Sage Sociology Exchange Use Multimedia

Question:

Can you share some ideas on how to use multimedia in my sociology classes to enhance learning and engage my students?

Answer:

Provided by Sage Author: Kathleen Odell Korgen, William Paterson University

Now that we know that the “sage on the stage” style of teaching is not the most effective, college instructors are increasingly pressed to find more dynamic and student friendly modes of teaching. Using multimedia in our classes can help us to break up mini-lectures, bring in different voices, and reinforce or add to assigned readings.

Multimedia can also help us bring more humor into the classroom. This is particularly helpful when teaching topics that can be difficult to grasp. For example, when I teach about culture, I often find students benefit by watching a popular YouTube video, “Ass is the most complicated word in the English Language,” featuring the Finnish comedian Ismo. The skit shown revolves around his bewilderment about the many meanings the word “ass” can convey in U.S. culture. It is very funny and teaches my students—very effectively—about how one symbol can convey very different meanings across cultures.

Other times, I invite students to become active learners by playing a recent story from National Public Radio. I divide students into groups and direct each group to make a list of all the points they hear that relate to the material covered in their assigned reading for that day. The winning group wins extra credit points—and they all improve their retention of the topics covered! 

These are just a couple of examples of the many ways you can use multimedia to strengthen your teaching and engage your students.