My Podcast Topic

I've been having a really difficult time trying to figure out what topic I want to focus on for my podcast. So I thought back to all the fun things I have done in classes during my elementary school years and I thought "why not origami?" Back in fourth grade, whenever my class got unruly, instead of yelling at us, our teacher would instead pause our class and tell us to bring out our index cards (that we had to carry around for vocabulary, anyways). With these index cards, she would teach us how to create a quick, random origami animal so by the end of it, we were quiet and listening to her. Sooo, the topic of my podcast will be creating several different origami pieces with index cards! :)

A Successful Educational Podcast

An educational podcast that I found on YouTube that I believe to be an effective multimedia learning tool is one called "Children's Continents and Oceans". I chose this video because geography has always been one of my weak points. As a kid, I could never remember what went where. I'm sure that there are many otaher children out there that also have a hard time figuring out where the continents and oceans are.

I believe this podcast is an effective one because it does not try to use excessive techniques all at once that could overload the cognitive mind. The video uses simple text/words instead of sentences to describe each image that is shown about the Earth. Words from prior knowledge such as "water" and "land" are used to show how they connect to "oceans" and "continents" of the Earth. Since this makes it easier for a student to connect one word to one image, they will remember it better in the long run.

The visuals of the podcast are also very effective because they are kept simple. First, it shows the Earth as a whole, and then uses a zoom technique to show each separate part of the Earth so students can easily figure out where the continents and oceans belong on the Earth.

Cognitive Load and Multimedia Learning

Multimedia learning has been part of my education for as long as I have been going to school. I remember that a good chunk of my elementary school years was spent playing educational games on the computer, where each student took turns with a word, math, or science program as the teacher’s assistant supervised. When I moved onto middle school, it wasn’t so much about the computer games anymore, but about using animations and sounds during class presentations. My teachers would create PowerPoint presentations with fun sounds and animations related to the topic, as well as use interactive websites. I found this especially useful for my science classes, where I was able to travel through the human body or perform heart surgery at the click of a button.

But what exactly is multimedia learning? In “Techniques That Reduce Extraneous Cognitive Load and Manage Intrinsic Cognitive Load during Multimedia Learning,” Richard E. Mayer and Roxana Moreno let us know that “multimedia lessons and agent-based simulation games—are forms of computer-based multimedia learning environments. They are multimedia learning environments because they involve words (e.g., printed or spoken words) and pictures (e.g. animation, video, illustrations, or photos).” (p.131).

Using multimedia in the classroom as a learning tool is a very significant concept that has been developed over the years. It is much easier to understand a science or math lesson when you can see the process being visualized for you. There is an infinite amount of knowledge out in the world and it would be impossible for anyone to process all of it; our information processing system is very limited. That is why it is important to reduce extraneous cognitive load and manage intrinsic cognitive load during multimedia learning. The cognitive theory of multimedia learning shows that people learn more effectively when specific visual and verbal materials are used to help trigger prior knowledge in order to keep information in their long-term memory.

The figure shows the cognitive theory of multimedia learning.

Sounds and images make it easier to capture the attention of students so that topics become fun, but it is not just done randomly. Mayer and Moreno show that proper cognitive science research is needed to conclude how different multimedia material affect a student’s learning ability. Research studies have focused on improving the use of multimedia on students so that the way they learn material is most effective. The authors of this paper helped me understand that not everything works with multimedia learning, such as having excess text or even excessive audio, regardless of it being related to the topic.  Researchers have been able to fine-tune what methods lead to the best test results. Many principles have been developed to create a multimedia learning system this is an effective one.

As a teacher, I want my students to learn through the best methods possible. Mayer and Moreno’s research only touches the iceberg of how multimedia tools affect learning, especially since technology is constantly developing. It is my duty as a prospective teacher to read up on these methods and see what would work best for me and my students.

What on Earth is TPCK?

I didn’t just want to summarize every point in the article, since all of you have read it and know what it is about, so here are the feelings I got from Koehler and Mishra’s “Introducing TPCK”:

As I began to read the “Introducing TPCK” article, the first sentence automatically put me off: “In this chapter we describe technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) as a framework for teacher knowledge for technology integration.” (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Although I did not have the full understanding of what TPCK was yet, seeing the word technology made me automatically believe that TPCK would be something unnecessary to the classroom. Do we REALLY need to integrate technology into the classroom when simpler methods worked before? Up until high school, my classroom education had been accomplished through the use of good old-fashioned chalk and blackboards. From what I experienced, this allowed increased participation in a classroom setting. Students were able to take turns sharing their ideas on the board. It was easier to demonstrate how to solve problems. Not only did we learn from the teacher, but we learned from each other.

When I got to high school, participation had begun to diminish in certain classes, and I blamed the integration of technology for that. I noticed that in my English classes, a lot of ideas were shared because we still used a chalkboard, making it easier to fill out charts for the classroom. But when it came to a math class, instead of chalkboards, we had Smartboards. While before groups of us were able to write out problems on the board and correct each other’s mistakes, we now could only rely on the teacher to solve the problems. I came to the conclusion that using technology in the classroom was actually just slowing our generation down.

After reading this article, the term “technology” was redefined for me. Mishra and Koehler helped me understand that technology is not a new concept, and that I was not the first one to experience it. TPCK has always been around, just constantly developing. While pencils and chalk seem natural to me and most of my generation, it was a difficult concept to grasp for those back in Plato’s time. Technology in the classroom was in fact not slowing us down; we have been using [an older version of] it all along! That is why it is important to integrate technology into the classroom so that our students don’t fall behind in this constantly developing world.

While we are not completely throwing away analog technology (pencils, chalkboards), we have to be able to use digital technology in the classroom to make the teaching process a more engaging experience. The TPCK model combines the three main components of knowledge: content, pedagogy, and technology. Koehler and Misha break down the model for our understanding:

• Content Knowledge (CK): knowledge about the subject matters that are to be learned or taught.
• Pedagogical Knowledge (PK): knowledge of the processes, practices, and methods of teaching.
• Technology Knowledge (TK): knowledge of constantly changing technology.
• Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK): knowledge of pedagogy that can be used with teaching a specific content.
• Technological Content Knowledge (TCK): knowledge of technology that can be used with teaching a specific content.
•  Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK): form of knowledge that teachers incorporate whenever they teach. It weaves together technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge that teachers with cognitive flexibility bring into their classrooms in order to find solutions.

This breakdown demonstrates how the three main components of the TPCK model can be tweaked and combined with each other in order to be effective. Integrating constantly developing technology may be a difficult process, but it is something we as prospective teachers need to prepare for. Only I can control how technology is incorporated in my classroom, and I plan on using it as a tool for knowledge, for both myself and my students. 

Hello, CompSci 115! :)

Welcome to my first blogger (blogspot?? o_O)! I'm Nadira, but I prefer to be called Nadi. I'm very excited to be taking part in QUEST with all you guys! This is going to be an awesome journey! :) Congrats to all of you, and yay to making it to our second class of CSCI115!

Pretty stuffs that came up when I typed "computer" into CreativeCommons. ^^

P.S. Whoever has the comp with a picture of a hedgehog in a heart on their desktop...you should totally send that to me somehow. :D