Multimedia Instruction: A Path to Information Literacy for Students with Special Needs

A group of middle-grades students served in a Special Education Information Literacy class were taught a 6-step procedure for completing a research report through the use of an interactive multimedia instructional unit. The students were surveyed pre- and post-intervention to describe experiences, changes in learning and increase or decrease in self-confidence with completing research assignments. A pre-intervention assessment, in the form of a 250-500 word research project, was scored using a typical middle-grades research grading rubric. The students and the teachers maintained daily journal entries to describe experiences, learning, and self-confidence during the intervention. A similar post-intervention assessment was used to determine the percentage of change in skills possibly attributable to the multimedia instruction. While the rubric scores of the students increased from 100 to 167% after the multimedia instruction, the scores remained below the minimum passing score. Students experienced difficulties with the time allotted for each lesson, indicating they needed more time and practice to internalize the procedure.Zahner, JaneWebb, Jessica B.Schmertzing, LorraineEd.S.Instructional Technolog