This chapter reminds me of the article ‘Falling Asleep at Your Keyboard: The Case for Computer Imagination’ by Martin Siegel. He mentioned that technology could be computer imagination or “eye candy” in his article. Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer used the word “the paradox of rich media.” They all agreed that rich media could be both harmful and effective depending on how it is applied.
When I first started working at my current school, I was amazed by all the new educational technologies and rich media that we could use in our lessons. The teaching positions I had before were still pretty traditional classroom settings with projectors and VCRs. I remembered observing my fellow teacher’s lessons to see how they apply technology and also to see how the students learn. I was very amazed at how the students responded. They were very interested in the technology and also try to use them. Most of all, they were having a lot of fun learning. After my initial fear of using technology, I now believe that children can learn better with technology even at a young age. I started to research for software, audios and games that I could integrate into my lessons. However, after reading Siegel’s article and this chapter, it got me thinking whether they are computer imagination or “eye candy”. Is it just a way for me to get the student’s attention? Are they just interested in the “WOW” factor? Are they actually learning? Maybe I need to carefully choose the edutainment and judge what is effective and what is not.
Another idea from this chapter which really opened my eyes is when they talked about employing design principles particularly for inexperience learners. My students are first graders and they have low-knowledge in various context. I believed from my experience that rich media works better for younger learners because it is an easy way to get their attention. After reading chapter 30, I am sure that my students appreciate rich media when I choose the effective edutainment in appropriate lessons. One thing that I need to keep in mind is that students have different amount of prior knowledge. I teach a large number of group and edutainment could be more beneficial for some and not for all. I think it is challenging trying to adjust the lessons to meet all students’ need and goals.
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6 years ago
Yasue,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the eye candy thing. Although if you can get their attention and transition to something else that might warrant using it. I thought it was very interesting about the learner's prior knowledge and how this relates to student's learning. The author said a well-designed nultimedia training appears to be more effective for low-knowledge learners than for high knowledge learners. :)KathyW
Yasue, I think you are right about each student having different needs when talking about edutainment. Some students would probably really benefit from being more engaged and interested than ever before, but some students would just be bogged down by so much information coming at them at once. It is challenging to meet the needs of such different students!
ReplyDeleteDanelle Drake
I thought it was interesting that too many unnecessary visuals actual depressed learning! We really do need to be careful that we aren't just using visual as a way to dress-up a lesson.
ReplyDeleteYasue,
ReplyDeleteFor the longest time, I also thought students were learning while useing technology becuase they seemed to be genuinely interested in what they were doing. However, now that I have experienced teaching with a computer program and without a computer program, I think students seemed to focus because of the novelty of using a computer in an academic class.
I think when it comes to using computers/ technology to teach we need to think about the justification of the technology and if we have a good reason, I do not think it hurts to give technology a chance.
Jackie Sowle