Designing for tacit learning: an investigation of design strategies for multimedia supported learning in the crafts

There is an increasing interest and activity in the design of interactive multimedia to support learning in all fields of education and training. However, most of the theory to support such developments is concerned with learning explicit knowledge and there is little guidance available to designers of material for learning in areas with an element of tacit knowledge such as craft skills. This paper describes the foundation work for a long-term project concerned with learning in traditional rural crafts but with the intention to provide a methodological framework for the design of multimedia-based learning in all areas of craft knowledge. A review of established theory of learning and the use of multimedia for learning in areas of explicit knowledge indicates some important basic principles, for example the need to understand the interaction between the teacher and learner in the context of the subject being taught and the need for clear narrative structures to avoid students becoming "lost" in the multiple pathways of interactive media. Observational studies of learning using educational video in a craft context and a study of an experienced craftsman/teacher teaching a group of learners, complemented by study of learning in related contexts, have allowed problems and issues to be identified and design strategies to be developed. While these are provisional they provide an overview of the design problems and have been used to plan a programme of experimental design and evaluation to test and develop principles of effective multimedia design for craft learning. </p

A FRAMEWORK FOR MAPPING MULTIMEDIA TO EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTS

Multimedia provides exciting opportunities to education as it allows educational material to be delivered in a multitude of ways, fine-tuned to enhance the learning experience. By using multimedia in e-learning systems, educational material can be presented in ways that both simplify and enhance learning. Increasingly, educational material developers are taking advantage of multimedia technology to deliver education but use multimedia in a variety of ways that are more based on intuition and personal experience and this often leads to the development of an ineffective learning material. Although there are not many main media prototypes (animation, images, video, text, audio), when examined at sub-prototype level, we find that there are many media types that can be used to present educational information. Given the number of available media sub-prototypes, the choice and mode of delivery of multimedia presents a problem in designing educational material. What media type or combination of types do we use for a given educational concept? What media combinations will improve learning for a particular educational concept? This paper presents a method for the selection of appropriate media for educational material and demonstrates how the method could be effectively used in the design of educational material, suitable for e-learning applications