Multimedia classrooms: contributions,limitations and solutions

This paper reports the findings of a research on evaluating the pilot implementation of multimedia classrooms at Iran’s guidance schools. The research objectives were identifying the extent of implementation of the objectives of multimedia classrooms and providing the solutions for its revision and improvement. The research questions dealt with the differences between multimedia classrooms and traditional ones (non-multimedia classrooms) according to achievement and educational processes, their strong and weak points, and solutions for revision. It was a descriptive research and the data was collected using queationnaire, interview, observation and achievement tests. The research sample consisted of 8 male and female multimedia guidance schools that were selected randomly from among 62 multimedia schools. To be able to compare them with traditional schools, 8 traditional guidance schools– that had equal equipments and human resources with multimedia schools- were also selected. All in all, the research sample consisted of 1350 students, 350 teachers, 400 parents, 16 guidance schools’ principals and 25 educational experts who were selected through random cluster sampling method. Findings showed that multimedia schools have better performance, and they have been more successful in achieving their objectives, compared to traditional non-multimedia schools.  Overall, this pilot project has been successful, despite numerous problems due to shortage of facilities. However, decision making about continuing the implementation of this project needs further evaluation.