0.3 Interactive media

Interactive Media

Computer-based interactive media creates a multimedia learning environment that capitalizes on the features of both video and computer-assisted instruction. It is an instructional delivery system in which recorded visuals, sound, and video materials are presented under computer control to viewers who not only see and hear the pictures and sounds but also make active responses, with those responses affecting the pace and sequence of the presentation.

The video portion of interactive media is provided through CD-ROM, DVD, or the Web. Because CD-ROM discs can store many types of digital information, including text, graphics, photographs, animation, and audio, they are popular in school setting, library media centers, and classrooms of all sorts. Anything that can be stored on a computer disk can be stored on a CD-ROM. Multimedia CD-ROM products are commonly found in school library media centers, primarily in the form of encyclopedias or other reference databases .The application of multimedia and hypermedia to core curriculum is increasing with the advent of improved quality of available resources. In higher education there is large-scale experimentation with locally produced multimedia and hypermedia, but such applications have been limited to specific content areas, such as modern languages, communications, and technology studies.

The images can be presented in slow motion, fast motion, or frame-by-frame (as in a slide show). The audio portion may occupy two separate audio channels, making possible two different narrations for each motion sequence.

The interactive aspect of interactive video is provided through computers, which have powerful decision making abilities. Combining computers and video allows the strengths of each to compensate for the limitations of the other to provide a rich educational environment for the learner. Interactive media is a powerful, practical method for individualizing and personalizing instruction.

With the introduction of hypermedia, it has become easier to prepare teacher- developed and student-developed interactive multimedia. Students are discovering an innovative way to activate their learning through simple-to-prepare hypermedia stacks.

The heart of an interactive media system is the computer, which provides the ‘intelligence’ and interactivity required. The computer can command the system to present audio or video information, wait for the learner’s response, and branch to the appropriate point in the instructional program from that response.

The learner communicates with the instructional program by responding to audio, visual, or verbal stimuli displayed on the monitor. Input devices provide the means for these responses. These devices include such items as a keyboard, keypad, light pen, barcode reader, touch-sensitive screen, and mouse.

A monitor displays the picture and emits the sound from the video source. It can also display the output from the computer software, which may have text, graphics, or sound effects. In most systems the computer output can be superimposed over the video image.