Using Multimedia

Picture yourself giving your students a math textbook in the beginning of the school year that only has text and problems to solve. Difficult right? The textbooks we give to our students, have notes, a glossary in english and spanish, introductory letters, interesting facts in the margin, colored pictures and diagrams, among many other elements. These are the pieces that help you to actually open these books and read them or look at them for more than a moment.

Well a curriculum web works the same way. The more multimedia elements that you include in it, the more engaging and effective it will be. What exactly am I referring to when I say multimedia? Well, multiple forms of media, text, pictures, movies, animations, and sound. In the past it was audio and visual messages that reinforced text based messages, now the reverse is true. In that case, it seems illogical not to include the audio aids in your website that will more clearly communicate and engage your students in a learning experience. 

Here are a few tips. If your images and graphics have large file sizes they will take longer to load, which can be very inconvenient and annoying when viewing. In that case you want to make sure your files are as compressed as possible without losing any of the quality. The format in which you save your images and graphics makes a difference in the size so pay close attention. Use JPEG files for full-color photographs, because it can maintain the elements better than other formats when compressed. GIF files are best for logos, cartoons and illustrations with areas of solid color. Keep on the lookout for PNG (portable network graphics) files which are better than GIF at compressing files and result in the quality being affected very little.