Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Cognitive Load Research: interesting, but how big a help is it, really?
Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design; Sweller et. als
Nine ways to reduce cognitive load in multimedia learning; Mayer & Moreno
The research on Cognitive Architecture and Cognitive load make it seem easy to dissect learning materials. The problem is that it doesn't enable us understand the big picture. It's great to know how to best place pictures in reference to describing text, and how/ why we need to present chunks of knowledge to learners. But how should we create a curriculum or even something as small as a single lesson. And consider the following: "Ideal instructional designs may be heavily dependent on instructors accurately assessing their student' levels of expertise" (p.285). Do designers ever really get a chance to assess learners' levels of expertise? And if they did get the opportunity for accurate assessment? It's unlikely that the target audience, as a group, will have levels of expertise similar enough that the designer will be able to develop a single curriculum to address their needs?
Nine ways to reduce cognitive load in multimedia learning; Mayer & Moreno
The research on Cognitive Architecture and Cognitive load make it seem easy to dissect learning materials. The problem is that it doesn't enable us understand the big picture. It's great to know how to best place pictures in reference to describing text, and how/ why we need to present chunks of knowledge to learners. But how should we create a curriculum or even something as small as a single lesson. And consider the following: "Ideal instructional designs may be heavily dependent on instructors accurately assessing their student' levels of expertise" (p.285). Do designers ever really get a chance to assess learners' levels of expertise? And if they did get the opportunity for accurate assessment? It's unlikely that the target audience, as a group, will have levels of expertise similar enough that the designer will be able to develop a single curriculum to address their needs?
# posted by JLynn @ 9:25 AM 
