ABSTRACT
We are all used to be being an audience for multimedia whether it is television, theatre, CD ROM or the Internet. We make judgements and choices about what we like and what we do not like, what is interesting and what is useful, what we find hard to watch or difficult to use, what makes us laugh, what bores us and what makes us think we could do better. This experience of being a consumer of others’ creativity makes us all potential experts and the hours that students have put into watching television or playing computer games can be used as a starting point in the classroom and as a source of motivation for students presenting their own multimedia curriculum work. Expertise can be developed by students becoming a more critical audience, assessing the value of existing familiar media. This first step, evaluating what works for an audience will be essential information for them to take into consideration when making their own multimedia piece. The students may be used to being an audience, but they need direction in developing critical expertise so that they can distinguish between effective and non-effective multimedia. From themselves being the audience, they now need to see the audience as another person.
