“Interactive Multimedia Oral Language Instruction for At-risk Students” by Dowdle and Vernon

The Narrative Strategy CD Program is an interactive multimedia program designed to teach oral language skills to at-risk adolescents. The program will be introduced, and research data demonstrating its effectiveness will be discussed. The focus of the presentation will be on the development of the interactive multimedia (IM) format and a demonstration of the program. The advantages of the multimedia format from both a production and instructional standpoint will be discussed. The software includes demonstrations of various skills through the use of postproduction compositing of videos with embedded alpha channels. Flash animation is used to enhance the software, particularly in the interactive practice activities that students use to review content. The software includes a coded tracking system to monitor the user’s progress, and quizzes have been included to evaluate the user’s knowledge throughout the program. The software programs used in this project were Flash Professional 8.0, Adobe Photoshop, Pro Tools LE, Final Cut Pro, Sorenson Squeeze, and Bryce.