September 19th Week 5 blog

I watched Dr. Richard Mayer's video about "design multimedia instruction to maximize learning" this week. There is something I'd like to share.

I really like the fact that Dr. Mayer always uses the evidence of science experiments to support the educational theory of how to help people to learn better. That makes the theory more persuasive and vivid for the audience. They will have a better vision and understanding of what the theory is and how it's applied.

In the video, Dr. Mayer mentioned how multimedia learning works. He addressed the theory and also provided us with examples to support it. There are three principles from the learning sciences. The first one is Dual channels: People have separate channels for processing verbal and visual material. It would be helpful for learning if we can provide them at the same time. For example, context along with pictures/videos may attract more attention from the readers. The second factor is Limited capacity: people can process only a small amount of material in each channel at any one time. If the learner comes into contact with too much information at the same time, it may not be a good idea. As a matter of fact, the learner may be more confused about what's the main point is and then lose the learning purpose. Thirdly, Actives processing: meaning learning occurs when learners engage in appropriate cognitive processing during learning. It is not hard to understand that when we encounter some circumstance that people are talking about sometimes we are familiar with, it will be easier for people to get involved. Similarly, in the learning process, if the material has some extent related to the learners, the outcome of the learning may be much better. This information gives me the idea of when creating multimedia instruction, how can I grab better attention from the audience, and how to make more effective learning material for them.