Update 15th March
Keith pointed out on the forums that "In week 5, Saloman argues "Different media...exert differential influence on learning" . This is in contradiction to the Grocery Truck analogy, right?" Aquilina, K. (2009) H800 les6 09 Week 5 14 March 2009 09.23
Very good point.
Activity 1
How do you think the grocery truck analogy might be an inappropriate conclusion?
The influence on achievement depends on other things, such as the status of the recipient, what they want to do with the delivery content, what other external factors may effect their application of the content.
Different media will create different reactions in people depending on their perception.
The comparative studies only tested factual recall, I don't think this is a valid way to test deep learning and ability to apply learning.
What about those students who are not in a controlled environment but who are in a conventional teaching environment - what if they seek additional media outside the classroom. The controlled conditions of these tests are not in fact a reflection of reality. You cannot assume that students only learn what happens in the classroom, but also all the other learning processes that happen outside it.
Implications to your own learning
1. Do you prefer certain forms of representation to a greater extent than others? If so, why do you think that is the case?Does this preference apply to everything you attempt to learn or does it vary from one type of learning task to another.
I believe I prefer a combination of representation. If I am learning from a lot of prose, I prefer to print the documents that read off the screen. I also learn from watching moving images (videos.) I learn particularly well from talking and doing. Web simulations, and audio/video conferencing tools help me with this. Web 2.0 tools such as blogs (although a simple diary would be enough) help me with the "talking" bit as I can talk to myself about it. I like diagrams where relevant and like orderly information - so process maps are good. I've recently experimented with mind maps and found this useful but it works better with effectively structured articles. When reading print I need to highlight words and make notes (as above). I cannot just read a document and let it sink in. I like to use Web 2.0 tools as I rarely use a pen anymore and my writing is atrocious.
When I learnt to read music and play instruments in my childhood I learnt from print. When I learnt languages I found I was able to interpret the printed word better than the spoken word however when I learn things now, like music and languages, I find it helps to listen and,, with languages, write out my own interpretation of how you pronounce the word, especially with languages such as Greek.
It depends on the subject, I hate to read about history and never read newspapers, but enjoy watching historical documentaries and sometimes the news.
Saloman rightly points out that it depends also on your schemata, or already possessed knowledge of the subject. I'm finding a lot of these papers on H800 hard to read because I don't know much about the subject and if I was in a lecture about the same subject, in real time, I'd like to think I could stop the lecturer and ask questions if I'm struggling to understand it. Also having had a break from formal learning I wonder if my capacity to interpret the academically written word has declined and needs to be practiced again - a bit like the piano. I can't just sit at the piano anymore like I used to. My fingers have lost the muscle memory of many of the notes and my ability to read music has declined when I play a piece that has a larger number of notes (I mean further up and down the keyboard) but I know that a little dedicated practice should bring it back.
Note any implications to you as somebody who supports learning of others.
My reflections above make me realise that we have to be aware of the representations people have become used to using and the "bad" habits their brains have got into. So we have to help them re-learn how to learn and immerse them back into learning carefully. (I support mature students, average age 35 with at least 10 years out of education, like me). We also need to be aware of the demands students have for new media tools. They keep asking for video because this is what they are used to using in their lives, but we have to be careful with this due to the fact that Saloman found that people don't engage as deeply in interpreting the knowledge with TV over the printed word.
Saloman's interpretation of how the interest will be using in learning, reflects the participation metaphor (cf Sfard) and although this was written in 1997, it is relevant to web 2.0 and how we perceive the potential of web 2.0 in education - nodes of interaction, knowledge, team work, self-motivated learners.
Because the DLMBA is a distance learning course assessment is difficult. Most modules are assessed by either 100% written assignment or 100% written examination. In particular the exam is in contradiction to the philosophy of the MBA in that it's about deep learning, learning from others, application of learning at work. An exam tests recall and to an extend application to a case study, but doesn't test the individuals ability at work. The examination is difficult for people who are writing in a second language, and as I found in a 3 hour exam I did in 2003, hand-writing for 3 hours was very difficult given that I never write anymore. The marker would have found it much easier to mark my work if it had been typed and I may have done better.
We are certainly following the grocery truck analogy on the MBA, in fact it is seen by potential students as an advantage of the 3 variants. "1 MBA, 3 modes of delivery". But this is due to the negative perspectives by employers around the world of a DL MBA over a FT MBA but we're certain this is changing so the market demands this generic approach. Potential and current students seem to worry a lot about what their certificate will say, and we have to be very reassuring that there is just one certificate that simply says the Warwick MBA, not how they achieved it. We are currently using wbsLive (virtual classroom software) to replicate exactly what the lecturers do at the induction day - this article disputes what we're doing. But I could defend we're doing it as part of our long term plan. At the moment we are doing this as part of the process of training and immersing the presenters in the resource for use for real T&L at a future point.
So the socially held views of different media appear to affect the way learners handle them, the depth in which they engage with them. (So we have to bear this in mind for using things like 2nd life, and other Web 2.0 tools if they're deemed to be a social tool, and not an educational tool, will serious learning take place.)
Coming to comprehend something means networking (The participation metaphor) . However Saloman says refers to free associating, searching, creatively which " is not the way that school-based acquisition....of knowledge is supposed to go." - (The Acquisition metaphor)
Saloman expresses concern though that the benefits of the Internet knowledge nodes, also have weaknesses. It allows for "undisciplined, free-associational, yet tempting wandering among various nodes ("web surfing")." What he says is that people searching one topic easily get lead down a different route. But what's wrong with this, isn't this free learning. Why should learning be so prescriptive. This reminds me of the model of learning in H808, where a topic was introduced and you found the readings yourself, giving you ownership of your learning because you were learning what interested you, but within the learning outcome requirements of the course.
In today's context this is relevant in thinking about Web 2.0 tools and the fact the current and future generations of students are web-savvy and able to multitask. But going back to the articles from earlier weeks about digital natives, of course it is dangerous to assume that all people born in 1988 will be au fait with social networking.
All notes from this article and Activity 1 are here.
