Effects of Multimedia Technology on Learning Strategies of Learners

Munkhtuya Lkhagvasuren

Badamsuren Batsuuri

Mongolian State University of Education,
Mongolia

Mongolian State University of Education,
Mongolia

lmtuya@gmail.com

Bat_badamsuren@yahoo.com

Abstract
Currently, multimedia technology has been a frequent subject of research. Since it has been the question ofresearch for many years, the countries that are using Information Technology have been studying the effects of
the Information technology on the quality of learning process of learners and pedagogy of teachers and even they
have had their own policies.
It has been 20 years since information communication technology started to be used for instruction in Mongolia.
A number of foreign and domestic projects are being implemented in the field of using ICT in instruction.
Nevertheless, the different ICT infrastructure in the country has had negative impacts on implementation ofprojects and programs. In this case, the School of Computer Science and Information Technology, MongolianState University of Education has organized annual national contests under the topic as “Application anddevelopment of multimedia technology in instruction” for primary and secondary teachers since 2006 with theaims of revealing objective results and progress of the above mentioned projects and programs for instruction
and providing possibilities of sharing and disseminating experiences for teachers. Many primary and secondary
teachers of different subjects from urban and rural places participate in the contest.
In this article, we focus on multimedia technology’s support of learning process of learnersandteaching
methodology of teachers”, based on works and creations of the contest participants. The paper took a focus
interview from primary and secondary teachers to reveal difficulties and problems when teachers design eresources for lessons.
The paper has more practical advantages and it contains the following issues:
1. The study identifies the usage of multimedia technology in primary and secondary levels, based onsurveys.
2. What can the didactic requirements be to design multimedia resources?
Key words: Information technology, multimedia technology, teacher, learner, learning strategy, methodology oflearning

-Policy on introducing ICT in instruction
In order to implement ICT in the education sector of Mongolia, the policy documents below have beendeveloped and certain measures have been taken.
The concept of development of ICT in Mongolia until 2010
(The appendix of the procedure 21 approved in 2000)
Main guidelines of introducing ICT in the field of education until 2010 (Order # 151 approved by the Minister ofEnlightenment June, 2000)
National program on distance training
E-Mongolia national program (2006)
Main guidelines of introducing ICT in primary and secondary education until 2015 (Order # 450 approved by theMinistry of Education, Culture & Science 2006)
Master plan on Development of Educational Sector of Mongolia from 2006-2015 (Order # 192 by theGovernment of Mongolia, 2006)
Program on Development of National Innovation System of Mongolia (Order # 306 by the Government ofMongolia, 2007)
Education National program (Order # 31 by the Government of Mongolia, 2010)
Roadmap of Higher Education Reform ( 2012-2021)
Policy on ICT in the field of Education (The appendix 1, order A 24 by Ministry of Education & Culture, 2012)
Issues on Teacher Education Reform
Different countries around the world have been gaining the experience in developing education in accordancewith informative social concept. Educational state in the field of informative society has been considered as
below: (Table 1)
Table 1. The state of education in informative society
Education in information based society (new concepts)- Schools as a one part of society are integrated to society.
School- Open information- Guides learning- Guides independent learning of learners
Teacher- Helps learners to evaluate their learning (self-assessment)- Require more good communication skills- learn actively- may study at schools and other environment- work in groups
Learner- propose issues- explore to answer questions and ask questions- have more interest for learning- take part in instructional process actively
Parents- take part in management activities- are involved in life-long continuous education
The main force for the knowledge-based society is education but the core of the educational development isteacher development. Today’s teachers should have competencies of developing themselves continuously,
receiving and using new information and technology, doing research on facing issues and using the results. Inaddition, knowledge, abilities, and communication skill for leading teaching and learning and team working skill
are required for teachers in a modern society (Figure 1).
ICT competency is based on the process of using ICT
facilities and tools for knowledge transmission,dissemination and knowledge acquisition. A technology
supports the process of creating, saving, using, transmitting
and disseminating the information.ICT is significant toimprove the process of teaching and learning. Teachers havepossibilities of improving the student’s learning process bypreparing and experimenting e-training materials, improving
and updating them, using the web and blog for instructional
purposes and introducing distance training system. As
instructional software program, instructional games andinstructional packaged program are used for the training,
students’ learning style will be developed.
Teacher is a reformer and a developer of educational
purpose, content, methodology and evaluation in accordancewith social and learners’ needs and demands a person whoFigure 1 Components of teacher competencesreforms the knowledge-based instruction to an action-based training; a developer who determines andencourages students’ learning style and a facilitator of acquiring knowledge-based learning style. Therefore, thereform should be made by teachers at first.
ICT is able to transmit information regardless of capacity, type, content, time and distance. Therefore, we have
had a possibility of organizing knowledge-based actions by using ICT.

Education

Process to createknowledge

ICT

Environment
ICT
Figure 2. Framework on the research of ICT in education

Reform of instructional technology and multimedia technology
In the reform of instructional technology, multimedia technology is a tool for introducing methodology ofteaching and learning, new content of subjects, practicing and establishing and improving cooperation between
teachers, learners and parents. As for learners, ICT is a tool for presenting visual aids of information obtained asa result of creative and projects works. As well, it becomes a tool for self-assessment of learning and gives
possibilities to evaluate knowledge and skills of learners.
In multimedia-based instruction, teachers have such responsibilities as providing a variety of
information sources (website, e-textbooks, instructional programs etc), focus learners on topics being studied bymotivating, teaching them methods of doing research, introducing products and assignments of learners to theirpeers and others, attracting them to discussion by questioning and answering and monitoring learning process.
Moreover, they are responsible for directing learners to propose and solve issues, giving assignment guidelines
and evaluating their teaching activities and process (participating in discussion and cooperating with professional
teachers etc).
As well, learners have a variety of roles, namely, determining methods for doing assignments,
constructing new knowledge by searching for and using specific information related to subjects, cooperating andexchanging ideas on issues being studied, making a real product by doing assignments (in the forms of file andprint) and introducing their works and offering new information to teachers, their classmates and others.
Current situation, experience and recommendation on application of multimedia technology in instruction ofprimary and secondary schools.
It has been 20 years since information communication technology started to be used for instruction in Mongolia.
A number of foreign and domestic projects are being implemented in the field of using ICT in instruction.
Nevertheless, the introduction of ICT infrastructure in the country is different and this situation has had some
impacts on implementation of projects and programs. In this case, the School of Computer Science andInformation Technology, Mongolian State University of Education has organized annual national contests under
the topic as “Application and development of multimedia technology in instruction” for primary and secondary
teachers since 2006 with the aims of revealing objective results and progress of the above mentioned projects
and programs for instruction and providing possibilities of sharing and disseminating experiences for teachers.
Many primary and secondary teachers of different subjects from urban and rural places participate in the contest.
The contest is organized with three stages. In this:
1. The contest is organized in 21 provinces and 9 districts of Ulaanbaatar city and creations of teachers
who win are sent to the contest commission.
2. The contest commission selects 10 creations and gives permission to take part in 3rd stage.
3. The commission chooses “National best teacher as user of multimedia technology” among the selected
10 creations.
The study considers the support and help given for learning process of learners and teaching activities
of teachers, based on 30 creations of the contest participants for last 3 years.
А. General information of the contest participants
Out of all participants, 47% are from Ulaanbaatar city and 53% are from rural areas. The contest creations arebased on the content of subjects as informatics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, technology, geography, English,natural science and project-based learning. Teachers of natural science are involved in the contest more thanteachers of other subjects. Teachers apply a variety of programs including MS office programs, Adobe Flash,Scratch, Lecture Maker, Gtk-record Mydesktop, Cisco binary game, 3D geo, MS Office Learning Suite, KSEG

and Articulate Quiz Maker in order to design multimedia resources for their lessons. It is seen that theinstructional quality and learning process are supported by using e-textbooks, web based resources, blog andmobile phone based resources for lessons.
B. Providing creative teaching strategies and learning process
It studies about the support given to teaching methods and learning process when teachers who participate in thecontests introduce multimedia technology. The analysis of the study data reveals that:

Educational level

Primary
education

Lower secondary
education

Higher secondary
education

Table 2.Multimedia technology’s support of learning strategies
Supporting teaching activities
Supporting learning strategies- Teachers use computers to teach - Learners use instructional programs forlessons using games in the subjects as providing practice and activities in the subjects
mathematics, English and natural as reading, grammar and mathematics. In thisscience of primary education.
case, learners learn to use a computer and- Teachers use computers to design improve skills of creative and imaginative
curricula, visual aids, handout materials thinking.
and e-tests.
- Teachers work with teachers ofdifferent subjects and teams of teachers
in some cases.
- Teachers use Internet and have access - Learners improve their learning strategies using
to information for project and problem multimedia by calculating, studying grammar,
based learning.
using foreign dictionaries and know about-They use computers to design historical time sequences.
educational documents and lesson - As well, while they search for internet, learners
materials. It includes processing and are able tosaving information, writing personal find maps of world countries and scripts ofletters to parents, design a variety of historical places, read works of other learners,
certificates and appreciation and start news, current issues and fictional stories andtravel through internet museum.
data file for learners etc.
- Teachers design interactive, web
based and mobile phone based
instructional resources together withother teachers.
- Teachers share their experiences andtake suggestions IT person.

- Learners are able to see process of experimentsof lessons of natural science and study the wayof doing experiments and do experiments.
- Learners improve their communication skill
using Internet.
- Learners are prepared to use computers in thefuture, and identify development of hardware
and software when they study specific subjects.

Conclusion
The study shows that organizing instructions using multimedia technology has brought many effects. Teachersemphasize that multimedia technology has become a tool for supporting intellectual development and developing
creative thinking. The study involves 30 teachers who took part in the national contest named “Application anddevelopment of multimedia technology in instruction” for last 30 years. Teachers are exploring, experimenting
and improving ways of supporting learning process by applying interactive games, instructional programs anddoing experiments depending on subjects they teach. However, it seems that policy makers and school
management should consider that there are some issues to design instructional resources using multimedia
technology. In this:-Improve ICT competency of teachers by organizing staged trainings. Organize trainings in regions and local
cities or online trainings
Support to improve infrastructural resources as computers for the use of teachers and schools
Design and apply open instructional software and games in instruction
Multimedia technology can make big contribution to develop cognitive needs of learners, motivate their learninginterests, improve learning strategies and enhance their knowledge and capabilities independently. On the otherhand, it becomes a tool for improving instructional quality and results.

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