Inside This Week’s Episode: — A 21st century classroom is all about collaboration, student-centered activities, and…multimedia. Research shows that multimedia is an important element to engaging and interactive instruction. Tune in to learn about the impact that multimedia learning has on today’s elementary classroom.

Your students are Digital Natives.

I came across a term in some of my research about the 21st century classroom, and that term was digital natives.  It refers to those students, the ones you are teaching right now, who have grown up with technology and have adapted to it.

This is in contrast to what most adults, 30+, experienced in their learning career. Yes, we use technology now, but it wasn’t native to us.  Technology was not our native language like it has become for our students.  Our students are digital natives, and technology is their native language.

Since this is the world we live in, there has been a lot of study and research around how learning through technology and multimedia learning is processed by the brain - and the impact it has on students.

We’ve learned that the brain process information using two channels - visual and auditory.  And what we’ve come to discover is that when the brain is offered both channels - the brain is able to take in and process even MORE information.

That leads me to the idea of multimedia learning. By taking advantage of multiple mediums (images, graphics, videos, audio, and others) we can dramatically enhance student learning. 

And THAT’s what 21st century instruction is all about.

In this week’s episode I’m unpacking the research. I’ll leave out the fluff and get straight to what this means for the elementary classroom.

Links & Resources Mentioned in the Episode

EPISODE 94: 3 Tips for Increasing Student Success (That You Can Start Using TODAY!)

EPISODE 96: How to Make Your Next Lesson Plan Ridiculously Amazing!

ARTICLE: Understanding Multimedia Learning

Join the LINKtivity Learning Membership and get access to my entire vault of LINKtivity Interactive Learning Guides - CLICK HERE to join.

Here’s what We Talked About:

• What is multimedia instruction (and what does it look like in the elementary classroom)?

• How does our brain process multimedia (and what does this mean for how teachers create instruction)?

• How can we use what we know about long term and working memory to change the way we teach?

• What can teachers do to make the most of their instruction so that MORE learning is absorbed?

• What do teachers need to consider when it comes to providing EFFECTIVE multimedia instruction to their students.

Our Commitment to providing effective multimedia resources

I want you to know that one of the ways that I personally am committed to helping teachers have access to effective multimedia instruction is through my new LINKtivity Learning Membership. 

LINKtivities are interactive digital learning guides that take a topic and present it in a multimedia format that lets students truly explore a topic at their own pace, under their control - using a lot of the effective multimedia features mentioned above.

Inside the LINKtivity Learning Membership teachers can get access to my entire library of LINKtivities for one low monthly or annual price. 

Now, here’s something exciting: Once you’re a member, you not only get access to the LINKtivities already inside the membership (which now includes 60+ LINKtivities and counting!), but you will get immediate access to all future LINKtivities added each month to the membership at no extra charge.  

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