GAMES AND SIMULATIONS PRINCIPLE

November 26, 2016


WHAT ARE THE PRINCIPLES FOR GAMES AND SIMULATIONS ?

     Creating effective educational games and simulations require that their features include entertainment and motivation while learning.  While most games include a tremendous amount of behavioral activity, they do not all require careful reflection and processing.  According to Clark and Mayer, our generation of Millennials, have been raised on the gaming industry and would not respond appropriately to your average power point/spread sheet instructional presentation (Clark and Mayer, 2013).  Does this format prove to be more effective?  Do students express a greater learning experience during these encounters?  Is this appropriate for all learning styles?  Will the learning (gaming) experience translate into an effective result?  Is the cost to design the game worth the end result? These are some of the questions to consider when pursuing this course of educational design. Unfortunately, there isn't enough research to prove definitively that gaming produces the results that most corporations and educational institutions are searching for.  However students are enjoying the process.

     Here are some considerations to keep in mind when designing these types of simulations and games.

Principle 1: Match type of game to the learning goals.

Principle 2: Make learning a primary goal of the program.

Principle 3: Design a program with instructional strategies that are proven effective.

Principle 4: Create guidance and structure.

Principle 5: Manage complexity

Principle 6: Make the relevance of your game clear.


Principle 1 Demonstrated (or not)
Nitrotype.com is a fun game for students that will assist them in developing their typing skills.  Students compete against other players in their race to the finish as they type a passage.  The winner is the typist with the fastest time and the least amount of errors.  In this instance speed is an appropriate match for this learning goal.  Adding the element of competition makes the game even more enjoyable.  While my 9 year old preferred Clever.com for practicing his typing skills, Nitro type was his second choice.

Nitrotype.com

REFERENCES

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designmers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer

THINKING SKILLS PRINCIPLES

November 24, 2016


WHAT IS THE THINKING PRINCIPLE?

     Corporations are constantly looking for opportunities to improve their workforce.  One skill that is constantly addressed to every university releasing a new set of graduates is that students need to have the ability to adapt to all types of challenging environments.  They need to be flexible and be able to adjust to new situations. For this reason corporations are looking for ways to improve their staff's thinking strategies.  There are three styles of thinking skills.  They are critical, creative and metacognition. Creative thinking skills focus on developing new and useful ideas.  Critical thinking skills involve reviewing various products and ideas.  Finally, metacognition involves planning, monitoring and evaluating a product or its ideas.  According to Clarke and Mayer, a successful program focuses on building a specific set of thinking skills.  In addition, you will find social learning strategies and collaboration incorporated into the program.

    The following are four guidelines offered by Clarke and Mayer when creating an effective program.

Principle 1: Focus on job specific and metacognitive skills:
This particular principle supports providing job specific skill training into your program.

Principle 2: Consider a whole task course design.
This principle reinforces teaching skills in the context of a real life working scenario.  This can also be experienced in a virtual world setting. There are 3 forms of whole task course designs.  They are Problem Centered, Guided Learning and Inductive Learning.

Principle 3: Make thinking processes explicit.
This focuses on allowing the thinking processes to be more visible.  Students should view thinking processes performed by experts. They should also be required to demonstrate why they chose a particular course of action.

Principle 4: Define job specific thinking processes.
This thinking process should include research tools, activities and data sources that reflect on-the-job procedures.

Principle 2: Demonstrated (or not)
Edheads is a wonderful educational resource for teachers as they begin to build critical thinking skills among their students using math and science activities.  Here they offer games that allow students to implement what they would do in a real life medical scenario, one of which is called the Virtual Hip Resurfacing game.  Students are given a problem and then provided instruction on what to do.  They can then perform the procedure on a patient.  While this is not a real life activity, the circumstances offer a virtual world setting for students to complete the task assigned.

Edheads Critical Thinking Website

REFERENCES

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designmers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer

LEARNER CONTROL PRINCIPLE

November 23, 2016

WHAT IS THE LEARNER CONTROL PRINCIPLE?

     When designing an e-course, the learner should have control over how they migrate throughout the program. This is provided through links, menus and site maps.  This can be demonstrated in a variety of ways.  Allowing students to choose which topic they would like to study first is called Content Sequencing.  Another type of control is called Pacing.  This is when a student is allowed to determine how long they will remain within a particular lesson.  Students might be able to use a slider bar, fast forward and/or play buttons to move quickly through this type of lesson. The final option is the Access to Learner Support.  In this particular format, students can choose whether or not to view additional demonstrations, resources, practice exercises, coach assistance and tutorials.
   
There are five Learner Control Principles to examine when designing your course:

Learner Control Principle (LCP) 1: Give experienced learners control

When providing Learner Control, a mature student should be given more freedom, allowing them to progress at their own rate. The beginner is not always sure which path to take and which steps are the best.  In this instance, they might require a little more guidance as they progress through their program.  With this in mind, it is always best to study the characteristics of your student to help you determine which method would be most appropriate.  Experienced learners should have prior knowledge of the content being taught.  The content should be less complex and the student should demonstrate higher metacognitive skills.

LCP 2: Make important instructional events the default

Require your student to intentionally go around an opportunity to practice the skill that they have just learned.  When learning a particular skill selecting "continue" will not skip the Practice link but it will take them directly to the Practice link.  According to Clarke and Mayer, courses that require a high amount of practice, will result in a higher rate of skill.

LCP 3: Consider adaptive control (also called personalized instruction or user modeling)
When providing this particular style of implementation, the course adjusts its level of difficulty based on the responses of the student.  As a student's level of expertise increases the level of instructional support can decrease.  Students that are excelling at a particular task will often skip the Worked Example and proceed directly to the Practice links.  Research has proven that this type of adjustment within a program as a student excels results in better test scores.

LCP 4: Give pacing control
When creating an asynchronous course, it is beneficial for the student to be able to access information in small chunks so that they can progress at their own pace.  Adding this form of control can increase a student's learning by allowing them to repeat a lesson or advance if necessary.


LCP 5: Offer navigational support in hypermedia environments

Embedding navigational tools such as course maps, screen titles, links and headers are traditional tools that assist in comprehension.  Using these types of tools improve a student's ability to understand and summarize a lesson.


LCP 4 and 5 Demonstrated (or not)
The Georgia Public Broadcasting Website has recently created a site expanding upon the life of the Cherokee Nation here in Georgia.  The organization and presentation of the material is grouped together in small chunks which provides a student (or teacher) the ability to access the information at a their own pace.  In addition there are a wide selection of navigational tools that allow you to move throughout the tour to discover more about this fascinating aspect of history.

GPB Cherokee Nation Virtual Tour

REFERENCES

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designmers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer

PRACTICE PRINCIPLE

November 21, 2016

What is the Practice Principle?

PRACTICE PRINCIPLE:  According to Clark and Mayer, the Practice Principle allows the student to engage in a sufficient amount of e-learning practice in order to acquire the necessary skills to perform a task.  This should be available throughout the instructional unit.  There are five Practice Principles to consider when adding them to your e-learning course.  They are PRACTICE INTERACTION THROUGHOUT E-LEARNING, MIRROR THE JOB, FEEDBACK, MIX TYPES OF PRACTICE, APPLY THE MULTIMEDIA PRINCIPLES and TRANSITION FROM EXAMPLES TO PRACTICE GRADULLY.  All of these principles of practice help to store information into a student's long term memory.  I will highlighting 3 of these principles today.

PRACTICE PRINCIPLES DEMONSTRATED (or not):

Practice Principle 1  allows students to indicate why an answer is or is not appropriate.  This exercise is used in Clarke and Mayer's text throughout their book.  As the student engaged in this particular practice, I was able to decide which was the best approach for each scenario and then understand why this was or was not the right choice.  Clarke and Mayer also used this practice to introduce each new principle, which helps to provide focus for the student.  Once a student makes a selection, the text provides information on why an answer is correct.  This type of practice should occur throughout the learning process.  Below is a screenshot of Clark and Mayer's use of this technique.

Principle 2   Encourages students to Mirror the Job.  It is not a enough for a student to indicate verbally that they understand a particular concept.  They must be provided with an opportunity to practice what they have learned.  This is clearly demonstrated through Student Teaching.  Students can learn an extensive amount of information for classroom instruction but it is not until they begin to put it into practice within the classroom that their coursework begins to stick.  Most universities will allow 1 - 2 years of opportunities to work in the classroom in preparation for this challenging yet rewarding career.

Principle 3 focuses on providing feedback to a student after they select an answer. Read Theory is an excellent resource in this area.  Students are required to complete a reading passage and then answer reading comprehension questions about the text.  Below is an example of how an explanation is shared with the student if the answer is incorrect.

Read Theory

BrainPOP is another website offering feedback to students while learning a particular subject.  Below a student must place the events of Susan B. Anthony's life in the correct order however if a student chooses incorrectly, it will place the card back in its original place.  In this way, students immediately learn that their choice was incorrect.

Susan B. Anthony Sequencing Game

REFERENCES

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designmers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer

WORKED EXAMPLES

November 20, 2016

What are Worked Examples?

WORKED EXAMPLES:  This principle emphasizes the need to have a Step By Step Example of how to complete a particular lesson or task.  I recall reading many elementary school math textbooks as a child.  However whenever learning a new principle, I focused primarily on the worked examples and how the answer was achieved.  I would then attempt to duplicate those steps in a new math problem.  This will often be the practice of many students.  For this reason, we should always incorporate a worked example in our presentations when it is appropriate.  Worked Examples can assist in developing procedural skills or strategic skills.


WORKED EXAMPLES DEMONSTRATED (or not)

The Khan Academy is a well known site that offers instruction on every academic subject from Math to Language Arts to Social Studies and Science.  They cover lessons from the first grade all the way to college level material.   They use worked examples for all of their math lessons.  This particular demonstration provides instruction on procedural skill of how to solve a division problem.

4th Grade Math Long Division

Kahoot is an excellent tool to use when searching for ways enhance instruction.  Teachers can use this to review lessons on a variety of topics.  They can create their own assessments or find one that already exists and students have a wonderful time doing it.  On their site is a demonstration of how to create a Kahoot however I think that they could have broken the steps down a little more.  They also provide suggestions prior to creating your Kahoot such as researching your topic and incorporating fascinating images.  However the student made tutorials on YouTube break down the steps even better when creating their own tailor made Kahoot.

The example below provides a procedural example for teachers.  This particular demonstration focuses on how to manage a classroom.

Classroom Management Techniques

REFERENCES

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designmers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer

https://getkahoot.com/how-it-works

SEGMENTING PRINCIPLE

November 20, 2016

What is the Segmenting Principle?

SEGMENTING PRINCIPLE: This particular principle emphasizes the importance of presenting material in chunks or segments.  This is demonstrated when a book, lesson or video provides an overall heading, topics and then subtopics.  This is when a presentation breaks down large steps into smaller steps.  Another feature of this principle allows a students to pause the lesson if necessary.  This is crucial because it give the student an opportunity to stop and process the information that they have learned without experiencing an overload.  This allows each student to work at their own rate.

SEGMENTING PRINCIPLE DEMONSTRATED:  Don't you just LOVE the new way several cooking sites are showing you how to prepare your favorite dishes.  Whenever a cook would share a recipe with me, I would always ask for the "Betty Crocker" version.  In other words, none of that "add a little bit of this and a little bit of that".  I need very specific instructions.  This is why I subscribe to Goodful.  I love, love, love their step by step instructions.  They break a continuous lesson into bite size parts and I can see it.  While it is much more advantageous for the student to have a "Pause" button available, this practice can also be implemented when watching a video but it is less likely to occur. Videos like this make all the difference for those of us that are challenged in the area of culinary arts.

The Segmenting Principle is also demonstrated in the image below providing a step by step process on How to Tie a Knot.

REFERENCES

Clark, R.C. & Mayer, R.E. (2011). E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning (3rd Edition). San Francisco, CA.: John Wiley & Sons. 

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning (3^rd Edition) San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

PERSONALIZATION PRINCIPLES

November 6, 2016


What are the Personalization Principles?

Personalization Principles:  This particular principle addresses that a conversational tone is more effective when instruction is provided.  In addition, the use of an agent also seems to provide some familiarity in the presentation of the material. I'm sure that many of us would agree that our learning was enhanced when the instruction had a more informal tone versus a formal one. This has proven to be more effective when providing an online course as well.

Personalization Principle 1:  This principle focuses on the importance of using a conversational tone over a formal tone.  When creating the text for your multi media tool, the use of a friendly human voice in the 1st or 2nd person achieves the best results.  This seems to be especially true for students with a lesser amount of academic experience.  When a student experiences social cues that are similar to a conversation, they are more engaged and are more likely to respond positively in instruction.  Using words like "You" and "We" can assist in achieving this type of tone.  Some are concerned that this approach might detract from the seriousness of the material being presented when that is far from the truth.  According to the research of Clarke and Mayer, a student puts forth a greater effort to understand what the author is saying when they feel like they are engaged in a conversation.

Personalization Principle 2:  This principle indicates that it is helpful to provide a pedogogical agent or coach.  This allows the student a chance to "feel" like they are interacting with someone or something when they are learning the material.  This agent can be realistic or imaginary and they can be stationary or mobile, just as long as the student can hear the agent's voice.

Personalization Principle 3:  Finally, when the information does have a more formal tone, the reader will have an enhanced level of understanding when the author is present.  This can be displayed when the author shares their opinion about the material or shares some personal information about themselves.


Personalization Principles Demonstrated:

Below, I have provided some examples of the Personalization Principle being demonstrated.  These two sites choose to use an agent when providing information and instruction for their sites.  Both of these websites include a character and/or a person to assist in the presentation of the material.  Both of these sites give the illusion that we are speaking with someone and therefore improves the student's ability to gain an understanding of what is being presented.

References

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning (3^rd Edition) San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

COHERENCE PRINCIPLES #2 AND #3

November 4, 2016

What are Coherence Principles 2 and 3?

Coherence Principle:  This principle indicates interesting yet unnecessary media such as words, pictures and sound added in order to make the media more appealing can be distracting and will frustrate the learner.  An objective of the multimedia designer should be to avoid using any material that is not specifically related to the goals of instruction.  While it seems like a simple rule of thumb, it is not always followed. 

Coherence Principle #2:  This principle focuses on designing a media tool that uses only those pictures which are necessary.  There is always the temptation to add a little extra however according to the research one should not add pictures to a site like seasoning, to attempt to enhance a boring lesson.  The research also supports that these additional images can interfere with the learning process. 

Coherence Principle #3:  This principle focuses on designing media tools that don’t use extraneous words.  When selecting the appropriate text for a site, additional words that do not pertain to the instructional goals can hinder a student’s understanding.  Students can become frustrated and a transfer of knowledge will be delayed.

DEMONSTRATING THE COHERENCE PRINCIPAL (or not)

                            

Now I am not one to shy away from color but this power point mage from a lesson on metaphors and similes goes a little overboard.  The light green and white background along with the letters is an excessive presentation in color, shapes and patterns.  This is also demonstrated in the next slide.

The text displayed in the lower half of the image above uses a combination of black and white.  This makes it very difficult for the student to read the information and requires additional attention upon an area that should not be the focus.

REFERENCES

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designmers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Metaphor-and-Simile-PowerPoint-FREEBIE

Exploring Various Multimedia: Google Lit Trips

GOOGLE LIT TRIPS

If you're looking for an opportunity to explore a book in a new and exciting way this might be a great choice for you!

Pushing the Limits

The study of multimedia covers such a wide range of topics.  It is reflected in various forms of audible and printed text.  This can be displayed through pictures, animation, interactive videos and content.  When diving into an area with such diversity, it can be difficult to narrow your focus.  Since my interests revolve around literature and film, I decided to explore an area that would incorporate one of these areas and can be used immediately.

I am currently exploring “Traveling Across America” with my third grade students.  One of our objectives was for the students to be able to identify the fifty states and their capitals.  This journey involves “traveling” across the United States through websites, video, Skype, books and various other resources.  Classes are assigned a particular state and then divided into teams.  Each team will the search for the symbol for that state (tree, flag,
song etc) and then create a video for that item.  All of these items will then be
 combined into one video.  

We began our journey to the Northeast region of the U.S.  While brainstorming the best way to meet these goals we considered using Google Earth to explore that area of the country.  It was an absolute fail!  It took so much time to discover how to navigate the software effectively that it seemed to be a waste time in the grand scheme of things.  I still however had an interest in mastering this software and then integrating appropriately with my instruction. 

Therefore, when I read about Google Lit Trips, it seemed like a great option for our third grade project and I was all in!  This tool allows the participant to travel along the path of a character in a particular piece of literature.  You can search among several trips that already exist or you can create your own.  

As I “played” around with two of the trips, I found them entertaining and interesting.  My selections were “The Armadillo from Amarillo” and “Make Way for Ducklings”.  This last selection was perfect because the setting of this story takes place in Boston which is the capital of Massachusetts.  There were several images and discussion questions that coincided with the story but I wondered if my 3^rd graders would have enough patience to wait for the computer to load each excursion.   I’m talking about today’s “Pokemon Go!” generation.    Never the less, I continued in my pursuit, hoping to find an enthusiastic group of kids when the final product was complete.

Tech Infusion  was one of the first sites that seemed to offer a relevant amount of information about the use of this tool.  It provided an overview of how Google Lit Trips can be used in the classroom by teachers as well as students.  There were also several videos on YouTube that offered instruction on how to create your own trip…. So here we GO!

The purpose of the project was to provide students with an overview of several fascinating places across the country and to give them another way to explore the many locations and landscapes of our nation.

Storyboard:

I began by creating a story board for the trip.  The book that I decided to use is called How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A.  by Marjorie Priceman.  While the flow of the story seemed a little random at certain points, I believe that its focus  is accomplished, which is introducing our students to various parts of the United States.  I incorporated several images and links that would hopefully gain the attention of my 8 year olds and maintain their attention as we traveled together.  Providing a variety of videos, images and discussion questions was my initial goal but I can eventually see myself including several independent activities in this lesson.

Google Earth Pro: 

After completing a good portion of the board in Word, I decided to start plugging it into Google Earth to see if I was on the right track.  While I had several great ideas, I still needed to go back and do quite a bit of editing.  Most of my pictures did not transfer so I discovered a more reliable URL to use so that my images would display on the screen correctly.  By selecting "Copy Image Address", all of my images were displayed and the entire process moved along much more smoothly.

I also found that the images with a smaller jpeg, which was a much better fit for this setting.  Bigger most definitely was not better!  In addition, by using a little html coding (<br> - which means break or space) I was able to put a little more space in my presentation which improved its readability. 

Skill Set

Prior to beginning Google Lit Trips I had a tremendous amount of difficulty when I attempted to accomplish what I needed.  However this medium gave me a little more practice and it was very specific in its goals which worked perfectly well with our third grade objectives.

Google Lit Trip Demonstration Part 1

Google Lit Trip Demonstration Part 2

In Conclusion

Overall, I found this to be a very interesting experience.  I will continue to return to my Lit trip until I believe everything is in place.  One of my concerns was that I don't believe that encouraged higher level thinking with the format of this activity so it still needs quite a bit of work.  So few of my students have an opportunity to travel across the country.  What a wonderful opportunity to take them to a place that they have never been by way of the internet in such a realistic setting.  I believe that once I am done, they will truly enjoy it.

Video of Google Lit Trip

http://screencast-o-matic.com/u/nNpJ/LTolbertGoogleLitTrip





REFERENCES

Awesomeamerica.com

natgeokids.com

wikipedia.com

HOW TO USE PODCASTS IN THE K12 CLASSROOM

Purpose: Providing creative ideas for podcasts in the classroom

Podcast Audience: K12 Classroom Teachers

Tools used to create Podcast: I used Audacity to create the podcast.  I was able to combine the music and the poem in this podcast and convert it to an MP3.  Once completed I used Archive.org to upload the project and then add it to the blog.  I found this link to provide the most assistance in instruction on how to add a podcast to a blog (How to Add Podcasts to your Blog).

Brief Reflection:  Podcasts can provide a creative addition to the classroom experience.  Teachers can record their instruction and then make this available to students when they are absent. Students can also use it to review instruction for that day or when they are unable to attend class but they are still interested in participating.

Teachers can also use this as a collaborative tool for their students to create podcasts on literature of all kinds.  This can be especially helpful for our ESL students.  This provides an opportunity for them to collect their thoughts and practice their English before making a presentation. Students can also design podcasts in honor of a particular author.

 LibriVox is a site of recordings made by a community of volunteers from all over the world.  This site includes public domain audio books such as Pride and Prejudice, Uncle Tom's Cabin and A Children's Book of Virtues.  With this in mind, I recruited my family to assist me in recording Spaghetti by Shel Silverstein in the podcast below.

PROJECT 2: SCREENCAST

AN INTRODUCTION TO PADLET

Title: An Introduction to Padlet

Audience: Grades 4 through College

Purpose: If you are searching for an alternative to the traditional collaborative tool, then Padlet is for you. Watch this brief demonstration on how you can post information and collaborate on ideas and suggestions for an upcoming event with your group.

This can also be an alternative to the traditional poster project. Are you seeking an alternative to draining your ink cartridge dry when placing images on your tri fold? Choosing Padlet will allow you to place text, images, audio and even video on your presentation. Simply create your "Wall" and provide your teacher or professor with a link. They will then have access to your project.

My Uses: This particular tool will provide students (and teachers) with an alternative to presenting a project on the traditional poster board.

Students can also use this as a method of collaboration when planning for a particular event or presentation.

My Learners’ Uses: As my 5th grade students begin studying the events of the Civil War, they will create a timeline. The students will be placed in groups of four and each student will select 3 events surrounding the Civil War. They will indicate a date, write a paragraph about the event and find an image for their selected event. Each group will place their events in order and then present the information to the class.

REDUNDANCY PRINCIPLE #2

Sunday, September 4, 2016


What is the Redundancy Principle #2?

The Redundancy Principle indicates that when preparing a lesson, you should use audio or text but you should not use both at the same time.  When designing a course, students will become distracted if the words are displayed on the screen in conjunction with the audio.  While your desire might be for your students to learn about the graphic that is displayed, they will follow along with the audio and read the text.

The Redundancy Principle 2 focuses on the exceptions to that rule.  When students are learning a principle but there is no graphic to be seen, then you can use both audio and text.  This is a result of  having only one image on the screen in which to focus, the text.  Another instance can be when the students are learning to speak a second language.  Allowing students to view the new language and hear it, is crucial to helping them read and verbally  express the language in their own voice.


Demonstrating the Redundancy Principle 2 (or not)

The Redundancy principle emphasizes that we make a choice to either use audio or text when generating a lesson .  However when reviewing a series of instructional videos Learning to Speak Spanish we see that they allowed the words to be on the screen along with the audio.  It is during these exceptions that the Redundancy Principle 2 will be executed.

REFERENCES

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designmers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer

MODALITY PRINCIPLE

Sunday, September 4, 2016


What is the Modality Principle?

The Modality Principle supports the fact that students are more likely to experience deep learning when the text is presented in an audible format.  This is highly recommended for e-learning courses when "the graphic is complex, the words are familiar and the lesson is fast paced." (Clark & Mayer, 2011, p. 118).  When audio is present it allows the student to listen to instruction while focusing their attention on the graphic.


Examples of the Modality Principle (or lack thereof)

The Interactive Sites for Education is lacking in this principle on several of its presentations.  While the words are familiar to the student, it takes a moment to really comprehend what is occurring in the graphic.  This just extends the patience of the learner and it can sometimes lead to frustration.  In the graphic below, the student is directed to select the up and down arrows to observe the change in the radius/diameter and the diameter/circumference of the circle.  Providing an audio commentary to accompany this graphic would clear up any misunderstanding of what is being presented and it will only increase a depth of understanding.

REFERENCES

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designmers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer

CONTIGUITY PRINCIPLE#2

Sunday, September 4, 2016



What is the Contiguity Principle #2?

Contiguity Principle #2 addresses the need for graphics to correspond with the audio presentation.  According to Clark and Mayer "..spoken words (narration) that describe an event should play at the same time as the graphic (animation or video) depicting the event." (Clark & Mayer, 2011, p. 102).




Example of the Contiguity Principle #2 (or maybe not)

I had a difficult time finding an accurate representation of the Contiguity Principle #2.  I was hopeful when I came to the Harcourt School Website, unfortunately I did not find an audio presentation.  I primarily found interactive presentations with musical sound effects to indicate that a student had made the correct selection.  While these tones were affirming, it would have been so much more effective if they used a voice to provide additional instruction along with the positive musical tones.

One of their lessons included a wonderful image of the Alaskan Mountain Range but their was no audible information found.  Instead there was a link which lead to the image below.  It's actually quite confusing.  While the definition of a mountain range is provided, it goes on to discuss some of the highest mountain ranges in the world.  Since this tab was listed under the category of US landforms and terrain, I think the presence of this information is confusing without an instructor to explain why it was there. 

Alaskan Mountain Range 

REFERENCES

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designmers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer

CONTIGUITY PRINCIPLE #1

Sunday, September 4, 201


What is the Continguity Principle #1?

When choosing to add graphics to a set of text,  one should ensure that the graphic is within close proximity to the text in which it is referring.  This can be demonstrated in several ways.  When looking at a chart or table, numbers can have a mouse over or rollover effect.  This is when the text will appear when the cursor glides over each number providing the information necessary.  The text appears within the same screen as the image being displayed.


Example of the Contiguity Principle #1 (or not)

Missouri Botanical Garden (MBGnet.net) offers a website that provides information on the different biomes of the world.  Their newest feature offers information about the parts of a plant.  The presentation begins well.  The first screen labels the parts of a plant and provides a description for the roots and stem.  Unfortunately, in order to see the remaining descriptions you have to scroll down to another screen in order to read the descriptions for the final parts.  This could have been adjusted by having the descriptions linked to the text indicating the parts of the plants.

REFERENCES

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designmers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer