Instructional design: the impact of web use design for the power-browser. Reva McEachern Online Learning & Web Specialist School of Public Affairs & Administration | Rutgers, Newark [email protected]
Jun 12, 2015
Instructional design:
the impact of web use
design for the power-browser.
Reva McEachernOnline Learning & Web Specialist
School of Public Affairs & Administration | Rutgers, Newark
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.