1. Synthesis Quest #3
Zack March

2. Learning Preferences
• My scores for the learning preferences survey at the beginning of the
course were very in between and not too far in certain directions. I scored
a 7 for reflective, 5 for verbal and 3 for sensing and sequntial. By the end
of the class my style of preferences hadn’t really changed andtehey still
had little separation. I still preferred to be reflective and do work
delligently on my own (as I am doing this quest) rather than working in
groups. And I continued to study verbally seeking out facts in words and
listening to screencasts before tests rather than paying attention to
illustration. I learned by the end of class that choosing the correct
pathways towards learning and learning to improve on your weaker
preferences is very important for understanding new topics. I’ve pretty
much known this before taking this class but ITEC 299 helped me utilize
these characteristics while studying. I guess it does help to know your
preferences as far as having them explained to you to better understand
yourself. But really I’ve known this about myself since I’ve been actively
studying pretty much since high school so it’s kind of like someone telling
you what you already know, nothing really changed.
Zack March

3. Learning Pathways
In my case as far as a pathway for learning for this class I
chose I wanted to be a Learning Warrior. I wanted to seek
deeper into technologies for personal growth and better
knowledge. I believed I fulfilled this pathway by obtaining new
knowledge that not only helped me in this class, and other
classes but also my job (social media public relations). I may
have dipped into the Learning Sage pathway a bit because I
did learn about a lot of new devices and web tools I didn’t
know existed. Devices that could help me learn by reviewing
and sharing content with others such as podcasts, screencasts,
voddler, youtube, etc. There are many tools out there that I
didn’t fully understand until this class. But all in all, since I
mainly used the social material I learned in this class to better
myself so I believe I stayed a warrior.
Zack March

4. Activities for my Learning Pathway
• Activities for using mutlimedia to learn, such as lessons on learning
new subjects such as physics, math, literature and history , really
helped expand my knowledge on how I can utilize screencasts and
podcasts. The multimedia learning activities where you listen to
streaming lessons or even short stories such as Voxopop and
VoiceThread showed me how to learn in a whole new light. I had
never used any of these multimedia tools, especially for learning
but now I see the importance and quality you can get from a simple
click of the mouse. To get a deeper understanding after exploring
these different tools it was time to try them out. I listened in on
various podcasts and screencasts some to explore new subjects and
some for just pure entertaiment. I found that these tools can keep
you up to date on your favorite subjects as well as teach you
something new. You could most definitely use this as a collaborative
learning tool for group work and study sessions.
Zack March

5. Multimedia Top 3
• Podcasts:
A helpful multimedia technology quest that aided in my learning was the quest on podcasts. I have used
podcasts before this class, but I was unaware of how much potential this technology has to be a learning
tool. I only used podcasts to listen to about videos and interviews with some celebrities/athletes. By
reading over the slides and taking the quiz, I was able to broaden my knowledge on podcasts in way that
could help me with my classes. The predict, use, and evaluate activity showed me some of the uses for
how podcasts could be used for learning and showed that I could find subjects on topics that I am learning
about in my class. Although audio and global were not any of my learning preferences, I feel that by using
podcasts for learning, I was able to stimulate the learning preferences that I did not have in the beginning
of the semester. By listening to many podcasts for educational purposes helped stimulate my audio
learning preference and by sharing and finding other podcasts on the internet, this has helped me
stimulate my global learning preference.
Screencasts:
Screencast is one of the multimedia tools. I see the important of it because by look into the slides
alone I wont be able to understand much and wont be able to narrow all the contents into slides, but
screencast allowed the presenter to record the audio into the slides without all those clutter text, helping
learning to get the main idea easier and understand the detail via the audio. This would help sequential,
visual, and sensing learner best.
YouTube:
My favorite multimedia technology is by far the educational videos that incorporate text, video, and
sound. I’m an avid user of YouTube.com which is, in my opinion, the best site for finding such videos. For
example, when I’m looking for information regarding a historical figure I can most likely find it on this site.
This technology accommodates my verbal and sequential learning preference because of the speech and
chronological order of the information. As an example, when I research a documentary on an athlete, I can
see a film that a narrator that goes through the life of the athlete from the beginning to the end/present.
This makes learning about the athlete a lot easier that simply reading a biography.
Zack March

6. Synthesized Experience
• I was most interested in screencasting and eBooks. I’ve heard a lot
about eBooks because many teachers use them for their classes
now since they are cheaper and can be convenient. I was most
surprised that digital comics can be used for learning because
usually the digital comics we see are non relative to school or
learning. Some multimedia technologies do not work for us such as
the digital textbooks. Although digital textbooks allow us not have
to carry around heavy books, reading off of a computer feels
different than reading from an actual book. Some technologies that
we are interested in exploring more are media sharing sites such as
Flickr to improve our learning.
• Screencasting worked best for my learning preference
because it shows the words and talks about the screencast verbally
as well. Therefore I am being verbally and visually stimulated. The
screencast shows sequentially what is going on and that helps me
as well.
Zack March

7. What Now!?
• The strategies for multimedia are pretty simple. The main idea is that
there are several types of platforms for providing content. I think that this
can be useful to any part of life. One has to understand that people learn
things effectively in different ways from each other. I think that at a job, to
communicate with others through a few different ways to get your point
across can ensure mutual understanding. Just because you understand a
project explained one way, does not mean that your coworker will.
• I think that the use of screencasts can be used for learning outside of this
class. Obviously, I found the screencasts provided through out the
activities very useful, and I think that this form of media can be applied to
learning in many fields other than classroom education. Presentations at
work can be done through screencasts, making it more involving and
entertaining. People respond positively to a well-structured, aesthetically
pleasing, and engaging presentation. I will probably not make podcasts on
my own, but that does not necessarily mean that I will avoid them. I think
that they can be useful, so I will try to use them and learn from them as
much as I can.
Zack March