All Annotations of Research Review: Multimodal Learning Through Media | Edutopia[Preview]

saved by11 people, first byKellie 80 on 2008-05-21, last byKim Cofino on 2008-06-28

• Here are five rules for varying your teaching methods to help students learn more.
• The Metiri Group's report disputes the widely debated Cone of Experience theory, which says each of us learns 10 percent of what we read, 20 percent of what we hear, 30 percent of what we see, 50 percent of what we hear and see, 70 percent of what we say or write, and 90 percent of what we say as we do a thing. (The rampant misrepresentation of researcher Edgar Dale's valid model of classifying learning styles is discussed in this entry in the blog of educational consultant Will Thalheimer.) After an extensive search, the report's authors were unable to find any empirical evidence supporting this breakdown. Contrary to popular opinion, research shows that lessons in which students interact with material, rather than passively absorb it, are not always better.

• "As it turns out, doing is not always more efficient than seeing," the report
  concludes. "The reality is that for the novice student engaged in basic skill
  building, such as learning chemical symbols, individual learning through reading
  or simple drill and practice might be the optimal learning design. Yet, for a
  different learning objective -- for instance, understanding the cause and effect
  of a specific chemical reaction -- involving that same student in collaborative
  problem solving might be the most effective learning approach."

• Charles Fadel, Cisco's global lead for education, suggests that educators
  devote their multimedia resources and interactive lessons to teaching complex
  subjects, rather than wasting them on building students' basic skills. Teachers
  developing interactive lessons for more advanced concepts, however, should keep
  in mind that Cisco's report doesn't distinguish between lessons in which
  students interact with prepared material and those in which they collaborate
  with peers. Fadel says more research is necessary to determine the efficacy of
  different types of interactivity.

• Related words and pictures should appear at the same time and near each other on
  the page, the whiteboard, or the screen. Presenting them one after another, or
  separated by large spaces, reduces their effect.