     

    - Recognition of new academic profiles

    Teachers/researchers with competencies in several disciplines (of which computing), applying transdisplinary methods are needed: new profiles have to be included in the academic grids, and new corresponding positions offered to pull things forward.
     

    - Recognition of new sub-sets of Humanities Faculties

    Computer Humanities departments are felt to be absolutely vital. They could be divided themselves at postgraduate level into specialised sections.
     

    - Recognition of new curricula and diplomas.

    All the preceding requisites are linked to the creation of new curricula and diplomas, which will be tuned according to the evolution of society and the job market.
     

    I wish you start critising this text and help me improve it.  It would not be surprising if some of the things were not relevant, and if the whole was not sufficiently coherent.  What I hope is that this paper is not totally out of focus...  Thanks for your help.