Multimedia Learning

Bobby Letter

EdTech Boise State 513: Multimedia

            For this assignment, I had to take something I use often but apply a consciousness to the process that I don’t usually have.  Although Powerpoint is a common tool in my high school mathematics classroom, I have to stop and pay attention to the elements of design that have been articulated in Clark and Meyer.  I chose to use Powerpoint first (and then convert to Google slide) because the broadband internet at my school becomes shaky during the day and having a Powerpoint is always a great idea.  They are working to expand, as we get more active educational technology in the school, but having a Powerpoint is a “safer” choice in terms of ensuring that you can use it in any given period, even if history classes are streaming information on their classroom sets of iPads.

            I struggle with the “cognitive load reduction techniques” (Clark and Meyer, pg. 39). In Powerpoints, for example, I like to put cute little cartoons or too many concepts on one slide.  This assignment made me conscious of what students could process and my need to remain focused in order to allow them to really understand the Pythagorean Theorem.  I kept the visuals simple, but also wanted the visual learners to be able to see the elements of triangle geometry essential to the concepts. 

            I used smaller chunks of information, looking to activate previous knowledge for my students before proceeding to the new concepts.  This Powerpoint would be used after they have learned the concept of area with a focus on practicality (such as finding the area of a room so that they could price new flooring.  For the practice problem, which I used as a formative assessment, I wanted them to understand the concept in a similar practical application.  This also embeds the “job specific context” (Clark and Meyer, pg .43) in this lesson, in order to reduce the class math problem where formulas become randomly memorized.  Students have a tendency to spit back formulas but not understand why or how they work.  For math understanding to be a life-long problem solving skill, students must understand the how and why of formulas, even something as basic as the Pythagorean Theorem.

Please open "Speaker Notes" to see the teacher script for this Powerpoint lesson.

Creating My Learning Log

Blogging about our experiences is one of the main themes an edtech student encounters at Boise State. As we are enrolled in this master's program 'virtually', and not in a classroom proper, we need a platform to express our thoughts, ideas, and discoveries. Blogging provides exactly that. 
I created this Learning Log for Edtech 501 originally, but, as one can plainly see, it has been used for multiple courses, including now Edtech 513. AECT Standard 2.3 Computer-based Technologies states, "Computer-based technologies are ways to produce or deliver materials using microprocessor-based resources". Indeed, the blogging we have done has been the delivering of materials (thoughts, reflections, etc...) via a microprocessor-based resource. I believe, even though we've never physically met, my classmates are sharing ideas with me, and I am learning in those instances, via this computer 'base'. Blogging absolutely allows for the standard to be met.