Using Media Effectively
The thing with high tech is that you always end up using scissors.
David Hockney
Today most people think "audio-visual" is the place where you check out the projector, or find a student to set up your microphones, but 50 years ago, it was an educational theory. It said that students can sometimes learn better by seeing pictures and listening to sounds, than by reading. Sound familiar? Exactly the same pitch used today by the multi-media snake-oil salesmen to convince your college administration that they will turn out functional illiterates unless they buy the latest servers and DSL network systems (and the maintenance contracts to go along with them). Like all great sales pitches, this one contains at least a grain of truth. A picture sometimes is worth a thousand words. A lousy picture, however, might require a thousand words to explain. No matter what your subject, you will have some kind of visual communication with your students, whether it be writing on a blackboard, or using a computer presentation program. Other than the blackboard, most of your visual communication in a big class will be via a projected image, and much of this chapter will be devoted to getting the most out of a projected image, but first, for the technophobes---.
