Problem Solving, Multimedia Encycopedia & Electronic Book

PROBLEM SOLVING:
- THE BIG SIX SKILLS APPROACH TO INFORMATION PROBLEM SOLVING(copyright Eisenberg and Berkowitz, 1988)The Big Six is an information literacy curriculum, an information problem-solving process, and a set of skills which provide a strategy for effectively and efficiently meeting information needs. The Big Six Skills approach can be used whenever students are in a situation, academic or personal, which requires information to solve a problem, make a decision or complete a task. This model is transferable to school, personal, and work applications, as well as all content areas and the full range of grade levels. When taught collaboratively with content area teachers in concert with content-area objectives, it serves to ensure that students are information literate.
The Big Six:
1. Task Definition
 i. Define the task (the information problem)
 ii. Identify information needed in order to complete the task (to solve the information problem)
2. Information Seeking Strategies
  i.  Brainstorm all possible sources
  ii.  Select the best sources
3. Location and Access
  i. Locate sources
  ii.  Find information within the source
4. Use of Information
  i. Engage in the source (read, hear, view, touch)
  ii. Extract relevant information
5. Synthesis
  i.Organize information from multiple sources
  ii. Present the information
6. Evaluation
  i. Judge the process (efficiency)
  ii.Judge the product (effectiveness)

MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA:

- Multimedia is the term used to describe two or more types of media combined into a single package—usually denoting a combination of some or all of the following: video, sound, animation, text, and pictures. Multimedia gives the user the opportunity to influence the presentation of material. The selection and manipulation of various aspects of the presentation material is the interactive aspect of a multimedia presentation. Interactive features could range from a question-and-answer function to choosing from a menu of particular subjects or aspects of a presentation. One application of multimedia, for example, involves presenting the user with a “what if” scenario, in which the choices the user makes affect the outcome of the presentation. This affords the user a degree of control, not unlike directing a motion picture and having the opportunity to make changes to the plot at various junctures.
Multimedia devices have an almost innumerable variety of applications. They are used in home-entertainment systems and can be extremely powerful educational tools. Educators, for example, have been exceptionally creative in combining some of the exciting elements of video-game applications with select features of educational material. By doing this, the concept of “edutainment” was created. The goal of using the multimedia edutainment approach is to entertain the user so effectively that the user remains unaware that he or she is actually learning in the process. Training, informational and promotional materials, sales presentations, and point-of-sale displays that allow for customer interaction and communication both within and outside the organization are all common applications of multimedia in the business world. Multimedia presentations for many such applications can be highly portable, particularly in the cases of the CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and videotape. The equipment required to produce these presentations is relatively commonplace or otherwise easy to access.

ELECTRONIC BOOK:
- Electronic books (or e-books) can be defined as any group of text in a digital format that is to be read and displayed on a computer screen. They can be accessed in a myriad of different ways including through the internet, on a CD-ROM or by many of the portable e-book readers available on the market. Many types of content are also available for free download or purchase including popular fiction, non-fiction, as well as educational titles (Maynard, 2005, p. 103). This emerging technology has opened the possibility for a large range of new learning experiences for students because of its advantages over traditional printed textbooks. Electronic books often contain rich multimedia features that cannot be found in textbooks. These frequently include recordings of the text read-aloud, lively animations, music, video and various sound effects. Young children are found to especially respond well to these enhanced features (Korat, 2008, p.111). Many companies are now producing more electronic textbooks for use in classrooms as researchers believe that they can prove to be excellent supplementary material for teachers, as well as being quite effective in early literacy development, reading comprehension and language development for young children (De Jong, 2004; Grant, 2004; Grimshaw, 2007; Higgins, 1999; Korat, 2008; Lewin, 2000; Maynard, 2005). This paper highlights the successes of children’s interactions with electronic books in their learning environments. 
Grimshaw (2007) believes that rich multimedia features such as audio narration, sound effects and animations embedded into electronic books can very much help children improve their reading comprehension skills. The reasoning is that these features support the text, help the child "decode" new words and children actually improve on their understanding of the text (p.584). If a book has audio narration and also highlights the text as it goes along, the child is able to follow along much easier. Sound and 3-D animation in the electronic text can help illustrate meaning to young children and can provide better examples in comparison to a traditional 2-dimensional book. Voice narration also aids children in pronunciation of particular words and helps with understanding of syntax. Children also respond well to these features because if they need help defining or pronouncing the words, they can instantly access help for themselves within the electronic book. There is the added advantage of a degree of privacy as many children are shy and reluctant to ask a teacher for help in a classroom setting. Some children are impatient, choosing to ignore the fact that they do not understand the text, and will just keep on reading anyway (p.585). When children are motivated to read and to do so without fear of failure, they also tend to excel in reading at or above their grade level (p.586). Electronic texts can provide this kind of support to them because it actively engages their minds.