How has my journey of learning to use multi and single media to teach been so far?

In the beginning of the class, it was a struggle for me to use a single media to teach because currently I use various formats of materials to deliver professional development lessons in our district. We offer a combination of professional development models such as face-to-face, online, and a hybrid of the two in which we develop materials and lessons during the year for our teachers and administrators. In my current position, I develop screencasts (visuals) with audio and provide written examples during the trainings. We also use various Web 2.0 applications such as PresentMe.com and Slideshare instead of the Adobe products. So, it was very frustrating for me to limit the lesson delivery to just one format while learning the Adobe products at the same time. And some lessons or concepts naturally lend themselves to being understood best through one specific media over another.  In addition, using various media formats can ensure that you are providing materials for students with different learning styles. In conclusion, limiting the lesson to a single media was somewhat frustrating and challenging at the same time. The most frustrating media to work with was using Photoshop to develop the visual materials. My visual project would have been better if I could have used titles and some text along with my visuals.  

What have I learned? I was familiar with the Adobe products but never pushed myself to learn them or use them as my productivity software. I mostly use the Office Suite, but I now realize how powerful the Adobe software can be. For example, we just purchased a district site license for students and staff, so that we can have the tools to create more professional documents and interactive presentations. Our Career and Technology Education students will add the Adobe product certification as a certification option upon class completion and successful testing. I think that providing the Adobe focused technology class will help meet the demand for people who can create multimedia products for the growing online class and credit offerings. While I was at the Texas Computer Education Association Conference, (TCEA), several presenters predicted that within the next several years, all high school students will be enrolled in some form of distance learning or online classes. So, my eyes have been opened to the need to provide skills necessary to meet the online learning demands of the future. In addition, I think that multimedia materials enrich the lesson and provide better instruction for many of our learners. Also, learners have more control of “what” they want to learn when materials are online and provided in multimedia formats.

 What would you still like to learn? I would definitely like to learn more about all of the Adobe products. I know that we barely scratched the surface of what these tools are capable of producing.

 What is still hazy? The class was packed with so much material and information in a short time frame that everything is a little hazy. I would learn a skill one week, then a couple of weeks later, I had already forgotten how I accomplished the task. I am looking forward to having more chances to review the skills in the future sessions.

 

What have you learned thus far about designing instruction from a video media perspective?

        Teaching and designing instruction from a video media perspective has been my favorite method for designing instruction. I have learned that you must spend time mapping out your scenes and writing your script prior to recording your video. Mapping out the scenes and thinking about the cuts to the new scenes helps you create a better end product. Also, it is a good idea to record the same scene from multiple angles. Record them close up and farther away so that your cuts from one scene to the next seem more natural. The change in scene looks best when you go from a close up to a distance scene or from distance to close up. Also, I found that getting the lighting in our classrooms to look right was very difficult with the lights that we have in our classrooms and labs. So, if I did this again, I would want to bring extra lighting in addition to the classroom lighting.

Using video to deliver the lesson was beneficial to me because I tried to make it similar to our face-to-face trainings. It was more natural to teach this way. I could explain a step, and then record the demonstration of completing the step. Perhaps the only drawback of delivering instruction in this format is that learners don’t have the opportunity to immediately ask clarifying questions if they are having trouble with one of the steps. If you use this method in web-based instruction, then you would want to ensure that dialogue could take place either between other learners or between the learner and the instructor.

I think that the most difficult component of designing this instruction was ensuring that the cut from scene to scene was smooth and made sense for the learner. Again, mapping out your scenes and writing the script prior to recording your video can make this process much easier.

        It changed the way I think about learning and teaching by helping me realize that through the use of video you can reach and serve many students.  A teacher can post a video for students to view during class time, or the teacher could flip the instruction, so students could view the instruction outside of class time. In addition, if students were having trouble grasping the concept or forgot a step, they could use the video as a resource to help reinforce the step or skill.

      Using video versus a single medium for delivering instruction is helpful because you can develop the lesson similar to face-to-face instruction. Teachers can use text, audio, and visuals in the video to help explain the concept that they are teaching. So, the use of video naturally incorporates several formats in the lesson design.

What is different about developing instruction with both images and audio combined?

Developing instruction with both images and audio combined is different because you need to decide which elements of the lesson would be best presented with audio and which with images. You also need to be careful not to repeat the same information in the audio file that was presented in an image file. In addition, a balance between the use of audio and graphics needs to be established in the lesson set.

When designing an interactive lesson using software like Indesign, I had to rethink how the lesson would be presented. The first audio-only and visual-only lessons that I created were designed to be linear. Now, that the lesson is interactive and including both audio and images with the ability to link to images and text, the design of the lesson can be nonlinear. Therefore, I had trouble deciding how to put the directions on one page in an organized and meaningful design so that the directions were completed in the order of the steps outlined in the design document. I wanted to be careful not so have too many interactions or unnecessary animations that would distract from the lesson.

I thought that creating the lesson with both audio and visuals would be easy to create. However, I found it difficult and time consuming. For example, I would have an idea of how I wanted the information to be presented in an interactive form, but could not always get the software program to cooperate. Or perhaps, I really needed some more tutoring on the program. I watched many instructional videos, but the information that I searched for was not always available. This was a time when having a face-to-face instructional time would have been beneficial to prevent wasting time on some of the frustrating issues that arose with using the software.

            The overall lesson, once created, is beneficial for the learner. There are audio files that can be repeated and visuals that complement the audio files. The lessons can be used for distance learning, therefore providing unlimited access to the lesson.

            The limitation of creating interactive lessons using both audio and images would be the time that it takes to create the lesson. Also, you must spend time learning a program, like Indesign, that offers the interactive elements. Or course the benefit would be that you could show the lesson several times to various students. Once the lesson is fully designed, then the lesson could help the teacher work one-on-one with other students.

What have I learned about designing a lesson from a multimedia perspective?

Currently, I have learned how to use various Adobe software programs and Audacity as an audio program to create an instructional set for how to do a certain task. I have spent much of my time learning the software programs in order to create these instruction sets. So far, we have covered how to create a text-based, visual-only, visual and text, and audio-only lesson.  And we have also focused on the layout and how to apply color theory to the instructional set. Up until now, not much time has been discussed on how the various media impacts learning and the ability to recall information from memory.

Next, some considerations should be taken into account as to which media is best to use in your instructional set and which media produces the most information processing capacity for the learner.

        Some key concepts to consider would be when you should use a single media or several media together to present a lesson. Will the use of audio and video or audio and pictures together enhance the lesson or distract from the information being presented? Should combining two medias together in the lesson incorporate redundant information or unlike information? If learners have a limited capacity processing ability, when would you use two different channels of media to present a concept?

Some findings from Lane (1995) on audio and video redundancy can be summarized by the following:  Multiple channel redundancy presentations are better than single channel presentations for recalling, storing, and retrieving information. The use of audio information is less effective when redundancy between audio and video is not present.  Having both visuals and pictures in the presentation of information helps best with information retrieval. For example, reading stories aloud has a greater chance of recall when combined with pictures.

Considering Lane’s (1995) findings, the use of audio-visual instruction can benefit teaching and learning when two medias are combined in a way that increases information processing. In addition, using visuals and audio can increase comprehension, but the instructor should be cautious when presenting both visuals and audio so that use of one media does not distract the learner from the skills or information that should be comprehended.

        Some potential issues with the use of audio-visual instruction is that the information presented could be over the capacity limit to comprehend the information. As complexity of the skill being taught increases, the two channels of media should not differ greatly because it could cause information overload, therefore decreasing comprehension.

       Using audio and video or pictures can impact teaching and learning by providing better comprehension by the learner; but, teachers should be careful not to overload the learner with audio and pictures to the extent it distracts from learning.

References

COMMUNICATION RESEARCH, Vol. 22 No. 1, February 1995 86-115

 0 1995 Sage Publications, Inc.

What is different about developing instruction with audio?

I enjoyed developing the instruction set with audio versus text and graphics. At first, I thought that creating an audio file would be easier to create than text instructions. But in reality, it was twice as much work because you still need to plan out the dialogue or text that you will be sharing in the audio file. By planning the text and writing a script, you stay on topic and ensure that you are only covering the needed information. As a learner, I appreciate any time that I can save when reviewing lesson instructions. For example, when listening and watching the Adobe lessons, many times I felt that the instructor was sharing information that was not relevant to the lesson; therefore, taking more time to complete the instruction than necessary. I caught myself hitting fast forward through many of the lessons.

The audio files could be considered more efficient for the learner. The learner can listen to the files at their convenience and repeat the instructions as often as needed. Once the audio files are made, they are efficient for the teachers because they can play the files for multiple classes and for students who missed class. The teacher can then be assisting other student needs or enriching the lesson instead of taking time away from the class by repeating the lesson or providing one-on-one attention to the few students who missed the lecture. 

How can the use of audio change the way a teacher instructs his/her students? After creating my audio instruction set, I began to consider how I could post the instructions for our new teachers to use each year. Our new teachers are inundated with staff development at the beginning of the school year. Many times, the district is covering items that will not be relevant to them for several weeks after the beginning of the year. Often, they forget the directions or procedures because they are on information overload. The audio files could allow me to post them on my website and send a link to the lesson for just-in-time training. Audio files would be good to use to deliver training when it will be useful or in the timeframe teachers need to know the information.

However, using audio does have some limitations. For example, some lessons need the visual materials along with the audio materials to ensure full comprehension of the skill or procedure. Just as I found with text-only and visual-only directions, a combination of various materials provides better strategies for learners with different learning styles.

  

Using Audio-only Instruction

Audio comes in various forms such as music, sound, and speech. Using audio-only instruction could have both benefits and some potential issues. First the benefits of using audio is that audio can provide more information than the written text. For example, when you hear someone speaking, you can gain more meaning because you hear their tone and voice inflection instead of just reading text without any expression. Someone who is speaking loudly might be indicating that the information is serious or maybe an emergency. If someone is speaking quietly, then they might be indicating that they are sad or to proceed with caution.

            The expression in audio can help you comprehend information more accurately. For example, when reading an e-mail, often it is unclear if the sender is upset or joking when reading their text. Many times, I read e-mail and wish that I could hear the tone in their voice so that I know if they are upset, sharing information, or wanting clarification. I have experienced many employees that have misinterpreted e-mails sent from their colleagues; therefore, causing employees to be disgruntled with each other because the text in the e-mail was not clearly understood or communicated. Tone, volume, and the pace of audio can help provide the learner clues to understanding information.

            A benefit of using audio is that students can listen to audio from various locations and at their own convenience. Teachers can record the audio of their lesson, and students can listen to the audio from home. In addition, if the students did not grasp the information or forgot the instructions, they can repeat the audio for clarification.  Teachers can also speak with other experts from remote locations through such programs as Skype or a speaker phone. Listening to the expert speak could be more interesting and engaging than reading using a one-way text-based delivery method.    

            Some potential issues with using audio is that sometimes audio files take longer to listen to than the time to read text. Learners might need more time to complete the task when it includes the use of audio. When combining audio files with other multimedia files, it can be difficult to design a lesson and time consuming for the teacher.
     Personally, I think that creating an audio-only file is fairly simple and quick to make when compared to drawing visuals, typing and formatting text, and creating videos. Therefore, creating audio-only files to clarify and improve comprehension would be easy and less time consuming to provide for the learner.  Audio is a good tool to provide for students who need remediation or to hear the lesson repeated several time so to get all of the details.

References

Barron A E (2004). Auditory Instructions. In D. H. Jonassen (ed.), Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (2^nd ed., pp. 949 - 978). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

How would you instruct someone differently when using both graphics and text in the lesson delivery?

How would you instruct someone differently when using both graphics and text in the lesson delivery?

When developing an instruction set that had both images and text combined, I had to rethink what text and which images I was going to use. I was able to remove some of the text, and I actually removed some images but also created new images for the InDesign project.

Now that the assignment allowed for text and images, the images didn’t need to encompass as much information. Instead the images used for this project were smaller and more specific than when the assignment was to use only images. The images could now focus on the detail of the task, and the text could explain the general information. The images that I created gave more detail about key steps that would need to be completed. Also, text was added to the image to provide even more detail. The combination of text on the image was even more informative and beneficial to teaching the step.

Having both text and images is more efficient and effective in providing clear instructions. When you explain a task in text, you often need a visual to help you grasp what the individual is trying to convey. The same is for images. You need some explanation in addition to just images to convey an idea sometimes.

What are the benefits? It was much easier developing the instruction set when you could use both text and images. When you need to emphasize a key piece of instruction sometimes just using text or images limits your ability to fully explain the step. Some ideas are better expressed in images and others through text. In addition, using both text and images helps the visual learner to comprehend the information.

When I developed the instruction set in just text, it reminded me of sitting in a classroom where the instructor only lectured, and everyone took notes. This was sometimes effective but not always. The use of a presentation along with the lecture could be more effective. However, I have seen presentations that teachers have used that have too many graphics and moving parts and sounds. The use of too many graphics can be distracting. Prezi is a popular presentation program that our teachers use to deliver lessons. It contains many special effects, but when they use too many special effects and movement, it distracts from the overall lesson.   

In conclusion, the teacher must be able to use a well-balanced approach to integrating both text and graphics to deliver instruction in an efficient and effective manner for the learner.