The Impact of Educational Technology in the Student Achievement...
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.