The Chalkboard-less Classroom

Abstract

Classrooms are radically changing across the nation's campuses. Rooms that were once dominated by bright lights, chalkboards, and overhead projectors are being transformed into multimedia “Master Classrooms,” complete with task lighting, video projectors, visualizers, laserdisk and videotape players, soft boards, and computers. What are these pieces of equipment, how much do they cost, and how can they be implemented into horticultural curriculum? Just as our college students teethed on television programs such as Sesame Street when they were toddlers, they now are continuing to learn through a combination of audio, video, and kinesthetic stimulation in the classroom. Computer hardware and software empowers today's educator with a multimedia development studio on his/her desktop to create simple “slide” presentations or complex, interactive multimedia applications. However, it is not multimedia itself, any more than it was the chalkboard, that makes a powerfully educational presentation; rather it is the educator's creativity, utilization of instructional methods, and delivery. Interactive, multimedia development software allows the educator to address different styles and paces of learning as he or she develops a lesson. Through on-screen hot spots, movable objects, buttons, etc., the educator engages the learner's attention and provides the opportunity for the learner to rehearse a concept as often and repeatedly as necessary to encode the information for later retrieval and application to new concepts. Given the power of this new medium to visually and audibly present information, how does the educator avoid overloading the learner? Although multimedia applications readily engage the learner, it takes careful programming by the educator to maintain and direct the learner's attention to ensure transfer of the information from short- to long-term memory.