In an educational context, multimedia is a learning resource that combines a variety of digital media types, such as text, images, sound, and video that is organized together in a pedagogically sound manner so that learning is enhanced. The combination of all the parts promotes learning.
Educational multimedia is consumed by learners, but it is likely even more important that learners create, publish, and share multimedia in their learning process. Individual students often create multimedia projects, but learning to collaborate with others is also a valuable learning experience. A multimedia project provides a great opportunity for collaboration, as there are typically many roles and facets to bringing a multimedia project to completion.
Think about what your definition of educational multimedia is. Do you already use it? Do you create multimedia resources yourself? Do you have your students create multimedia resources?
The History of Multimedia
Multimedia, by Geoffrey Rockwell and Andrew Mactavish, describes some of the concepts behind multimedia and the pivotal events leading to the state of multimedia today.