Richard Mayer's Multimedia Learning Theory (Representation & Interaction Desig... - The Diigo Meta page

• 03 Apr 10
  

  Susan Nightingale

  Optimize learning with words and images

  literacy

  • Summary of Mayer’s Multimedia Learning:
    Mayer delineates three views of  “multimedia” for learning. 1) in terms of the medium of delivery, 2) in terms of  its presentation modes, its re-presentational formats, and 3) in terms of the  sensory modalities used to process the material.

     

    The focus on the first view, the delivery media, is obviously  “technology-centered” rather than human-centered (Mayer also brings in reference  to Donald Norman’s concern for human-centered design of technology aids to ‘make  us smarter’).

     

    The focus of the latter two views is human- or “learner-centered”. Concern  for the presentation modes and sensory modalities is based in cognitive theory  on how people learn and this is what drives the design. Also, these two views  take a constructivist learning ideology, i.e. that knowledge is actively  constructed rather than transmitted and passively acquired. Optimal learning is  not just knowledge acquisition then, or just a matter of retention, but it is  retention with knowledge transfer- the ability to apply the knowledge.

     

    Mayer’s cognitive theory specifically ascribes to a “Dual Channel Assumption”  which basically assumes that humans have separate information processing  channels for verbal and pictorial information, or (to put it in terms of the  sensory modalities) for auditory and visual stimulus.

     

    Mayer also brings up theory of cognitive load- that understanding how humans  learn also includes understanding our cognitive limitations or the optimal load  for processing information, whether images or text or combinations of both.

     

    With Multimedia Learning theory, Mayer is proposing that multimedia can be  used to design material that optimizes learning, and that an optimal condition  for learning (information processing) is a combination of auditory and visual,  words and images, presented to minimize extraneous cognitive load and maximize  learning in terms of retention and transfer of knowledge.
• 20 Jul 08
  

  Jeff Johnson

  For hundreds of years verbal messages have been the primary means of explaining ideas to learners. Although verbal learning offers a powerful tool for humans, this book explores ways of going beyond the purely verbal. An alternative to purely verbal presentations is to use multimedia presentations in which people learn from both words and pictures--a situation the author calls multimedia learning. Multimedia encyclopedias have become the latest addition to students' reference tools, and the world wide web is full of messages that combine words and pictures. This book summarizes ten years of research aimed at realizing the promise of multimedia learning.
  
  

  Multimedia Learning Theory mayer presentation research

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