Eric.ed.gov – Instructional Multimedia in the Math Classroom and Beyond.

This paper is based on the reflections of a distance education (DE) mathematics instructor at Pellissippi State Technical Community College in Knoxville, Tennesee. In this DE classroom, 30 students were present with the instructor at the main campus, 8 students at a remote campus in Blount County, and 6 students in Knoxville. The link between the classrooms was made by Instructional Television Fixed Service technology, which connected the classrooms via two-way audio, but only one-way video. The typical class period was divided into two parts: a lecture delivered via a multimedia program using Macromedia Director; and discussion of homework problems that were solved in class using an overhead camera. Problems encountered in the classrooms included: (1) the teacher had to attend to the needs of students he couldn’t see; (2) multimedia delivery involved extensive planning; (3) students at remote campuses were unable to see and hear everything that occurred in the main campus classroom; (4) remote students very rarely interacted without being asked; (5) student-to-student interaction was non-existent; (6) questions asked in the main classroom had to be repeated by the teacher so the remote classrooms could hear; and (7) distance students needed to take more responsibility for their own learning and overcome their intimidation of using microphones to interact with the class. (KP)