JLynn

"Theories of Learning and their Application to Technology" by Mayer

"Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design." Sweller, J.,et al

Previous classes I've had have given me some knowledge of constructivism, but my thoughts were still a bit muddy. Mayer starts off by discussing what constructivism is, what it is not, and how it compares to the various learning theories out there. He notes that constructivist instruction "...fosters appropriate cognitive processing ... rather than the level of bahavioral activity that it requirs." In other words, as an instructional designer my goal isn't to simply have a learner do something, but to instead have them do something in such a way that cognitive processing occurs and schemas are built.

The bare bones of cognitive processing is: Select, Organize, Integrate. In that order. The key is that learners needs enough working memory available to select and organize. Extraneous infomation (visual and/or audio), adding to the cognitive load, slows down the processing and often times, prevents integration from happening altogether. Both articles discuss the various theories surrounding cognitive load and how to best make use of the working memory.

The articles presented many caveats. Sweller, et all write:

When dealing with multiple sources of information that cannot be understood in isolation, cognitive load can be reduced by physical integration to reduce split-attention. When dealing with multiple sources of information that can be understood in isolation, integration can increase, rather than decrease, cognitive load."

"Understood in isolation." This one of the things that makes it so difficult to create educationally effective and cost-effective learning environments. You see, what is understood in isolation by an expert learner, is not necessarily understood in isolation by the novice learner. This makes it harder to repurpose materials to be used among audiences of different abilities.