Brian Deyo's Professional Portfolio
Comprehensive Reflection
Brian Deyo
Comprehensive Reflection
You might ask me, “What’s love got to do with educational technology?” I would say, “I’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’.” Better yet, my love has changed. As I went through this graduate program, I also went through career changes. When I started the program, I wanted to use technology to create tools for English language learners. When my career changed from teaching to administration, my passion for creating tools transformed into a desire to become a leader in education. I am now evaluating what I learned from this program and how I can apply those skills to my new career goals. The skills most useful to me will be the various forms of analysis and the methods of image integration that increase comprehension during technology-based learning. These are the two areas I will attempt to illuminate in this reflection.
As I pursue my new career goals, I see that I will rely greatly on the various aspects of analysis that I learned in the EDTEC program. Without effective analysis, an organization’s leadership can’t move forward. Analysis can come in many forms. For me, the most interesting forms of analysis are performance and audience analyses. Prior to the EDTEC program, I always had a knack for analyzing (or maybe overanalyzing) many aspects of my personal and professional life. As I took EDTEC 540, I saw Mager’s flowchart for analyzing performance problems. I connected with this flowchart because I could finally legitimately explain to other people the process I had earlier internalized. Before, I had a misunderstood “black box” of analysis that worked well. After, I had a job-aid that structurally documented the process of analysis.
By taking EDTEC 685 and ED795A, I have learned how to analyze a situation very quickly. Dr. Rossett’s book and website about performance analysis have become very useful tools for me. For example, using the tools to differentiate between problems and roll-outs helps me diagnose the situation correctly. With the correct diagnosis, I can then create solution sets that appropriately address the situation at hand. This error reduction only adds to the efficiency of the process. This increased efficiency will save wasted energy and undue expense.
Audience analysis has always been important throughout the ADDIE process. You have to keep the audience’s perspective in your mind as you create everything from goals and objectives to prototypes and test items. In EDTEC 540 and EDTEC 541, my projects for a homework job aid and for a website both had dual audiences, the students and their parents. In EDTEC 671, my Adult School orientation also had the parents and their children as a dual audience. My projects for the other classes always had “students” as an audience. When people come to the products that I have created, they want to learn something without being bored in the process. I always have to keep the audience’s perspective in my mind and remember that they are “students” trying to learn something with my product. They might not be aware of the fact that they are students for the duration of experiencing my product. However, I have to approach my products with “students” as an aspect of my audience. Otherwise, they will become bored and disregard my product immediately.
With Dr. Allen and EDTEC 640, I have learned about better and worse ways to integrate images with content. I feel research supported methods of image integration that increase comprehension technology-based learning will be very useful for me in a leadership role at an educational institution. Since more technology-based learning products will be available for student use, I will need to evaluate these products and purchase quality products for my students. Using visual images, mental imagery, and other mnemonic techniques to enhance effective processing is a design principle that can be validated through a variety of examples. Students demonstrate their learning through memory recall. Memory recall is enhanced by variation in memory encoding. Belleza (1996) identified that mental imagery especially mnemonic devices help “increase encoding variability” (de Winstanley and Bjork, p.26). Pavio (1986), Weaver, Cotrell, and Michel (1985) determined that instructors can help students create “interactive mental images” by including in lectures items such as “graphs, figures, pictures, slides, or films” (IBID, p.27). They also determined these types of images included in lectures can enhance the students’ learning.
Sedlmeier (2000) concluded that when Venn diagrams or grid diagrams were included in lectures the students better understood the concepts being presented in the lectures (IBID). Scevak and Moore (1998) learned that the combination of maps and text in the context of “active learning manipulation” facilitates learning (IBID). Donnelly, McDaniel (1993, 1996, 2000), Bulgren, Deshler, Schumaker, and Lenz (2000) all determined that analogies could be used to increase encoding variability (IBID). Schmidt (1994), Kintsch and Bates (1977) found that humor is an effective learning technique if “the material to be learned … [is] the focus of the joke” (IBID). Wood (1999) identified “strategic placement of enthusiasm” as another strategy instructors can use to increase student learning (IBID). The instructor has a wealth of strategies and techniques in his/her teaching toolbox that can be used to increase encoding variability. Increased encoding variability, in turn, results in more opportunities and a higher probability of memory recall by the learner. With a higher probability of memory recall, the learner has a better chance to demonstrate what s/he has learned.
Some important constraints to consider about this principle revolve around the appropriate use of these various strategies. Strategic placement of enthusiasm illustrates a constraint in its name. The strategic placement of enthusiasm demonstrated better student performance than uniform placement of enthusiasm. If the teacher is excited all of the time, that constant excitement doesn’t positively impact the learning process as much as when the teacher chooses appropriate points in the lecture to demonstrate excitement. These carefully chosen points of excitement have a greater positive impact on the learning process.
Another constraint to keep in mind is the choice of analogies used by the instructor. The chosen analogy should match the knowledge base of the audience. If you are instructing elderly people in a rural community, you might choose farming analogies or analogies related to their generation. If you use an analogy that is unrelated to the audience, you are not only impeding the learning process, but also wasting precious instruction time.
Here is an example of a visual image that I used to teach elementary school students the structure of a paragraph. The mnemonic device or analogy is the hand of the student. Each finger represented a sentence in the paragraph. I placed the words in strategic places on the graphic to correspond with each finger so that the students would see the relationship or connection between the part of the hand and the corresponding part of the paragraph. The arrow I used to explain that the idea conveyed by the student in the topic sentence had to be restated in the conclusion sentence. We used this structure over and over in our writing of paragraphs. Since the mnemonic was part of his/her body, each student could practice remembering the structure of a paragraph without pencil or paper. They could quiz each other outside of the classroom on the structure of the paragraph. They carried their mnemonic with them wherever they went. This accessibility to the mnemonic helped reinforce the learning over time.
Another successful visual image I created for my elementary school students dealt with the concept of a triangle. We were able to organize the attributes of a triangle and make connections between different types of triangles. The students could see that there were two main attributes of a triangle; sides and angles. With the organization of the graphic, we could focus on one attribute at a time. After discussing each attribute, we could also see connections between equilateral and acute triangles among others. This graphical organizer of the concept of a triangle helped the students to generate their own prototype of a triangle as well as help make connections between the attributes and the vocabulary of triangles.
The principle of using visual images, mental imagery, and other mnemonic techniques to enhance effective processing connects to more general design principles in many ways. Fleming and Levie (1993) mention many design principles that support the use of these techniques in instruction. Creating a positive impression with text and graphics helps maintain the learner’s attention and builds confidence (IBID, p. 31). Using appropriate “graphics that make the courseware easier to interpret and use” will also keep the learner interested in the subject matter (IBID, p. 41). Felker et al (1981 as cited in Fleming and Levie, 1993, p. 43) mentions that the use of visual images can help clearly convey information “dealing with quantitative date, complex relationships, and large data sets. … In such situations, words alone are usually inadequate because readers tend to get lost in the details.” Fleming and Levie continue their support of visual images by explaining that interesting pictures with novelty, drama, people, and color tend to help maintain the student’s attention (1993, p.46-47). Clark and Mayer (2003) contribute several general design principles that support using visual images, mental imagery and other techniques. By combining the multimedia principle of using words and graphics with the contiguity principle of placing words and graphics near each other, the instructor can justify the use of these techniques. Graphics can be used to teach content types, organize topics, and show relationships. Concept examples, concept non-examples, analogies, process diagrams, and demonstrations of procedures can all be illustrated with visual images (IBID, p. 56). Using graphics, mental imagery, or mnemonics can be used to show relationships and make invisible phenomena visible (IBID, p. 58). The principle of using visual images, mental imagery, and other mnemonic techniques to enhance effective processing relates to how people learn. Students “try to see the meaningful relations between words and pictures … [When] words and pictures are integrated, people can hold them together in their working memories and … make meaningful connections between them” (IBID, p. 77). “Learning without memory is impossible. Memory without learning is useless” (Learning, t. 24:00). The retrieval of information from long-term memory into working memory is the key to the learning process. Retrieval can only take place if the newly learned information has been stored in long-term memory. To increase the chances that retrieval will take place, we have to increase the chances that the newly learned knowledge will be stored in long-term memory. We have to actively process or rehearse information in order for that knowledge to be stored in long-term memory (Clark and Mayer, 2003, p. 36). We cannot actively process new information efficiently if our working memory is overloaded. To reduce the load on our working memory, we should combine multiple pieces of information into one piece of information by making connections between the pieces of information. Graphics, mental imagery, and other mnemonic techniques help make connections between these pieces of information. These connections then act as connection web when the information is stored. In the retrieval process, if any one point on the web is activated, the entire web of connections is more likely to be recalled into working memory. “We know that memories are stored across the different regions of the cortex depending on certain attributes of the memory and combined in the frontal lobe for recognition of the memory as a whole” (The Brain, t. 2:34). The combination of graphics and text enables the learner to store the attributes of the newly learned information in more regions of the cortex. This combination increases the amount of places the information is stored and therefore, increases the chances that the learner will retrieve the information when s/he needs that information.I believe that the principle of using visual images, mental imagery, and other mnemonic devices to enhance effective processing is a sound design principle if used properly. The key to any aspect of visual imagery lies in the decisions made by the instructor. When the instructor properly takes into account the learners’ knowledge base, s/he can easily make the instruction meaningful to the students. The example of a hand to organize the structure of a paragraph was something easily accessible to the learners’ knowledge base. When the teacher ignores the learners’ knowledge base, inefficient instruction can abound. For example, if the teacher uses an analogy that references background knowledge not in the students’ knowledge base, there will be a breakdown in learner comprehension. If the students are watching a video and the teacher misplaces his/her moment of enthusiasm, it’s creating a inappropriate reaction by the students to focus on something inconsequential to what the teacher wants the students to learn. It would be like Pavlov ringing the bell and not bringing food at the start of the experiment. None of the dogs would have salivated. I only hope that instructors can fine-tune their skills in applying this principle. Correctly applied, this principle can be very powerful in aiding the learning process. Incorrectly applied, this principle could greatly impede the process.
As I move into a new phase of my professional development, the skills I learned in the EDTEC graduate program will help shape my leadership decisions. Some of the most intriguing ideas that I learned in this program have been the various forms of analysis and the methods of image integration that increase comprehension during technology-based learning. The need for analysis will not fade away. The types of analysis might change in form. I should always be open to modifying my assumptions and procedures when I work. It’s as if my career is in a perpetual ADDIE model with constant analysis, design, development, implantation, and evaluation. If I don’t continually pass through these steps about my own career, I will risk the doom of obsolescence. The methods of Image integration will probably become more sophisticated in the future. With this sophistication, I believe that we will be able to improve comprehension even further. I have learned much in this graduate program and I hope to apply what I’ve learned to my future career.
References
Clark, Ruth C. & Mayer, Richard E. (2003). e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
Colorado State University (Producers). (1997). The Locus of Learning and Memory [Television series episode]. In The Brain: Teaching Modules. New York: Annenberg Media. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from http://learner.org/resources/series142.html
DeWinstanley, Patricia Ann, and Bjork, Robert A. (2002). Successful Lecturing: Presenting Information in Ways That Engage Effective Processing. In D. F. Halpern & M. D. Hakel (Eds.), Applying the Science of Learning to University Teaching and Beyond: Vol. 89. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Fleming, Malcolm, & Levie, W. Howard (Eds.). (1993). Instructional Message Design: Principles from the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.
Mager, R. (1997). Goal analysis: How to clarify your goals so you can actually achieve them. Atlanta, GA: CEP Press.
Mager, R. M. & Pipe, P. (1985). Analyzing performance problems. Atlanta, GA: CEP Press.
Rossett, A. (1999). First things fast: A handbook for performance analysis. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.
WGBH Boston with the American Psychological Association (Producers). (1990, 2001). Learning [Television series episode]. In The Brain: Teaching Modules. New York: Annenberg Media. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from http://learner.org/resources/series138.html