Multimedia technology: how it changes classroom and communication : a case study of TEFL at junior middle schools of Nangang District, Harbin, Helongjiang, P.R.China

Based a district of Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R.China, and comprehensive analysis on the qualitative data from the survey, interview and observation journals, this book studies how multimedia adoption may change classroom and impact communication in TEFL in junior middle schools. The study finds that, there is consent among researchers, educators, administers and policy makers that multimedia adoption positive impact on communications between teachers and students; on the other hand, how, when, and how much it should be adopted still remains problematic. The aughor finds that ages, mass teaching load, computer literacy, and the criteria on which the teachers are judged play important roles on their perceptions toward multimedia adoption besides common complains on hardware and software accessibility and suitability. The author concludes multimedia adoption is not an assemblage of machines and their accompanying software. One should not think of it and its application in education as a matter of computer literacy; rather, it evokes social reflections on how we perceive it, use it, and assess its effectiveness and value.