Limited Capacity

As we dove into this week's module, we learned about the Modality and Redundancy Principles. My hope this week was to: 1) properly apply this principles to my narrated presentation and 2) provide information that may be beneficial to e-Learning instructors on creating multimedia tools.

In my narrated presentation, I accompanied my graphics with narrations rather than printed words for my fast-paced lesson overview. According to Clark and Mayer, "Presenting words in spoken form rather than printed form allows us to off‐load processing of words from the visual channel to the auditory channel, thereby freeing more capacity for processing graphics in the visual channel" (pg. 114). This principle applies "especially when the graphic is complex, the words are familiar, and the lesson is fast‐paced" (pg. 115).

According to Clark and Mayer, redundant on‐screen text refers to "graphics using words in both on‐screen text and audio narration in which the audio repeats the text" (pg. 131). Because we have a limited cognitive capacity for each channel, redundant on-screen text may cause overloading. Clark and Mayer explains that "learners may experience an overload of their visual/pictorial channel when they must simultaneously process graphics and the printed words that refer to them...especially when the words and pictures are presented concurrently at a rapid pace, the words are familiar, and the graphic" (pg. 116 & 119). 

My goal this week was to present an engaging lesson overview without overloading the visual processing channel of the learner's memory system by minimizing my on screen text. Please leave a comment and/or suggestion on whether or not you believe I accomplished this goal. I can't wait to hear back from you as we embark on this journey together.

Static Multimedia Tutorial

This week we began learning about the effectiveness of multimedia presentations, as well as the violations and demonstrations of the contiguity principle. It is my hope that I accurately applied these principles to this week's project: a Static Multimedia Tutorial.

As we dive deeper into this course, I thought it would be good if we were all capable of creating our own multimedia graphics. With that in mind, I decided to complete my Static Multimedia Tutorial on how to create an account with Canva: a leading graphic platform. My intended audience would be my colleagues, those with a basic working knowledge of computer operations.

With this week's project, I integrated both graphics (screenshots) and words to demonstrate the multimedia principle - according to Clark and Mayer on page 70. I also chose my words based on the screenshots. The authors continued by stating, "When learners mentally connect words and pictures, they are engaged in meaningful learning that is more likely to support understanding, as measured by transfer tests" (pg. 70).

To take that quote a little further, Clark and Mayer also stated "the contiguity principle involves the need to coordinate printed words and graphics" (pg. 91). In this week's project, I also intentionally purposed to place my words and graphics near one another. According to page 90, this technique should reduce the "need to search for which parts of a graphic correspond to which words, thereby allowing the user to devote limited cognitive resources to understanding the materials. Applying this principle, should result in an ease of learner understanding and comprehension of material. 

Although I believe I incorporated both principles (multimedia and contiguity) into my project, I am curious to know if I went a little overboard with my graphics and wording. I would love to see what you think. Please leave your comments and/or suggestions.

Multimedia Expertise Uploading...

As I embark on this journey of learning about multimedia tools and incorporating them into instructional designs within this course (ELRC 7505), I would like to invite you along me. 

In the coming weeks, I expect to gain a greater understanding of multimedia tools, how to effectively create them for educational purposes, and how to strategically choose the best multimedia tool based on lesson objectives. I also expect to gain knowledge on how to implement multimedia tools to effectively increase student engagement.

As I gain knowledge, I will provide artifacts from this course here so that you can partake in this journey with me. Please feel free to comment and share your own experiences as well.

Copyright & Fair Use

 

In the field of education, there is always a constant flow of information. Therefore, it is imperative for both educators and students to know and understand what copyright and fair use is and how it applies to our flow of information. 

Copyright protects an individual's rights as it relates to their work/creation, whether the work is published or non-published (beginning at the moment of creation). Although this law protects the artist's work, it does not protect intangible items such as systematic procedures, ideas and facts. Therefore, in order to be protected under the copyright law, a piece of work must be considered fixed/established, original and can not contain a substantial amount of material from another person's work.

Once a work is completed and copyright is established, the author or creator of the work has the right to transfer their rights to another individual or entity, this is called an assignment. Once transferred, the original author will no longer be the copyright owner. The author also has the option to grant someone else permission to use their work. This permission is called a license. Unless transferred, copyright extends 70 years pass an author/creator's life. 

In order to avoid copyright infringement, individuals normally seek work that falls under the Creative Commons license. A Creative Common license allows users to more freely use work without having to pay or negotiate terms of usage. Furthermore, fair use promotes the unlicensed usage of copyrighted work as long as it falls within certain guidelines. These guidelines are as follow: 1) non-commercial, educational, and transformative, 2) Elements of Creativity, 3) Level of Originality (less than 10% of original work), and 4) Minimum to no market impact on the original work. These are the factors that a court takes into consideration when judging whether or not a work was fairly used according to the license. Therefore, these are definitely key points in which we should keep in mind and monitor as we contribute to the flow of information.

Should you consider using Wikis?

 As we explore different resources to bridge the gap between conventional and virtual learning, lets take a look at wikis. Wiki is defined as a website that allows users to collaboratively edit and structure content. Because of this information sharing, the content of a wiki is ever evolving. The most popular wiki is Wikipedia - an online encyclopedia which appears in almost every internet search result. Wikis have helped to remove the barriers of distance that once existed as it relates to content sharing.

Wikis are becoming more and more popular in regards to content sharing in the classroom when there are a number of collaborators. Wikis are free to create, can be created on any topic or subject matter, and includes a wide variety of posting features  (links, videos, images, articles, etc.). Thanks to the internet, information sharing is done in real-time and document versions are recorded, alleviating the lost of important information. In short, wikis are really great at sharing information collaboratively, but not necessary at project management.

It appears as though as the number of collaborators increase, so will the level of website management needed. I currently teach about 120 students at once, so it would probably be nearly impossible for me to efficiently manage a wiki for my kids. Therefore, it may be most useful for my students to share resource tools only (website links/articles where they found information) rather than a working document for management purposes. Can wikis be used in your class? Please leave me a comment, I'd love to hear whether or not wikis can work for you.

Welcome

 

Welcome to my blog! My students call me Ms. York. I am from Prairieville, La. I now teach 7th Computer Science in Baton Rouge, LA. I have a BS in Computer Science, and I am currently pursuing my Masters of Arts in  Educational Technology. Outside of teaching, I love coaching basketball, traveling, spending time with my loved ones, and taking on various DIY projects.

With this being my second year of teaching, transitioning to an all virtual environment has definitely been a challenge for me. I am sure moving to a hybrid teaching environment will pose its challenges as well. During this process, I have been trying to observe and adjust to the needs of my students to ensure their academic success. My hope is that this course will provide me with knowledge and tools to help me conquer this endeavor.