Skip to main content

Week 4, Activity 3 Blog Post

Reflect on what you have come to understand about the design of instruction that primarily or exclusively employs a single media such as graphics to teach. What did you learn about designing instruction from a single media perspective? What are its limitations? How is it beneficial? How can/will you use it for teaching and learning in the future?  What are the limits to the use of media in general for learning and teaching? If Clark is correct, why do we bother? How did this perspective change the way you think about learning and teaching?

For week four, our project changed from text-based instructions to using only visual images.  After reading the instructions and looking at the examples, I thought I had this assignment figured out but that was not the case.  Although I’m fairly familiar with Photoshop, I had to start and re-start my Photoshop documents a few times because I accidentally skipped a design step or because I had to remove a step.  Even after drawing a storyboard temple, I still made some mistakes.  Next time, I will need to include more detail in my storyboards and be more organized. 

After completing this assignment, if given the choices of creating a single media document, I would lean towards text-based instructions because they are easier and faster to create than image-based instructions.  However, I do think there are steps in instructional material that can be better explained using images.  For example, taking a snapshot of an area of a web page or of a program and using arrows or highlights to point to the exact area would be a lot easier than writing long instructions.  Personally, when creating content, I prefer using a combination of both text and visual images and I expect I will continue to use both in the future.

There are some limitations when using single media design.  For example, some readers might find it easier to follow text instructions, while others might do better following visual images.  Another limitation might be the poor quality of the visual aids that might make it difficult for the user to follow or understand.  Also, if the images are not designed or used properly, they can become a distraction.

I have to admit, I have a hard time fully digesting Clark’s writings.  In the article Media and Method, Clark states that regardless of the media used, the same similar learning outcomes will be produced.  From what I understand, what Clark is saying is that any instructional method or media used should correspond to a cognitive process.  He also warns that just because a new media technology becomes available, it doesn’t mean it needs a new learning theory to go along with it, meaning, new technology is not going to create new learning theories.  One example he uses is getting learners’ feedback.  The feedback can be given in any type of format, paper, email, discussion board, but the learning concept is the same (Clark, 1994).

References


Clark, R. E. (1994). Media and method. ETR&D Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(3), 7-10.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 5 - Activity 3 Blog

What have you learned thus far about designing instruction from a multiple media perspective? How do you think the use of visual-text instruction will benefit teaching and learning? What do you think will be potential issues with the use of visual-text instruction? How do you think it will impact your teaching and learning? What do you think is better about using both images and text? What not? How do you feel about using multiple forms of media instead of a single medium for delivering instruction? After working in InDesign this week, I feel like there so much in this program to learn.  This program can be a little intimidating at first as there are so many options and tools.  This program is a very powerful application which allows for the creation of very nice looking instructional material.  I think InDesign is perfect for designing content with both images and text as it provides a lot more freedom to do different kinds of layouts.  Other applications like ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 7 - Activity 4 Audio-Only

Sounds According to Alten (2002) sound is described as “vibrations that set into motion longitudinal waves of compression and rarefaction propagated through molecular structures such as gas, liquids, and solids” (p. 14).  Audio is the second most distributed medium of instructions, with text been first (Unwin & McAleese, 1988). How do you think the use of audio-only instruction will benefit teaching and learning? There are so many positives when it comes to using audio-only instruction.  Audio content is mobile friendly.  Learners can download the audio content to a CD, flash drive, smartphone, and iPads and play the recording anywhere, including in their car while driving to a vacation destination.  Audio files can also be managed easily, rewinding them or fast wording them as one chooses.  Audio files can also be used very effectively to teach someone a new language.  It allows the learner to do proper words pronunciation, something that text ba...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 2 - Activity 6 - Blog Instruction Using Text and Hypertext

Our activities for this week were on the topic of text and hypertext .  Our assignments required that we use only text or hypertext on our instruction set.  I really enjoyed all of the assignments for this week.  At work, part of my duties require that I create short, step-by-step instructions that the faculty or students can use to learn a simple task for a new software or application.  For very short instructions (half a page of less), I typically try to use simple text and limit the use of hypertext.  I do so when I want the user to focus on the simple task at hand.  Although I have not had professional training for developing instruction sets, I based my designs purely on the feedback I receive from my users. I don’t necessary think that using text-only format on an instruction set hurts or helps explain a subject matter.  I think deciding which format to use will depend on how easy or difficult it is to explain the topic.  If images or v...
Post a Comment
Read more