Category: Assignment 1 – Blog Posts

I modified my screencast video back in week 2 and edited it with iMovie. Because I have included many pictures with the video, and it is the most effective way to let my audience see how I met the animals as they appeared in my photos, I chose to illustrate my content with a video. 

The first thing I do is to use the Cognitive Load Theory by reducing the number of objects in each slide since the aim of this video is to let my audience remember the types and animals, and where I met them. A lot of pictures share the same function, so I made my slides shorter and more concise.

In accordance with the Segmenting Principle, I divided my content into four major motifs and presented them with both spoken words and logos I drew. I added a recall page before I finish my video just for my audiences to revise what they have known after watching this video. I added transitions using iMovie to make my different motifs segmented.

With my little arrows pointing to the raccoons and logos that I drew representing animal types, I have made use of the Signaling Principle. I also tried to relate to the Redundancy Principle to keep the format of my content simple and organized as I reduced my textual information and leave out space for spoken narration and photos. I tried to make my video more interactive (the “I” part in SECTIONS) by adding a picture of “mysterious animal” and hopefully it can make my video more memorable.

I like to work with iMovie since it is simple and effective, and I did not go too far since my screencast video is already a slide show with verbal explanations. One thing I have noticed is that it took me quite some time to export my video project, not to mention that my Macbook was frozen during the process of editing my 4-minute video. I think it is mainly the reason of my old laptop, but it is fair to say that electronic devices are the foundation for multimedia teaching and learning.

I think it would be more than important to keep in mind the idea of inclusion at the stage of instructing design, as it may at its best be taken care of in this way. Moore’s video showed that not only the instructor should have the idea of inclusion among the students with disabilities but also the idea of diversity among students’ minds.

An open mind towards the course of teaching and learning as well as the awareness of achieving a goal of teaching are both required when designing the instructive methods. I think what Wiggins highlighted about the idea of backwards design is benefiting both the instructors and students. For instructors, as he mentioned, they will not get lost halfway when students present their ideas and redirect the whole learning experience into a brainstorming activity. For students, their learning outcomes are emphasized. Their desired learning outcome is well-planned, and their working process is noticed with care. Having an expectation and an organized plan is crucial for both parties to achieve the goal without wasting time or energy.

Despite the preparatory planning stage, the actual teaching process itself is definitely important to a successful teaching/learning experience. As Moore noted for the concept of inclusion, we are the ones creating what is being called “history” later on. Stepping forwards and adopting new ideas and methodologies are inevitable for a better teaching/learning environment in the present, and a well-prepared learning design will be more capable of dealing with unexpected or updated incidents.

The combination of textual and visual information shown by infographics together creates multiple ways for viewers to understand and process the content, and it is undoubtedly an effective learning tool. Overall, Canva provides me with a great opportunity to organize my content with its templates and resources, particularly when I already have my ideas in mind. I found working with templates really fun and less overwhelming when delivering ideas.
Here is my poster.

From my past learning experiences, I can identify the constructivist approach adopted by my teachers when they asked me to draw my own mind maps summarizing what I have learned. It also involves characteristics of active learning since it requires my individual reflective work putting down what I have understood from class. Moreover, I have been assigned with groups and created our group mind map for a certain topic and brought it to the whole class with other groups’ maps focusing on different topics. I can now identify that it is a socio-constructivist teaching methodology which engages others’ participation in one’s learning process, aiming to achieve individual deep learning outcomes with interactive activities within a collective context. As teachers are encouraged to know their students and the larger learning environment, I can understand why this approach is currently dominant for it brings in the contextual interactive characteristics for both students and teachers, actively creating and maintaining a learning environment. 

Apart from mind maps, characteristics of gamification can also be found based on my experiences. Again, my teachers will separate the class into different groups and let students score points by answering quick questions, and the winner will get bonuses (usually candies). It is not game-based learning since it only adopted a point system to visualize and promote students’ performances, while no game context or role-playing is required. This type of in class activities contains elements of gamification, but it is not GBL in essence.

One thing that I used to misunderstand was “the idea that people have different primary learning styles” (Kamenetz, 2017). Like what I have mentioned about socio-constructivism above, this idea is also context-based. For example, I cannot solely base on visual ways to learn a Mozart’s piece. In addition, I think it has a similar implication compares to neuromyth #3, which classified learning into specific sensory types – individual thinking and understanding process while learning in different ways. Thus, simply attributing the learning outcomes to ways of learning can be rather arbitrary. 

References

Falciani, L. (July 2, 2020). Game-Based Learning: What Is It? GBL vs Gamification: Types and Benefits. Retrieved from: https://www.teacheracademy.eu/blog/game-based-learning/

Kamenetz, A. (March 22, 2017). You Probably Believe Some Learning Myths: Take Our Quiz To Find Out. Retrieved from: https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/03/22/520843457/you-probably-believe-some-learning-myths-take-our-quiz-to-find-out

Mayer’s Multimedia Principle (2009) stands out for me as it highlights the importance of organizing information as a collective unity that at it most avoids what he points out as “extraneous materials” (p. 89). Since interactive learning requires a lot of personal engagement with the received information, I think this principle helps me to grasp its purpose used for pedagogy.

When I first see the phrase “augmented reality” I think of the Live function used in Google Maps. After learning the course materials I realized that it also involves its fields of application further in engineering, designing, the medical field, and so as the field of teaching and learning. My primary gain of understanding this concept in relation to teaching and learning is that it highlights the idea of mutual accessibility. With the premise of a supportive technical device for information input and output, it opens an open learning space for everyone to experience knowledge. It is also relates to a major point of interactive learning – the hands on learning process. 

Despite the examples shown in the course materials, what I think of is that AR can also be used in natural sciences classrooms. It can visualize chemical compounds and detailing outs their movements for students to learn chemistry theories. It would be particularly helpful if used for explaining 3D models for maths class. It would be extremely helpful in art classes as it is capable at it most illustrating art works in museums without physical constrictions.

References

Davis, G. & Norman, M. (July 19, 2016). Principles of Multimedia Learning. ctl.wiley.com. Retrieved from: https://ctl.wiley.com/principles-of-multimedia-learning/