Narrative, linearity and interactivity: making sense of interactive multimedia

Lydia Plowman (1996)

This article explains the pros and cons that the new narrative based on interactive multimedia (IMM) offers for educational purposes. The traditional and conventional form of narrative which humans have developed and cultivated for thousands of years has three main characteristics: temporality, causality and linearity. When we read a book, watch a movie or attend to a theater play, we are told a story that has a linear unfolding of events: there is a chain of events that leads to just one and only end. IMM, however, allows us to choose from a set of different alternatives so that we can steer the unfolding of events in the pace we wish or even in the direction he want. So, how effective is this new technology when it comes to educate children? This article describes the experience of a class of seventh graders using four different titles of educational interactive programs.

Although IMM has shown that children become more engaged in the process since they can interact with the system in many different ways, there are some drawbacks related to how much the children actually learn with this technology. The author comments that allowing the child to have total control in how and when the information is being displayed can eventually represent a distracting factor. Likewise, an interactive medium can eventually be misused when the children hasnt been given enough instructions from the teacher about what are the real goals and the topics to be learned in a particular session. For instance, the narrative of a particular lesson given by an IMM CD-Rom can be disrupted by the discussion that can arise when two kids have to decide which option to choose in order to continue the interactive lesson.

Finally the author reflects on the difference between two main characteristics that IMM can offer: the mythical aspect and the rhetorical aspect. The first aspect has to do with "showing" while the second one is related to "telling". Since IMM allows the information to be given by using a combination of techniques like text, photos, animation and video these two concept play an important role. For instance, video has to do with the myth because it "shows" a particular process, say how the planets orbit around the sun. While a text describing how the solar system works is "telling" the information and thus is related with the rhetorics. A well designed IMM for educational purposes must make a balanced use of these two elements.