ED-MEDIA 1999 Proceedings Book - Association for the ...

Using Multimedia to support mentors
Simon Walker
University of Greenwich
United Kingdom
Abstract: This paper reports on the development of a new system for training mentors of student
teachers in Post Compulsory Education & Training (PCET) by a team of educational practitioners
at the University of Greenwich with little previous experience in multimedia development. It's
rationale is discussed in the light of the difficulties of providing training and support. A solution is
proposed with regard to Dearing's National Committee of Inquiry (1997) into Higher Education in
the UK, which states that, in cases where other methods have failed, improvements in motivation
and understanding may occur through the use of new technology. The system combines the
development of an Interactive Multimedia Learning Environment (IMLE) with an On-Line campus.
The prototype is discussed and issues of design heuristics are raised.
Context
The Post Graduate Certificate of Education programme for pre-service full-time students is taught jointly by staff at
the University of Greenwich and by staff in their own institutions throughout the student teacher's work experience.
The programme is delivered over a single academic year. Between 250 - 350 students each year are taken on and are
trained to be teachers in a variety of academic and vocational subjects. Each student teacher is supported by a
subject mentor in a range of culturally and geographically diverse PCET institutions. The mentor has two basic
generic tasks encompassing a range of subsidiary roles that need to be performed. Firstly, the mentor organises
appropriate teaching experiences and secondly, the mentor supports the student teacher's professional development
in teaching their subject areas. The mentor's ability to respond to the student teacher's professional development
hinges on their own understanding of the relationship between the knowledge, skills and processes of mentoring and
the support provided by the University for them in this role.
Following research conducted by questionnaire with 10 university tutors and 117 student teachers, a number of
factors were identified as affecting the quality of mentor training.
(a) Diminishing resources resulted in a lack of time for any sustained level of support for training the mentors.
(b) The difficulty of arranging F2F meetings because of issues of physical distance and/or clashes with timetables.
Research was also conducted with 36 subject mentors to confirm the acceptability and content of using an ITC
system for supporting them in this role.
A proposal to develop interactive multimedia using hybrid CD ROM technology was supported jointly by the
School of PCET and Academic Development Group at the University of Greenwich. It was seen as a possible
solution to the above problems for a number of reasons:
• interactive multimedia environments may extend the setting and amplify opportunities for learning in a dynamic
way
• CD-ROM technology is relatively inexpensive and allows the storage of large amounts of (non-editable)
interactive support material
• by using the potential of hybrid CD-ROM, the integration of web browsers with embedded links makes
communication with an On-Line Campus with dedicated sites for supporting mentors possible.
Design heuristics
Learning how to develop and produce interactive multimedia involved a significant learning curve. For many of us,
the greatest educational technological development over the last fifty years has been the Overhead Projector. Unless