Advanced Instructional Design & Education Technology - Discussion 7 - Lehman, D'Mello, & Graesser (2012)

Nov 8 at 2:33pm

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I love it!  Another great reminder.  Or, perhaps, an exemplary primer for many young teachers. 

The first paragraph on page 192 lays it all out and is some of the best instruction that can ever be given to a "teacher" (though, big brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents, leaders, coaches, co-workers, etc., could all benefit from this wonderful advice!):  "The learning environment might want to keep the learner confused (i.e., in a state of cognitive disequilibrium) and leave it to the learner to actively deliberate and reflect on how to restore equilibrium . . . learners need to experience cognitive disequilibrium for a sufficient amount of time before they adequately deliberate and reflect via self-regulation (Lehman, 2012)."

I've watched many "teachers" jump to answer a student's question as soon as it is put forth by the student.  This does two very negative things, in my opinion. 

First, the student gets "no-cost" information immediately and effortlessly.  The lack of "payment" or the student's own hard searching for the answer to the question (even if it is only a Google search) discounts the value of the given answer to the student's problem.  We all know how much value we put on something that is free of charge.  "一分钱一分货 or Yi fen qian, yi fen huo."  (Did I get that right?  One of my very favorite Chinese sayings.)  The student, in my experience, is less likely to value the knowledge gained (if it is even considered "knowledge" in the student's mind) and less likely to value the source of that "knowledge" - our dear teacher - if information comes that quick and easy.  

Second, the student is robbed of the feelings of self-efficacy, achievement, pride, and the subsequent dopamine that comes with discovering the answer on his or her own.  It is that whole "Don't tell me! I got this. Just give me a minute." feeling that one gets in mental pursuit of an tricky answer.  I believe that when that light bulb goes off, and you see it on the student's face, they have cemented a concept or bit of knowledge, purely because they have come to it all on their own.  And, it is a beautiful thing!

I also love the digital attractiveness of our dear AutoTutor.  I assume it may be individualized a bit depending on the student user.  I used to ask my Saudi boys to download the mobile app Assistant (2014) as an English tutor & oral practice buddy:

They absolutely loved it!  A pretty girl with a soothing voice is a great study buddy, digital or not.

When asked whether or not teachers will be replaced by machines, Sir Arthur C. Clarke once said, "Any teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be."  Ominous words in light of AutoTutor.  However, we are not yet to the point of strong AI that can sense a user's emotion to the degree a teacher should be able to.  But that time will come, as certain as Gordon Moore's Law will keep predicting technological advancement.  We'd better make darn sure that we're able to allow "puzzlement" emotions ("confusion" just has negative connotations for me) and be able to spot it when it happens.

Cheers!

Advanced Instructional Design & Education Technology - Discussion 6 - Smaldino et al. (2005)

Saudi Students Know Smaldino's Visuals

I really liked how the authors refer to creating visuals as “encoding.”  Although, I did think that it was rather quaint that they refer to “video camcorder [as] a convenient tool for students to practice creating and presenting ideas and events” (Smaldino, p. 55).

Rather than have my students perform PowerPoint presentations or English oral exams, I would have them create video projects demonstrating performance on their individual modalities, i.e. turbines, electrical, pumps, instrumentation, personal protective equipment, etc.. I really had to guide and coax them the first semester that I taught this. Students had never received this kind of assignment before. But the results were fabulous. (ANd, of course, the second semester I simply had to show the previous semester’s project to my new students and the competition was really on!)

Most of the students used their own iPhones, which I thought was a brilliant use of technology in the classroom. Without my asking or prompting, many included fading in titles, cool transitions, background music, dramatic skits, and even gag reels up there bloopers while filming their projects.

A brilliant and unconscious intuitive leap that the young men made was that their projects included the six types of visuals which can be encoded, as per our clever authors:

1. Realistic: Their presentations were quite realistic. They would use real footage of the pumps or turbines that they were demonstrating use up. And of course it was really them, the students, though some of them used some really cool photoshopping to dramatize their productions.
2. Analogical: By creating dramatic skits of how they might perform on the job, say for a personal protective equipment demonstration, they were making an analog of what could actually happen, though it was only similar to what would happen.
3. Organizational: Some would show instrumentation that would demonstrate maps and charts of their potential future worksites for their audience to get a better understanding of how this project was practical.  One young gentleman who did this with great facility and professionality received an instant promotion from his future employer - as he shared the video on YouTube with his company!
4. Relational: Some students might even give statistics on how things might be safer if their performance was better. Modeling the whole “96 days on the job and no accidents” banners.
5. Transformational: Of course, since the projects were videos they were illustrating movements and change - sometimes in dramatic ways. For example, students might show how to disassemble an impeller on a pump. And then reassemble it. Or, one group simulated an accident, using fake blood, no less!  Very creative.
6. Interpretive: The vocational school, of course, had an electrical modality. So, they often would include either the actual schematic diagram of an electrical circuit, or they might insert (somehow, I didn't even understand the video apps they were using at the time - but as they say, necessity is the mother of invention) actual graphic printed visuals into their videos.

I was not aware at the time that they were actual applying the six types of visual. But it just shows you how students can actually teach you more, sometimes, than you can teach them sometimes. Bravo boys!

Advanced Instructional Design & Education Technology - Discussion 5 - Grant Wiggins (1998)

I love how practical these articles are!  And this one bullet points & gives incredibly practical examples of what Professor Wiggins is talking about.

My absolute favorite from the article, and debatably the most poignant, is the history task entitled "The Trouble with Textbooks" (Wiggins, p. 93).

In order to "[a]ssess students' ability to adopt a critical perspective," says Dr. Wiggins, this task asks students to read an excerpt from an "'odd' U.S. history textbook [my italics]" based on the American Revolution.  Brilliantly, the set up of the tasks asks student to pose as an attorney.  And, of course, they're supposed to be able to argue either side of the case for adopting this supplemental textbook - the progressive teacher or the angry parent.  This sort of juxtaposition not only requires the student to look at the two extremes of the debate, but the way the questions and tasks are presented they must also consider a communist's viewpoint, a capitalist viewpoint, a rich man's (the bourgeois) viewpoint, a poor man's viewpoint, a Native American's viewpoint, a woman's viewpoint, a black man's viewpoint and a Chinese person's viewpoint.  Wow!  That is a lot to grapple with, dear learners.

Wiggins points out, as he does with previous points, that it is not enough for the student to "know" something.  In this case, "[i]s the student aware of different ways of knowing?"  The student must go beyond knowing and understand "other ways of making meaning."

These methods of questioning provided me with quite an awakening as an honors student many years ago.  And while they are undoubtedly painful for young students (and their parents, unfortunately), they really require the student to learn about their own thoughts.

As Socrates meta-analytically pointed out, "The life unexamined is not worth living."  

The foundation of learning!

Bravo again, and thanks for the reminder.  Sometimes I really miss teaching, and you're not making it any easier, my Friend.