woensdag 29 september 2010
Prezi
Yesterday i had a lesson for an other subject that i follow at the university and the teacher used this really cool program called prezi. Prezi is a program that I can best discribe as the better cooler version of a powepoint presentation. In Prezi you get 1 big sheet in which you can out text, videos, pictures and make a path between them. I dont think i can explain it right so just check out the video below.
Cognitve load theory
For our next lesson for pedagogies for flexible learning, that is this afternoon, we have to write something about a specific pedagogy. I was really ashamed because the first question that came to mind was: ‘what is a pedagogy?’. This is something that after following the bachelor for 3 years I should know by heart. I think it has to do with the fact that the whole bachelor was in Dutch so its really just a problem of translation (I hope). After a lot of thinking an searching I chose an article by Sweller named: cognitive load theory, learning difficulty and instructional design. As you can guess this article is about the cognitive load theory.
I had to read the abstract a couple of times to really get what the article is about but eventually I got it. The article describes how the cognitive load works. The cognitive load theory refers to the load on the working memory during instruction. By making schema’s we can make the cognitive load less. A schema is a cognitive construct that organizes the elements of information in a manner in which they can be dealt with. In the article a distinction is made between intrinsic cognitive load and artificially manipulating learning to improve the cognitive load (extrinsic cognitive load). With intrinsic cognitive load the author refers to the inherent difficulty that very instruction. It argues that the intrinsic cognitive load is higher when a schema has to be learned simultaneous as to when it can be learned successively You can not change the intrinsic cognitive load but you can influence the extraneous cognitive load. It is argued that the makers of instruction must always take into consideration how high the cognitive load is when they are designing instruction.
I think this is an interesting article because at least for me the effect that are argued in this theory are very clear. When I am sitting in a classroom and the teacher is explaining something in that hour I lose my focus after a while. I am unable to concentrate and my mind feels full. I have this feeling in most classes I take and I think it is a shame. I really want to pay attention and I am sure that what the teacher is saying is really interesting but I just can not follow it. I think I have a smaller cognitive load than my fellow students because they seem to able to pay attention through the whole lesson (or are better at disguising their inattention better than me :P). So for me the cognitive load theory is really something that should be remembered when designing any form of lesson.
IF you want to read the article go to : http://dtserv2.compsy.uni-jena.de/ws2009/instrpsy_ue/33071632/content.nsf/Pages/0F1E155FF4258ABEC1257665004B4902/$FILE/Sweller_1994.pdf
The reference is:
Sweller, J. (1994). Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design.. Learn.
Instruction. 4, 295-312.
maandag 27 september 2010
flexibility
Last week we got an lecture about flexibility and were asked to write something about this on our blog. I discovered that flexibility in education much more is then just distance education. It can take many forms and can be related to time, content, entry requirements, instructional approach and delivery or logistics.
An example of a time related flexibility possibility is to let the student decide when an assessment takes place. This of course has advantages like having students do the assessment when they are really well prepared but it can also have disadvantages like being very time consuming for the teacher.
With the content an example of flexibility is the topics of the course. An advantage of this is that students can be more motivated because they chose the content but on the other hand the teacher may not be able to treat every subject that it wants to.
The entry requirements can be the conditions for participating in the course. When people of different backgrounds can take part in a course this is a form of flexibility. An advantage is that more people can participate and a disadvantage is that not everybody will have the same level of knowledge about the content that is being handled.
For the instructional approach an example can be the language in which the course is taught. People might feel more comfortable to have the course in their native language but it also makes the course less accessible of foreign students.
For the delivery methods and logistics an example is the time and place were the instruction takes place. This can be very handy for students because they can plan their classes. Especially when you have a job next to your study this can be a great help for someone’s planning. A downside of this is that the teacher needs to have a lot of free time, which they don’t often have.
An example of a time related flexibility possibility is to let the student decide when an assessment takes place. This of course has advantages like having students do the assessment when they are really well prepared but it can also have disadvantages like being very time consuming for the teacher.
With the content an example of flexibility is the topics of the course. An advantage of this is that students can be more motivated because they chose the content but on the other hand the teacher may not be able to treat every subject that it wants to.
The entry requirements can be the conditions for participating in the course. When people of different backgrounds can take part in a course this is a form of flexibility. An advantage is that more people can participate and a disadvantage is that not everybody will have the same level of knowledge about the content that is being handled.
For the instructional approach an example can be the language in which the course is taught. People might feel more comfortable to have the course in their native language but it also makes the course less accessible of foreign students.
For the delivery methods and logistics an example is the time and place were the instruction takes place. This can be very handy for students because they can plan their classes. Especially when you have a job next to your study this can be a great help for someone’s planning. A downside of this is that the teacher needs to have a lot of free time, which they don’t often have.
woensdag 22 september 2010
Welcome
Hey, I am Lotte de Ruiter and I will be blogging about my adventures with the Cima course about pedagogies for flexible learning supported with technology. I'm following this course at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and I'm really exited about this new work form. In other courses you usualy just hand in you assigments on paper a digitally but here you get the oppurtunity to do something diffrent.
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