Using Information Technology to Improve Learning in Higher Education: An Investigation of Multimedia Presentations and Group Support Systems

The traditional lecture method, used most frequently in today\u27s college classrooms, has a number of limitations. Lectures do not encourage students to be active, may not be an adequate means of communication for complex concepts, do not encourage critical thinking, and may not be adaptive to individual student needs. The use of information technology (IT) applications in the classroom is often portrayed as the silver bullet for the problems associated with lectures. Every major university is investing a significant amount of money on creating classrooms that can support a variety of information technologies. Almost all technologically enabled classrooms provide support for two kinds of technologies: networking and multimedia. The assumption made here is that instructors would develop or use applications that can take advantage of the networking/multimedia infrastructure available in the classrooms and use them in an innovative fashion to improve teaching. Multimedia presentations and Group Support Systems are two such applications