Multimedia Methodology

Our approach has been influenced by the work of a number of different researchers and writers, from John Dewey's and Jean Piaget's groundbreaking theories of knowledge and development, to Mihály Csikszentmihályi's research into creativity and the experience of flow.

How do we learn?
Of particularly great influence and inspiration has been Howard Gardner's research into multiple intelligences. Gardner has found that we are all - each and every one of us - gifted in one way or another. We all have different ways of learning - different "intelligences" - which are more or less developed within each of us and which are crucial for determining how we learn; how we take in knowledge and construct meaning.

Some people are good at languages or logical thought, while others have musical or physical skills. There are those of us who totally lack a sense of direction, while others can easily orient themselves in even the most foreign environments. Some people have great difficulty in reading texts of any kind, but can read signs in nature that are completely hidden and incomprehensible to most of us. Some of us have a high degree of interpersonal intelligence and work best in groups, while others have strong intrapersonal intelligence and work best alone.

Nine intelligences
Gardner has identified nine such "intelligences", all of which are formed in early childhood and yet control, to a great degree, the development of our interests as adults and thereby even the further development of our knowledge and skills. They are linguistic, logical, spatial, musical, kinetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic and existential.

Traditional communication and education normally focus only on the linguistic, logical and intrapersonal: texts are published, lectures are held and we are all expected to be just as skillful in absorbing the knowledge and acting accordingly. The result is that all too often - perhaps even most of the time - the messages just don't get across.

In order to reach as many people as possible, and to influence both attitudes and behavior, it's necessary to present the content in ways that are attractive, accessible and engaging for all the intelligences. That's why we strive to for a combination of media and different forms of interactivity.

Interesting links:
Howard Gardner http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm
Jean Piaget www.piaget.org/
John Dewey www.infed.org/thinkers/et-dewey.htm
Mihály Csikszentmihályi www.brainchannels.com/thinker/mihaly.html