Project 1

Title:

Application of multimedia-based learning to improve creativity, continuous learning and autonomous learning in Health Education – A concern of lower primary schools in Mauritius

Description of projects:

Multimedia-Based Learning (MBL) has significantly impacted on our primary education system in Mauritius. Nowadays, classroom teaching no longer simply relies on chalk and blackboard as the main medium for course dissemination. E-Learning technologies have made it possible to provide a virtual classroom environment, flipped classrooms, gamification among others through supporting teacher-student and student-student communications, course material distribution as well as online assessments. This research sets out to discover the scopes of this new learning trend. We can indeed use new technologies to learn old things in new ways, but the way the learner acquires knowledge and the developments of formal pedagogy have not changed in any significant way. The emergence of MBL creates new challenges for primary teachers and students. Simply putting more computers in a school will not enhance creativity, continuous and autonomous learning. Rather the intervention of Multimedia Based Learning will help to support learning activities, in-class assessment and review, focussed tasks, and teachers’ autonomy. Hence teaching, learning, and technology integration need to be redefined within a pervasive computing structure before educational opportunities in-built in digital technologies can be realized. Teaching needs to be re-explored more as guiding than commanding. Learning needs to be fun and become more the responsibility of the child even at a tender age, and be along with him in an extended space and time that goes beyond the classroom. With this mode of reconceptualisation, technology integration needs to be understood as an Open Innovator, a Creative Worker that will motivate teaching strategies and learning needs. Doing things differently should take precedence over doing more. Various technology facilities should be made available to teachers and students within and beyond the classroom boundaries. The necessity of MBL is here, what remains to clarify is the what and the How to do things. Latest e-learning specific multimedia technologies, their research challenges and future trends from both pedagogical and technological perspectives will be analysed and elaborated.