December 2008
Many graduate students, including myself, collaborated with David Wiley to write a chapter on social media and how it could be used to share important messages. My chapter was on bookmarks and the pre-editing draft version can be found at:
August 2006
August 2010 The attached Face Chase documents below are a design for a memorization tool that enables the learner to remember names, faces and, if desired, a relevant fact or two. It is based on mostly proven principles of fact learning that were summarized as a result of reading journal articles and literature on memory, cognitive load, feedback etc. Some of those principles are as follows (for a more complete look at these principles and their sources see http://www.opencontent.org/wiki/index.php?title=564-2010-The-List:
Providing Feedback
- After each response, feedback is immediate.
- Includes knowledge-of-correct-response feedback (e.g., including response accuracy verification, providing correct answers, etc.)
- Elaborative feedback is available for low certitude responses
- Periodic feedback relates tracked data to learner goals (e.g., learning/achievement is definable (either by designer or user, i.e. five correct iterations)
- Results of learning session are related to learner goals.
Scheduling Sequence and Spacing
- Sequencing reflects a scheduled framework (e.g., Leitner system)
- Presentation of each item is discrete and spaced.
- Design provides for at least one intersession interval of anywhere between one and thirty days (no "cramming").
Motivating and Engaging
- Design captures learners' interest (e.g., use simple unexpected events like a loud whistle or an upside-down word in a visual, etc.).
- Design stimulates learners' inquiry (e.g., give mentally stimulating problems that engage a deeper level of curiosity, etc.).
- Design maintains learners' attention (e.g., utilize variation).
- Design makes learning outcomes relevant to students (e.g., connect content to learner goals, interests, learning styles, etc.).
- Design builds learner confidence (e.g., providing examples of acceptable achievement).
- Design promotes student satisfaction (e.g., provides recognition and evidence of success, practical application, etc.).
Managing Cognitive Load
- Design takes advantage of verbal (text, narration, etc.) and non-verbal (photographs, illustrations, diagrams, etc.) input channels
- Design avoids cognitive overload (e.g., text in close spatial proximity to visuals to avoid split attention cognitive load concerns).
- Design acknowledges and adapts to limitations of audience (i.e. universal design and accessibility)
- Design enables learner to efficiently "chunk" facts by identifying, connecting (grouping), and sequencing information.
Determining Prior Knowledge
- Design determines learner's prior knowledge and goals (e.g., pre-assessment, iterations of a Leitner system, etc.)
- Design facilitates open content (e.g., user-generated content, sharing of content and results, user-user or user-population comparisons of results, etc.)
- Design provides low prior-knowledge students with response-contingent feedback (e.g., system explains reasons for correct/incorrect responses)
- Design provides high prior-knowledge students with topic-contingent feedback (e.g., system directs learners to find the correct response or a path to additional information).
Maximizing Academic Learning Time (ALT)
- Design ensures all instructional activities support desired learning outcomes.
- Design ensures waiting and transitional time is minimized.
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