All entries for Monday 12 December 2011

Creating and sharing multimedia

The author of this week's theme is Nicolas Pillai. Nicolas is an early career researcher in the department of Film and Television Studies. His latest research looks at the comic book's transmedia properties. Nicolas will be supporting your progress this week through comments on your blogs, or you can contact him via his eportfolio.

Multimedia tools allow us to promote research in the wider world. They involve a process of conversion, as we transform our ideas into visual representations. These tools allow us to engage not just with peers and experts, but also with non-academic audiences. Inevitably, this brings with it a unique set of anxieties.

The idea of balance will be important to both of this theme’s “things.” As I suggest in the video, it’s your research that must be the focus of any multimedia presentation. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t make it look pretty!

We will be exploring two kinds of multimedia:

• media created by you (Prezi presentations)
• media created by others (Youtube videos)

How do we, as researchers, make use of both kinds of media? Throughout this week’s tasks, it’s important to keep asking yourself how these tools can contribute not just to your own research activities, but also to teaching and to wider impact beyond the research sector.

Here are some questions to get you started:

How can I use multimedia in my research?
Creating a presentation on an aspect of your research can be a valuable process, allowing you to identify key points more clearly. Presentations are a powerful tool for disseminating your research at conferences and symposia, contributing to your researcher identity as well as provoking questions from your research community. We will also be looking at how multimedia can be used as a research tool, and the methodological issues that raises.

How can I use multimedia in my teaching?
Students respond well to multimedia teaching. Using YouTube in lectures can help to illustrate a point or raise questions. Some academics post videos of their lectures online, a great way of demonstrating confidence and accomplishment.

How can I use multimedia for impact?
Sharing is a social media watchword at the moment. Adding multimedia tools to your repertoire lets you distinguish yourself and stand out from the crowd. As well as creating the opportunity for collaboration, sharing your media allows you to reach non-academic audiences and involve them in your research.

Emma Cragg : 12 Dec 2011 16:49 |  Tags: Multimedia Theme10 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem