Category: edci337-blog

Blog Post #2

The Podcast “Multimedia Design for Learning- Overview” by Kevin Alexander was a synthesized explanation of what Multimedia learning and instruction is, why it is important and how as a teacher you can use the principles to decide if a source is a good use of multimedia learning or how to successfully create your own. Alexander explained how Mayer used an alternative way to research that measured a student’s transfer of knowledge rather than their retention. This research, being the basis for multimedia in modern education, shows how education has shifted from the IQ based testing and standardized testing, emphasizing retention of information, to the now more popular lack of testing or inquiry-based learning experiences. The shift in modern education has emphasized students understanding a subject and being able to apply it to new situations and examples or as Mayer put it, the transfer of knowledge. Through his, Mayer’s, innovative research he was able to create principles of multimedia learning that help teachers create and select multimedia learning opportunities that are beneficial, successful, and innovative for their learners. Alexander also explained the extraneous, essential, and generative information aspect. This is one thing that many of my instructors have struggled with in their PowerPoint presentations. Being able to eliminate unnecessary info (extraneous), provide and impart the essential information, and being able to help make connections to previous learning.

The video “What is Multimedia Learning? What is Multimedia?” by Ray Pastore, in my option, did a great job of explaining the concepts, but did not put them into practice well. He had too much excess information, too much text, and narration overlap and did not apply the coherence principle (Mayer, 2014). One anecdote that he shared was an HR presentation that included different airplane pictures on each slide. Pastore explained how this was distracting. In his video, I found the same thing with the introduction of all the heart pictures, lots of text, him narrating, and being in the frame. It was all a bit much.

Finally, sketch noting. This is something that I explored a little bit in high school. I learned roman style outlined Cornell notes as my main form of note-taking and it is one that I used for a long time. Now I typically take bullet point style notes with arrows, abbreviations, indents, and sometimes drawings, graphs, or symbols mixed in. Sketch noting was introduced in my grade 10 history class and I tried using it on multiple chapters of the textbook. I found that, at least for me, it slowed me down way to much, lead to less retention of knowledge, and I ended up not including as much information as I should have just for lack of space. Through this process and trying it multiple other times I found that for short articles it can work or short videos, or as a way of synthesizing my written notes, but as my primary note-taking technique it does not work. It is a way for me to review my notes and actively make connections and create pictures that can jog my memory on a test or essay. This being said I do think it is a great alternative for some people who may think more creatively. Sketch noting can be beneficial for some to hone in on the important information.

Below is a picture of my Sketch notes that are a synthesized version of my written notes.

Alexander , K. (2017). Retrieved from https://soundcloud.com/user-433569679/multimedia-design-for-learning-overview

Mayer, R. (2014). Introduction to Multimedia Learning. In R. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology, pp. 1-24). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139547369.002

Pastore, Ray.(2018, August 16).What is Multimedia Learning? What is Multimedia? [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-sknUVq1mk&feature=emb_title

H5P Lab

Through the exploration of the H5P plugin of WordPress I was able to create a YouTube video with annotations on it. Here it is!

Multimedia Learning- Blog #1

Throughout my education, I have many experiences with multimedia learning and traditional learning. One of the main ones that I can remember was in my grade 10 History class. We were reading from a traditional textbook, taking notes, writing papers, and taking traditional multiple-choice tests. A couple of different multimedia learning opportunities were used and encouraged as well.

One instance of this was YouTube videos such as the “Crash Course” channel.
My teacher was able to pick specific videos that would give a condensed summary of a topic that we were learning. He would introduce these after we had read the chapter and he had lectured about the material. This allowed for the material to be shown in many forms and to be understood from multiple different mediums.

The “Crash Course” videos are a great example of multimedia learning. They include a person narrating throughout the video, drawings, and animation. There are two pictorial representations, drawings, and animation, which increase the visual stimuli. Additionally, it most prominently uses narration rather than a written form of communication, supporting the “modality principle” that specifies that visuals combined with narration rather than written text increase learning (Mayer, 2014). The narrator also is featured in the video where he can be seen using “human-like gestures and movements”, has (at least for Canada and the United States) a non-forgiven accent and is speaking in a more conversation like narrative, all supporting the “Personalization, voice, embodiment, and image principles” (Mayer, 2014). These videos use technology in an engaging way that increases student comprehension of the material. For visual learners, this quick summary video can help to solidify material that was unclear in the readings.

I enjoyed this use of multimedia learning as it was a step away from the traditional PowerPoint that is often overused as a way of implementing multimedia learning in the classroom. It was a supplemental resource that could be watched again at home and was engaging. The history was conveyed in a story-like narrative that according to AJ Juliani increased comprehension as all parts of cognition are being used (Juliani, 2016).

Upon further research I found that they now have Crash Course Kids. This takes the same format but includes content for a younger audience. This is a great resource for elementary age students.

Another example was a presentation style that I was asked to use in my grade 10 English class. Instead of a PowerPoint with lots of text, few pictures, and myself narrating over it, I was asked to instead use only visuals on the PowerPoint and narrate based on these picture prompts. This forced the listeners to focus in on what the presenter was saying as there was no text to distract or fall back on. It also utilized both visuals and narration rather than visuals and text which, again, the “modality principle” stresses (Chapter 1, p.8). It was an interesting step away from how presentations are traditionally given and made for a memorable experience.

 

Juliani, A. J. (2016, March 21). The Hidden Importance of Teaching With Stories. Retrieved June 5, 2020, from http://ajjuliani.com/hidden-importance-teaching-stories/

Mayer, R. (2014). Introduction to Multimedia Learning. In R. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology, pp. 1-24). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139547369.002

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