Multimedia Design 1

Multimedia Design: Healthy Eating Sway

Kendall Middlecamp and Meghan Meads

Towson University

ISTC 655

Dr. Vicky Cai

Multimedia Design 2

Introduction

Multimedia resources continue to become highly effective tools for learning. Peters

(2014) discusses how psychologist Richard Mayer has proven that people learn better from a

combination of text and visuals than they do from text alone. Visuals are proven to lead to better

learning experiences and outcomes. We created a multimedia product using Microsoft Sway that

focuses on Healthy Eating. The presentation allows students to learn about Healthy Eating

through visuals, words, video and audio. Students are able to interact with their peers using

embedded tools and express their learning using a Wixie after working through the many

activities included in the presentation.

Link to Multimedia Product

Healthy Eating Sway

Press “Play” in the top right corner to view our Sway.

Audience

The audience for our Sway would be second grade students. We created a Sway that

teaches students about the importance of healthy eating and what healthy eating means. We both

are second grade teachers and Healthy Eating is a unit of focus in the Second Grade curriculum

for Baltimore County Public Schools. Our classes are made up of a very diverse group of

students from varying backgrounds. To make our Sway accessible to all students we made sure

to include visuals, videos, audio, and appropriate level vocabulary throughout our multimedia

product. The sway outlines the importance of healthy eating and encourages students to interact

with their peers while they explore the many different components of eating healthy.
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Learning Goal & Objectives

The learning objective for our multimedia product is students will be able to explain the

importance of healthy eating in order to describe and create healthy and balanced meals. The

essential question is “How can I make healthy eating choices?”. We used Microsoft sway to

design a multimedia product that incorporates visual, audio, and video content as well as social

interaction to support students in meeting the overall lesson objective.

Design Principles and Strategies

Peters (2014) discusses multiple design principles and strategies in his book The Interface

Design for Learning. Chapters 9 and 10 focus on mobile learning as well as designing an

appropriate educational space. Peters discusses 15 Approaches to Mobile Learning. An idea that

he presents is that mobile learning should not be “putting old-school strategies into new

packaging” but instead, “creating seriously integrated and enhanced experiences”. This means, it

is essential to take a different approach to designing effective mobile learning experiences. Your

lessons should include features that provide opportunities for meaningful learning to take place.

Lessons should be designed to engage the learner in multiple ways.

The Sway that we created demonstrates the design principles and strategies addressed in

Peters’ Interface Design for Learning (2014). Our Sway provides learning with visual and video

content. Sway allows photos to clearly be displayed as well as videos. We provided pictures that

aid learning, without straining the cognitive load. Peters (2014) explains learning in bursts. This

principle states that instructional designers should write mini lessons that can be completed

during a short break between activities. The lesson’s objective is for students to explain the

importance of healthy eating in order to describe and create healthy and balanced meals. This
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lesson would be for students to complete independently within fifteen to twenty minutes. In a

typical school day, there is not much time for teaching content (Science, Social Studies, and

Health). Therefore, by implementing and creating mini lessons students are able to learn the

content in a short amount of time and still be engaged.

Our Sway provides opportunities for social interaction as well as opportunities for

students to express their opinions and provide responses. Peters (2014) discusses asynchronous

collaboration via social media services. Each student in our second grade class has a personal

device. This lesson allows for students to complete this mini lesson asynchronously on their

personal devices. Within our Sway students interact with each other through an embedded Padlet

which allows for social interaction. Students can post their comments answering the question

“What is your favorite healthy food?”. They may also add comments or like each other's posts.

This collaboration allows for students to learn from each other and gain knowledge about various

healthy foods or snacks.

Peters discusses Motivation and Engagement as well. To engage our students in learning,

they have the opportunity to draw or describe healthy food. The students can choose to upload a

picture, record themselves (with or without video), draw or add text, and more! This is highly

engaging and allows students to be creative. This provides opportunities for learner choice and a

personalized learning experience. This goes along with Peters’ principle of content creations and

mashup as well. By having students participate in Padlet, students are benefiting from each other

and are about to utilize multiple resources in their creations.

Lastly, Peters’ describes assessment. He states that multiple methods of assessment can

be carried out via mobile devices. Within our Sway we included an opportunity for assessment.
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We chose to provide students an opportunity to show what they know via Wixie. Students access

Wixie through their apps portal. This assessment provides the opportunity for students to label

their plate with the 5 food groups. Then, they can post an image representing a food from each

food group. From experience, the children love using Wixie. It is extremely engaging and easy

for the students to navigate.

UDL Guidelines

Our presentation was designed for second grade students using Microsoft Sway. The

presentation incorporated many of the UDL guidelines to support learning objectives. The

presentation incorporated Multiple Means of Engagement checkpoint 8.3 Foster collaboration

and community. To activate students' schema, the presentation started off by asking students to

use the padlet to draw or describe a healthy food. The padlet was embedded into the presentation

making it easy for students to add their own response and see their peers responses as well.

Students are able to collaborate with their peers by liking or commenting on the food others

shared on the padlet. This padlet encourages peer interactions. Our presentation also met

checkpoint 9.3 Develop self-assessment and reflection. Students were given opportunities to

self-assess and reflect by sharing ideas on the padlet and comparing their responses with peers.

The “This or That”activity included in our presentation allowed students to do a self check of

their knowledge as they clicked through the different food choices and chose the healthier option.

Students are able to check their understanding by scrolling through the correct images included

on the page under the This or That activity.

The presentation incorporated Multiple Means of Representation checkpoint 1.1 Offer

ways of customizing the display of information. As educators, we understand the many different
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learning needs of our students. When designing our presentation we carefully considered the size

of text and images, the colors and the layout. Microsoft Sway also allows users to turn on the

Accessibility view. This view displays a high-contrast style for easier reading, disables

animations, and supports keyboard navigation for uae with screen readers. This allows students

to vary perceptual features to make our presentation accessible to all. Checkpoint 2.5 Illustrate

through multiple media was met in our presentation as we included images, words, and video to

display the information to students. Checkpoint 3.1 Activate or supply background knowledge

was met in our presentation as students were asked to share their knowledge of healthy foods at

the start of the presentation. Students will use the padlet to draw or describe healthy food. This

activity engages students with the lesson focus and encourages students to think about foods they

already know of that are healthy.

Multiple means of action and expression were incorporated in our project. We

incorporated Checkpoint 5.1 Use of multiple media for communication in our project as we

included activities that encouraged students to express their knowledge through the use of

different interactive web tools. We embedded two different padlets in our project for students to

be able to express their learning. Padlet gives students choice in how they share through drawing,

recording a video or audio, inserting an image or gif, and many more. Students also engaged

with their peers on the padlet by “liking” others posts or replying with a comment. Students will

complete the assessment on Wixie which again provides students with choice in how they

express their learning through drawing, text, speech, images, etc. Incorporating multiple different

digital tools into our project also met checkpoint 5.2 Use multiple tools for construction and

composition.

Conclusion
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Creating a multimedia learning experience through Microsoft Sway allowed us to put our

knowledge into practice and exemplify the strategies we have learned throughout this course. We

designed a presentation that provided students with opportunities to build their knowledge about

healthy eating which is a second grade focus in Health. Our multimedia design allowed us to use

a variety of technologies to create a product that included opportunities for learners to learn with

visual, audio and video content as well as create content and provide responses within an online

community.
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References

CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from

http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Peters, D. (2014). Interface design for learning: Design strategies for learning experiences.

Upper Saddle River, NJ: New Riders Press.