What Is Multimedia?

The word "Multimedia" simply means being able to communicate in more than one way. This means that, whether you are aware of it or not, you already give multimedia presentations. For example if you rub your temples while telling someone you have a headache or when you point to a diagram on a board whilst speaking to a class of students you are using multimedia to get your point across. In this instance your are using movement in conjunction with sound. Check out the examples at the bottom of the page.

So multimedia is all about communicating in several ways.

For example the computer you are using to view this material is capable of flashing text and beeping when there is a problem. It is already a multimedia computer - anything else is a matter of degree. In other words the more capable your computer is at handling sound, video and graphics the better your multimedia packages will look.

Originally the term multimedia was used by institutions that run distance learning courses in which they deliver content via a combination of text, TV, telephone, audio cassette and the radio. So the idea of using multimedia for education is not new. What is new is the way in which we now use computers to bring these things together. The advent of high resolution screens and sound and video playback facilities for computers has resulted in the increased use of multimedia applications for education.

A typical multimedia application is characterized by the following features:

• the different media it possesses and makes use of

• the use of digital technology

• the interaction it demands of the user

• and the integration of sound, images, text and data into seamless applications

Multimedia is more than one concurrent presentation medium (for example, on CD-ROM or a Web site). Although still images are a different medium than text, multimedia is typically used to mean the combination of text, sound, and/or motion video. Some people might say that the addition of animated images (for example, animated GIF on the Web) produces multimedia, but it has typically meant one of the following:

• Text and sound

• Text, sound, and still or animated graphic images

• Text, sound, and video images

• Video and sound

• Multiple display areas, images, or presentations presented concurrently

• In live situations, the use of a speaker or actors and "props" together with sound, images, and motion video

Multimedia can arguably be distinguished from traditional motion pictures or movies both by the scale of the production (multimedia is usually smaller and less expensive) and by the possibility of audience interactivity or involvement (in which case, it is usually called interactive multimedia). Interactive elements can include: voice command, mouse manipulation,