Expanding Global Awareness: The Use of Student-Developed Multimedia Created in a Cooperative Learning Environment

How can a classroom teacher reconcile the need for students with diverse backgrounds and abilities to master specific learning objectives within a content area with the simultaneous need for them to build their technology skills? Student-made digital multimedia could be the answer for students at all grade levels. Student achievement and effective technology integration are possible when technology skills necessary for creating multimedia are interwoven with instructional planning for the achievement of content-based objectives. When the class content is aligned with rigorous academic standards, successful project completion can help increase student achievement and academic performance on high-stakes tests. Multimedia projects provide a vehicle for students to use technology in an authentic context and to create an expression of acquired knowledge. Students, by constructing their own knowledge through a complex combination of experiences, resources, and tools, use digital multimedia projects as process and product to demonstrate what they have learned. Students also gain a deeper level of understanding by developing their projects for a broad, even global, audience. The Multimedia Mania (MM) awards program (http://www.ncsu.edu/mmania/) was conceived for this purpose. This article asserts that participation in programs such as Multimedia Mania gives students a voice within a wider audience beyond the school walls and gets them actively engaged in content that connects them to the global community.