Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning Diagram

A chart similar to this one was used in my textbook, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning.  What do you think? 

1 comment:

David said...

Greetings,

I ran across your blog post as we were exploring how one of our tools, Boolify, was used in the classroom.

Imagine my surprise - and excitement - that not only have you introduced Boolify to your students, but that you're thinking about what learning means, and is.

The chart that you've posted is nothing foreign. Everything we do requires the synthesis of bottom-up (sensory input) and top-down (attentional processes, the application of thinking, etc) processes.

It's the next step that's far harder. Although we presume those processes exist, we don't know much beyond that; how memory is organized, what we remember (or don't), or even how we interrelate new information with old. We do have quite a few wonderful theories about these things.

But the next step is translating a chart like that into an actionable practice.

With that in mind, you might be interested to explore some of the research on, say, conceptual change (look for Carey, Grotzer or Spelke), bootstrapping and other ideas, which I found particularly to frame some methods for moving beyond theories, and into practice.

There's also a fair amount of specific research, e.g., about how kids do (or don't) learn multiplication well, and potentially why, or (in the case of language) how dyslexics might be better engaged through different processing pathways.

I wish you all the best in this; I'm no expert, but would be glad to share what little I know - it's quite fascinating - as it's well worth exploring.

Cheers,
--Dave / PLML
http://www.plml.org