E-learning Keynote

Instructional design:

the impact of web use

design for the power-browser.

Reva McEachernOnline Learning & Web Specialist

School of Public Affairs & Administration | Rutgers, Newark

revasm@andromeda.rutgers.edu

a new way of thinking...

“I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose.  That’s rarely the case anymore…

Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, [and] begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

a new form of “reading”

“It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse…” - Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”

section 1:technology &

mediasociologist Daniel Bell call our “intellectual

technologies”— the tools that extend our mental rather than our physical

capacities—we inevitably begin to take on the

qualities of those technologies.

operating like a “Google”

The process of adapting to new intellectual technologies --> changing metaphors we use to explain ourselves to ourselves.

We used to say “like clockwork.” Today, in the age of software, we have come to think of them as operating “like computers.”

the Net effect

When the Net absorbs a medium, that medium is re-created in the Net’s image. It injects the medium’s content with hyperlinks, blinking ads, and other digital gewgaws, and it surrounds the content with the content of all the other media it has absorbed. The result is to scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration.

enter: the power-browser

scan for key points

search for reinforcement

discover related topics

ignore “useless” information and integrate “use” knowledge

Now, instead of deep reading, we ...

section 1 summaryintellectual technologies shape how we think

Media responds to users new habits

operating like a Google means scanning information; lack of deep reading

“net effect” = scattered attention & diffused concentration

Section 2: Implications for

eLearningMost elearning courses are focused on a linear presentation of information.

Linear = book-like = no interaction.

Real learning doesn’t happen when you give the learners information...it happens when they use it... what eLearning offers to education is the ability to interact with content.

how to adapt? a case study

As consumption habits change, traditional media adapts.

Television; text crawls and pop-up ads

Print media; shorter articles; capsule summaries, info-snippets.

The New York Times decided to dedicate

the 2nd and 3rd pages of every

edition to article abstracts.

Director, Tom Bodkin, explained

that the “shortcuts” would give harried

readers a quick “taste” of the day’s

news, sparring them the “less efficient” method of actually turning the pages and READING the

articles.

the take away: design for power

browsingPull main ideas and critical points into focus

Guide students to towards the learning goal

Use multimedia to enhance the message

text one way...

text a better way.

how to use imagery.When using imagery to

enhance lecture or eLearning, it is

important to select the right image. The right

image is one that enhances the learning content by making it

more salient and memorable. Take this

example, it is clear that a lesson that uses this image has to do

with recycling.

adding audio

Podcasts can be used to enhance the learning of a lecture; user control

Use of narrative can engage the listener and make a personal connection

Sound effects can make critical ideas more memorable

section 2 summary

do not bury key information

use audio to enhance lecture; user-control

use layouts & images to convey meaning & relationships; avoid distractions

use patterns & repetition to organize content

section 3: theory & methodology

anchored instruction; goal based scenarios; exploration

contrasting cases &metacognition

knowledge integration

Anchored instruction

An apprenticeship-style approach to knowledge integration... anchors the learning in the context of goal-based scenarios where problems are presented and then the learner must apply what they have learned to arrive at the correct solution (Bransford, 1990).

Challenge-based instruction

Challenge or Goal-based instruction often puts the challenge first; anchored instruction may not spell-out the challenge or objective for the learner

Flash-based environments OR real activities & reporting

Contrasting CasesUsing contrasting cases involves putting two things together that when combined in context highlights the invisible differences among the two. It makes invisible context more salient and memorable

MetacognitionContrasting cases spawns metacognitive reflection.

Not only can contrasting cases be used to make visible context among subjects, it can be used to make visible differentiated approaches among students.

Knowledge integration

understanding how other students think can help me reassess my own strategies

reflection helps students “generate well-differentiated knowledge about a domain,” (Schwartz, D. & Bransford, J. D., 1998) and leads to an optimal time for telling for teachers.

linear vs exploratory

section 3 summarycreate exploratory learning environments using anchored instruction

use contrasting cases; enhance metacognition

create “use” value for knowledge integration with goal-based scenarios

referencesBransford, J.D., Sherwood, R. D., Hasselbring, T. S., Kinzer, C.K., & Williams, S. M. (1990). Anchored Instruction: Why we need it and how technology can help. In D. Nix & R. Spiro (Eds.), Cognition, education, and multi-media: Exploring ideas in high technology (pp. 115- 141). Hillsdale, NJ: Larence Erlbabum Associates.

Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” www.theatlantic.com. Accessed November 7, 2010.

Linn, M. (2006). The knowledge integration perspective on learning. In R. K. Sawyer (Eds). The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press, Chapt. 15, 243-265.

Lin, Xd, Shaenfield, D. & Edler, A. (in preparation, 2010) Using contrasting cases to support students’ self-assessment.

Schwartz, D. & Bransford, J. D. (1998). A time for telling. Cognition and Instruction, 16(4), 475-522.