Using commonly-available technologies to create online multimedia lessons through the application of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning

Principles derived from the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML; Mayer in: Multimedia learning, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2021) provide valuable guidance for enlisting commonly-available technologies to create effective online multimedia lessons. Specifically, CTML can guide instructional designers on the use of slide-sharing programs to create concise, narrated animation segments; the use of survey programs to interpolate questions and prompts between these segments to facilitate generative learning activities; and the use of video-sharing sites to provide learners with control over relatively superficial aspects of instruction. The application of CTML to the design of online multimedia lessons raises a number of theoretical and practical questions, including the need to better understand the relationship between working memory capacity and working memory duration, the importance of retrieval as a learning process, and the relative impact of selection and organization processes on learning

AN EXAMINATION OF THE IMPACT OF COMPUTER-BASED ANIMATIONS AND VISUALIZATION SEQUENCE ON LEARNERS' UNDERSTANDING OF HADLEY CELLS IN ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION

Research examining animation use for student learning has been conducted in the last two decades across a multitude of instructional environments and content areas. The extensive construction and implementation of animations in learning resulted from the availability of powerful computing systems and the perceived advantages the novel medium offered to deliver dynamic representations of complex systems beyond the human perceptual scale. Animations replaced or supplemented text and static diagrams of system functioning and were predicted to significantly improve learners' conceptual understanding of target systems. However, subsequent research has not consistently discovered affordances to understanding, and in some cases, has actually shown that animation use is detrimental to system understanding especially for content area novices (Lowe 2004; Mayer et al. 2005). This study sought to determine whether animation inclusion in an authentic learning context improved student understanding for an introductory earth science concept, Hadley Cell circulation. In addition, the study sought to determine whether the timing of animation examination improved conceptual understanding. A quasi-experimental pretest posttest design administered in an undergraduate science lecture and laboratory course compared four different learning conditions: text and static diagrams with no animation use, animation use prior to the examination of text and static diagrams, animation use following the examination of text and static diagrams, and animation use during the examination of text and static diagrams. Additionally, procedural data for a sample of three students in each condition were recorded and analyzed through the lens of self regulated learning (SRL) behaviors. The aim was to determine whether qualitative differences existed between cognitive processes employed. Results indicated that animation use did not improve understanding across all conditions. However learners able to employ animations while reading and examining the static diagrams and to a lesser extent, after reading the system description, showed evidence of higher levels of system understanding on posttest assessments. Procedural data found few differences between groups with one exception---learners given access to animations during the learning episode chose to examine and coordinate the representations more frequently. These results indicated a new finding from the use of animation, a sequence effect to improve understanding of Hadley Cells in atmospheric circulation

An information assistant system for the prevention of tunnel vision in crisis management

In the crisis management environment, tunnel vision is a set of bias in decision makers’ cognitive process which often leads to incorrect understanding of the real crisis situation, biased perception of information, and improper decisions. The tunnel vision phenomenon is a consequence of both the challenges in the task and the natural limitation in a human being’s cognitive process. An information assistant system is proposed with the purpose of preventing tunnel vision. The system serves as a platform for monitoring the on-going crisis event. All information goes through the system before arrives at the user. The system enhances the data quality, reduces the data quantity and presents the crisis information in a manner that prevents or repairs the user’s cognitive overload. While working with such a system, the users (crisis managers) are expected to be more likely to stay aware of the actual situation, stay open minded to possibilities, and make proper decisions

Decoding learning: the proof, promise and potential of digital education

With hundreds of millions of pounds spent on digital technology for education every year – from interactive whiteboards to the rise of one–to–one tablet computers – every new technology seems to offer unlimited promise to learning. many sectors have benefitted immensely from harnessing innovative uses of technology. cloud computing, mobile communications and internet applications have changed the way manufacturing, finance, business services, the media and retailers operate. But key questions remain in education: has the range of technologies helped improve learners’ experiences and the standards they achieve? or is this investment just languishing as kit in the cupboard? and what more can decision makers, schools, teachers, parents and the technology industry do to ensure the full potential of innovative technology is exploited? There is no doubt that digital technologies have had a profound impact upon the management of learning. institutions can now recruit, register, monitor, and report on students with a new economy, efficiency, and (sometimes) creativity. yet, evidence of digital technologies producing real transformation in learning and teaching remains elusive. The education sector has invested heavily in digital technology; but this investment has not yet resulted in the radical improvements to learning experiences and educational attainment. in 2011, the Review of Education Capital found that maintained schools spent £487 million on icT equipment and services in 2009-2010. 1 since then, the education system has entered a state of flux with changes to the curriculum, shifts in funding, and increasing school autonomy. While ring-fenced funding for icT equipment and services has since ceased, a survey of 1,317 schools in July 2012 by the british educational suppliers association found they were assigning an increasing amount of their budget to technology. With greater freedom and enthusiasm towards technology in education, schools and teachers have become more discerning and are beginning to demand more evidence to justify their spending and strategies. This is both a challenge and an opportunity as it puts schools in greater charge of their spending and use of technolog

Cultural affordances : scaffolding local worlds through shared intentionality and regimes of attention

Abstract: In this paper we outline a framework for the study of the mechanisms involved in the engagement of human agents with cultural affordances. Our aim is to better understand how culture and context interact with human biology to shape human behavior, cognition, and experience. We attempt to integrate several related approaches in the study of the embodied, cognitive, and affective substrates of sociality and culture and the sociocultural scaffolding of experience. The integrative framework we propose bridges cognitive and social sciences to provide (i) an expanded concept of ‘affordance’ that extends to sociocultural forms of life, and (ii) a multilevel account of the socioculturally scaffolded forms of affordance learning and the transmission of affordances in patterned sociocultural practices and regimes of shared attention. This framework provides an account of how cultural content and normative practices are built on a foundation of contentless basic mental processes that acquire content through immersive participation of the agent in social practices that regulate joint attention and shared intentionalit

Backwards is the way forward: feedback in the cortical hierarchy predicts the expected future

Clark offers a powerful description of the brain as a prediction machine, which offers progress on two distinct levels. First, on an abstract conceptual level, it provides a unifying framework for perception, action, and cognition (including subdivisions such as attention, expectation, and imagination). Second, hierarchical prediction offers progress on a concrete descriptive level for testing and constraining conceptual elements and mechanisms of predictive coding models (estimation of predictions, prediction errors, and internal models)

How Do Gestures Reflect Thought and When Do They Affect Thought?

People perform gestures both while communicating with others and while thinking to themselves. Gestures that people perform for themselves when they are alone can reveal a great deal about what they are thinking, and are also believed to improve comprehension and memory. Previous research has demonstrated that people gesture when information can be mapped directly to a spatial representation; for example, on tests of spatial thinking. What is not as widely researched is whether or not people will gesture for information that is not inherently spatial. Further, will people gesture for information that is not spatial or relational? And if individuals do gesture for these other types of stimuli, what types of gestures will they perform, and will gesturing improve memory? This work provides evidence that people do gesture, even when the information is not inherently spatial or relational. For information that is not spatial but related, people perform representational gestures; for example, creating an ordered list with their hands to represent preference of movie genres. For information that is non-relational, people use considerably fewer representational gestures, but can be observed using beat gestures, which are believed to help in keeping track of information. These studies did not provide strong evidence to support the claim that gestures help people understand and remember information, as gesture was only beneficial for one type of stimuli (mechanical systems). However, future research with more sensitive measures has the potential reveal this phenomenon

Precis of neuroconstructivism: how the brain constructs cognition

Neuroconstructivism: How the Brain Constructs Cognition proposes a unifying framework for the study of cognitive development that brings together (1) constructivism (which views development as the progressive elaboration of increasingly complex structures), (2) cognitive neuroscience (which aims to understand the neural mechanisms underlying behavior), and (3) computational modeling (which proposes formal and explicit specifications of information processing). The guiding principle of our approach is context dependence, within and (in contrast to Marr [1982]) between levels of organization. We propose that three mechanisms guide the emergence of representations: competition, cooperation, and chronotopy; which themselves allow for two central processes: proactivity and progressive specialization. We suggest that the main outcome of development is partial representations, distributed across distinct functional circuits. This framework is derived by examining development at the level of single neurons, brain systems, and whole organisms. We use the terms encellment, embrainment, and embodiment to describe the higher-level contextual influences that act at each of these levels of organization. To illustrate these mechanisms in operation we provide case studies in early visual perception, infant habituation, phonological development, and object representations in infancy. Three further case studies are concerned with interactions between levels of explanation: social development, atypical development and within that, developmental dyslexia. We conclude that cognitive development arises from a dynamic, contextual change in embodied neural structures leading to partial representations across multiple brain regions and timescales, in response to proactively specified physical and social environment

Weaving technology in the design of learning experiences in world language teacher education: the development of a cognitive tool, an instructional device and an exploration

This dissertation constitutes a first step toward improving our understanding of how better and more sophisticated uses of technology in the context of world language teacher education (WLTE) can be achieved. This work includes (a) the design and development of a prototype of a cognitive tool intended to support the design of language learning experiences; (b) an article that advocates project-based learning (PBL) as a powerful instructional device to support sophisticated learning experiences in WLTE; and (c) the exploration of conceptual and interactual aspects of said cognitive tool. Chapter 2, Project-based learning: A promising pathway to technology integration in world language teacher education proposes a taxonomy of complex WLTE tasks. This article discusses how some of the possibilities that PBL offers can be operationalized in WLTE and argues that providing preservice language teachers experiences with and exposure to sophisticated pedagogical interventions, such as the ones supported by PBL, can improve the integration of technology into the design of language learning activities. As this article shows, PBL is suitable to take full advantage of the complexity of WLTE to immerse preservice teachers in rich design experiences that integrate technology. However, implementing PBL in WLTE poses many challenges. Technology tools that facilitate the conceptualization, creation and management of projects may help in the implementation of PBL in WLTE. Chapter 3, Postcards from the Mind: Designing language learning experiences with technology, is a design-based research study that explores a prototype of such tool. This research gives us some insights into the cognitive processes involved in the design of language learning experiences. The cognitive processes identified included (a) the activation of composite forms of knowledge, such as pedagogical-content knowledge (PCK) and technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK), which have been hypothesized to be a prerequisite for the effective integration of technology into learning experiences; (b) the iterative consideration of general pedagogical guidelines; and (c) the application of a mental model to the design of language learning experiences. Interactual and conceptual aspects of the tool that did or did not support the users\u27 cognitive processes are discussed. Findings from this study have implications for WLTE and interface design