For years I had my eighth-grade exploratory language students write a story about a hypothetical trip to Paris. Not only do the students find this much more challenging and exciting, but they can proudly present their stories to the entire class, not just to the teacher. Student-created multimedia presentation can be effectively used to demonstrate and reinforce knowledge of the target language and culture using a variety of skills and resources.
Multimedia is a fun way to get students to practice their language skills.
Designing and orchestrating a multimedia project requires them to use higher level thinking skills. Technology skills gained through the use of multimedia in school will be useful later on as the students enter the work force. And multimedia is an excellent tool for created portfolios that demonstrate students' progress at various levels. Multimedia presentations can also be used in conjunction with oral projects. In order to review grammatical constructions, students can be assigned to create lessons demonstrating various concepts for their classmates or for lower-level students.