We've Just Scratched the Surface on Multi-Media Learning

Long before there was the mainstreaming of such words as multi-media
and multiple learning styles, I used an assortment of media from which to supplement my formal education. If I was watching a Humphrey Bogart movie where Bogie was the hero fighting Nazi spy rings here in the U.S., and words such as “fifth columnist” were being used, I promptly searched that phrase down in an encyclopedia or asked a favorite teacher for an official definition. [“Fifth Columnist”, by the way, referred to the spy network the Nazis had which extended in to major populated areas throughout the western world.]

I also used this method in a Black History course I took in high school. We had a paper to write on the topic of our favorite Black hero and I chose the Marvel Comics hero, the Black Panther. Also known as T’Challa, the Panther was king of a scientifically advanced African tribe who possessed the strength and agility of a panther. He was first introduced in The Fantastic Four magazine and went on to star in the Avengers and eventually a short lived book of his. Most important about the paper I wrote about him was that it forced me to think about how African American and African characters were presented in popular culture. T’Challa was, in fact, a rarity as most superheroes of color hailed from the Blaxiplotation mindset of being just a step above undereducated street thugs.

In later years I used this method of incorporating my learning from many multi-media environments to gain deeper understandings about everything from Albert Einstein to the Cold War.

And today, unlike any other time, we have at our disposal a broad swath of well researched, well documented media represented in the forms of the works of filmmakers Spike Lee and Ken Burns to just name a couple. One of my current favorites right now is “Mad Men,” which is the AMC hit that enthrallingly depicts the advertising industry during the late 1950s and early 1960s. I should also add that the internet now supplements all of our learning experiences and we've only scratched the surface in how this is being used. Certainly the explosion in online education is one of the more visible results of this.

I think as multi-media resources become increasingly a mainstay in daily commerce and educational interactions, and as multiple learning styles are fully recognized as a fact of life, finding interesting and creative ways to incorporate multi-media resources in to personal learning curriculums will become a central mission for leaders in knowledge and conceptual work fields.

What an exciting time we are living in!