Abstract
Multimedia technology which refers to the interactive and computer-based application, is seen as a way to enhance the teaching and learning process as well as promoting active learning among students. However, despite the realisation of ubiquitous Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) infrastructures and practices in much of the developed world, a digital divide still exists in developing countries, such as Malaysia. Although Malaysia has long recognised the importance of the ICTs to encourage national development, studies conducted by the Malaysian government agencies found that the rural areas of the country are lag behind others in terms of technological access and use despite various efforts by the government. This indirectly indicates that the provision of the technology itself is inadequate to encourage the rural community to use technological devices because it is crucial to understand the community and culture before introducing multimedia technology for rural developing regions, especially in education. We conducted initial fieldwork in rural Malaysia at two rural primary schools with different student populations; an aboriginal school and a Malay school to establish the requirements needed by the targeted community. We used three data collection methods; remote questionnaire survey, interview and a practical multimedia creation workshop, to answer our initial research question:- What are the key requirements for multimedia learning technology in the context of a rural village school? We extracted thirteen user requirements from the analysis of the overall study data. Card sorting technique, then, is used to generate thirty design ideas to fulfil different combinations of requirements. The idea of a multimedia creative writing system was chosen for further development, because of its widespread applicability to a variety of taught subjects. This digital storytelling system was named as Get2Gether. The prototyping and evaluation of Get2Gether helped to answer our other two research questions; What is the role of digital storytelling in rural Malaysian classrooms? How do we design and implement low-cost and scalable technology for learning in rural regions? A separate usability test of Get2Gether was conducted in a third school, before a four-week field trial in our two original schools. These revealed a great attraction of the system for students but limited uptake by teachers in conventional lessons. It is found that most of the teachers were not ready to transform their method of teaching although the teachers were aware that technology plays a vital role in contemporary teaching and learning process and requested time to adapt to it. Students, on the other hand, were more than ready to try out the system to create their multimedia narratives in a variety of lessons. The implications for the design and implementation of learning technologies in these settings are discussed.