Home PublicationsJRTEPast IssuesVolume 31 Number 1

Edited by Diane McGrath, Kansas State University

formerly Journal of Research on Computing in Education

William Colangelo
Jersey City State College

Sharon Shelton-Colangelo
SUNY Old Westbury

Abstract

Multimedia software packages enable students to create animations in a medium that once was the realm of elite technicians and artists. An examination of collaborative multimedia projects by middle school students reveals the unique challenges, both technical and social, that teachers may encounter with new technologies and strategies for dealing with them. The students' relative ease in learning sophisticated programs indicates that teachers might spend less time simply transmitting technical knowledge about particular software programs and more time fostering flexible learning strategies that focus on problem solving and coping with technological complexity.

Contributors

William Colangelo is an assistant professor of educational technology at Jersey City State College. He received his doctorate from New York University in Music, submitting the first dissertation at NYU in the form of an interactive CD-ROM. In his 16 years of work in the computer field, he has provided technical planning and support for educational environments from preschool through the university level. He has trained faculty and students in the use of e-mail, CD-ROMs, multimedia presentation managers, Web pages and servers, and digital video and sound editing. In addition, he taught music technology and animation at the Dalton School, as well as serving as network administrator for the New Lab for Teaching and Learning. He currently teaches "Using the Internet in Education" and "Multimedia Tools for Collaborative Learning" at Jersey City State College and is president of Learning Consulting Services, Inc., an educational technology and networking consultant service for New York and New Jersey area schools. He is currently writing New Connections for Learning, a book about using a computer network to create a constructivist learning environment. Sharon Shelton-Colangelo is an assistant professor of teacher education at SUNY Old Westbury and director of field experience. She received her doctorate from New York University in English education. President of LEARN, an organization of language arts educators, she also edits its newsletter. Shelton-Colangelo has pioneered the integration of technology into education methods classes and has used case-based reflection in her education classes. In addition to journal articles, she is author of Voices of Student Teachers: Case Studies from the Field, an upcoming book by Prentice Hall (December 1998). (Address: Drs. William Colangelo and Sharon Shelton-Colangelo, 55 Reeve Place, Brooklyn, NY 11218; shshelton@erols.com.)

A PDF file of the full article is available. Contact: jrte@iste.org. Please specifiy Volume and Issue number and article name.

Copyright © 1998, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). All rights reserved.