Chapter 10 Class Discussion

I apologize for being late with this journal entry, but blogger.com has been rather slow as of late. In my previous post, I talked about my reaction to chapter 10: now, I'm going to discuss the class discussion. Since it was led by a guest lecturer, Dr. Zsuzsanna Szabo introduced herself to the class and informed us that one or two people in this class would be especially useful in this discussion (as Dr. Lavele warned her). My PocketPC attached to a portable keyboard gave me away! I predicted I would be picked on throughout the class: I was right. As a sidenote, it didn't help that I want to impress Dr. Szabo with my knowledge of geography as she was from Romania. However, I forgot that Bucharest was its capital (not Sofia), and that compounded the already unwanted attention on me.

Dr. Szabo broke us up into groups, each group received a section of the chapter to review, and each individual in the group had to pick one word that jumped out at us and/or summarized the section. Our group got the "Uses of Technology" section which included a treatment on the cognitive skills required to successfully use tech for teaching/learning. My partners picked words like "communication," "engagement," and "challenge." I picked "self-regulation." Why? First, it is an important lesson for kids to grasp: when you're on a computer, you need to have the self-discipline to use it appropriately and effectively. Sitting in front of a computer connected to the internet can open a world to a child: but, it's a vast world full of distractions and shifty information. Secondly, since I'm a fairly "wired" person, I too suffer from a lack of self-discipline: the computer is a tool, information conduit, and entertainment center. It takes a lot of willpower to wield its power for a specific task: especially when I need to write a paper and my favorite game, "Day of Defeat," is beckoning me to play. Or, I need to do research on the web and find myself surfing over to my favorite political or geek blog. A teacher needs to understand that kids today view the computer as an extension of their lifestyle, and so, we need to make sure students learn how to use it as a precise tool. I found it funny that my classmates guffawed when I told them I plugged my computer into my big screen TV and used it as a big computer monitor: I used it to watch some of my favorite recorded TV shows (I have since figured out how to watch TV shows on my PocketPC!). For me, it's not an issue: I don't think of the computer as a monolithic object, and at the same time, I don't go out of my way to find new uses for it.

As a side note, I also praised and warned them about myspace.com: a decent but extraordinarily popular social networking website. I bet most of their kids have created a page on it. It's great for getting an "in" on new music, but there's a lot of undesirable content too.

Lastly, in our groups, Dr. Zsabo gave us one more topic to discuss so that we could create a list. OF COURSE, my group's topic centered around reasons NOT to use technology in the classroom (and it must be noted that it wasn't by accident that we got this topic). Luckily, I realize that technology is not the end-all-be-all of education. My group was surprised that I had a lot to offer! Our list consisted of: lack of activity (becoming a "mouse potato"), lack of socializing, developing poor gross coordination skills, safety, unreliable/inappropriate material, distracting, lack of sun exposure, high demands on teacher resources, mobility issues, students can do illegal acts on it (hacking), and lastly, expensive! As I gave my group's summary of our list to the class, I found it hard not to qualify some items on our list (especially the social aspect), but overall, I believe I was successful in being very exhaustive on this topic.

I definitely had fun in this class! I just wish there was a class solely focused on technology and cognitive psychology (and there might be).

Chapter 10: Cognitive Pysch and Technology

Not surprisingly, this chapter was particularly important to me! Since I'm in the Instructional Design and Learning Technologies program, I wanted an anchor to base how I approach this course: and this chapter provides that for me! Since technology is integrated thoroughly in my life, I take much of it for granted: even the design. On the one hand, technology augments my already considerable skills (ok, I'm exaggerating!), but on the other, sometimes I use technology for technology's sake! I'm a gadget freak (some of my friends have used a more derogatory term that begins with a "wh" but that's not here nor there!) One can say that I have a instinctual technology design and use philosophy. And, this chapter really reinforced what I felt and hadn't articulated! I was a member of the choir being preached to! Amen!

Briefly, the "Selected Uses of Technology" section had no surprises, but one thing that I take for granted is my normalcy in terms of my abilities (personality is another issue!). It is always a good reminder that technology opens worlds to people who, through no agency of their own, do not have the abilities to communicate or engage material in a normal fashion. Technology really does make many people, "handi-abled!" I'm glad the authors made a point to include that in this chapter!

There were two real revelations in this chapter that stood out: an articulated list of cognitive skills a student must learn/possess in order to use tech effectively and the cognitive load theory.

I hadn't really thought about the cognitive skills I possess or must be able to purvey to students to use tech in a learning environment. The list, on pages 217 and 218, creates a checklist to measure or shape a learning module's (I think that's the right word) effectiveness/goals. Bottom line: putting students in front of a computer won't necessarily teach them these skills. I assume this is an example of scaffolding (don't know the educational lingo just yet), but, you don't need an internet connected computer, or a computer at all, to teach a student how to contextualize knowledge: i.e. looking at bits of information and deciding the validity/accuracy it.

The cognitive load theory revealed a cool root design philosophy for interactive instruction: this was a true revelation to me! I think I had instinctively known this, but I'm not going to go quite that far and claim prescient knowledge. ;) It did make perfect sense to me. We have two channels: auditory and visual. Information can be either: simple or complex. Combine these two root premises and you get cognitive load theory. Our brains can handle only so much in one channel, but has a great capacity to process both in our working memory. In a multimedia presentation (and I did like the 4C/ID model), presenting a complex piece of information with simple visuals and reinforcing the information with narration is more effective than using complex visuals and narration. For example, using an animation with words/diagrams with narration can overload the visual channel which taxes the working memory because it is already processing complex information. On the other hand, a simple piece of information can be accompanied by animations, bells, and whistles to hold the students attention.

This was all very fascinating stuff! My next post will center around the class's discussion of the chapter: here's a preview, yes, I was picked on a lot! ;)

Chapter 2: Sensory and Short Term Memory

What a fascinating chapter! I won't bore you with another overview...well, just a little one. In the cognitive model, there are three main modal points: sensory reception, short term/working memory, and long term memory. Each modal point has different functions and capacities. Each work together to regulate perception and create meaning: as I mentioned before, the metaphor is that of a computer.

For this post, I want to focus on cognitive psychology's fetish for computers in terms of my fascination with computers. Two things caught my attention: According to studies, our sensory registers can only store a finite number "chunks" (memories) and our working memory processes these chunks before new memories interfere with the older ones. The studies performed, that the book cited, occurred in the 70's. The era these studies doesn't bother me (although, you might have to question any study performed during the height of disco), but how it applies to children today: with kids growing up in a multitasked, hyperlinked, and interactive environment, has their cognitive style been accounted for? Are cognitive functions, like sensory registers, hardwired (I believe the expression in 7 plus or minus 2: for a maximum of 9) or can we adapt to have more?! Maybe instead of 7, it's 8 plus or minus 2 or 3! Would having more sensory registers result in less memory processing capabilities or some other cognitive capacity?! I think that's an interesting line of thought.

The second thing that caught my eye was a blurb about another cognitive theory: instead of a computer as the metaphor, this one uses a neural(computer) network as its metaphor. Metaphorically and ironically, the evolution of computers has gone from stand alone computer to a network of computers to a distributed network of computers that share processing power: maybe cognitive psychology will move in that direction too!

Cognitive Psychology and Instruction: Thoughts on Chapter 1

I have currently read the first one and a half chapters of Burning, Schraw, Norby, and Ronning's book, but I find it absolutely fascinating! For a while, I've had this desire to learn about cognitive processes and how they affect learning because I know it will heavily influence the strategies I'll use when designing educational interactive encounters (I'm keeping this, "encounters," ambiguous as I need to work out which type of digital interaction/interactives I want to work with).

As someone who has only taken one basic psychology class in my life (the ever popular Dr. Sal Costa at Truman State U.), I found this introductory chapter accessible! I worried a bit about a possible struggle to understand the class' concepts, but the authors' methodical approach and use of accessible language helps ease my stress. Since I do have a history MA, I did find the history of cognitive theory to be brief (but actually, it would have bored me, I bet, so bully for the authors!) but informative. The Associationists, who dominated early thought on this subject, believed gathering data on limited stimulus-response studies on animals and humans: they could infer greater psychological meaning by using simple, non-contextual stimuli. However, this method/model became inadequate because bridging the gap between animal and human brain function proved difficult and hard to uphold under close scrutiny. The Behaviorists (apparently, they were Radical: in today's parlance, that means the authors didn't like them: like Republicans don't like Democrats...I don't know if the radical monicker is warranted or not...) believed strongly in environmental stimuli and reward/punishment: behavior, according to Skinner, could be predicted and controlled through controlling a subject's environment. However, this seemed to be inadequate when explaining cognitive function like a person's acquisition of language. Which leads us to...

The cognitive physchologists (they really need to work on a name for themselves...at least the other two are one word "ists"...I propose "Cognos") formulated their theories around a computer metaphor: information wasn't absorbed, but constructed by mental processes. In fact, the computer metaphor works well because these abstract cognitive processes should also have analogous physical structures in the brain. As a recap, here are the seven themes for "cognitive psychology's relevance for teaching and learning."

1) Learning is a constructive, not receptive, process.
2) Mental frameworks organize memory and guide thought.
3) Extended practice is needed to develop cognitive skills.
4) development of self-awareness and self-regulation is critical to cognitive growth. (Metacognition! I love that word.)
5) Motivation and beliefs are integral to cognition.
6) Social interaction is fundamental to cognitive development.
7) Knowledge, strategies, and expertise are contextual.

Cognitive psychology and Instruction and my spring semester,,,

I would say that my first semester at SIUE was successful! Although I only had two classes (one of which, I had a lot of experience in: web design), getting back into the academic groove felt good! In fact, this blog arose out of the web design class, but instead of leaving it to whither on the magnetic platters of blogger.com's servers, I'll still use it to help guide myself through the study of instructional design and learning technologies. I think its reflective nature will reinforce the lessons/skills I'm developing...and there is another reason, too...but I'll explain that later.

This semester, I enrolled in a one hour design studio class, an instructional systems design course, and a psychology of learning course. As a requirement for the latter class, we are told to keep a journal of our thoughts about our textual readings. Ok, you busted me, that's my "other reason" for keeping this blog alive: well, it's more of a motivating reason. I intended to keep updating this blog, but would I have really kept it alive?! Don't know! Rock on!