In 2008 Richard Mayer received the APA award for "Distinguished Contributions of Applications of Psychology to Education and Training." The article that accompanied this award can be downloaded below. It includes a bio of Richard, plus an article titled, "Applying the Science of Learning: Evidence- Based Principles for the Design of Multimedia Instruction."
In this 2008 article Mayer uses the terminology of extraneous processing, essential processing, and generative processing—and provides key principles for optimizing these various sources of cognitive processing. This article is a must read.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
One Great Graphic
If you're interested, you can download the complete set of one-page hand-drawn graphics created in class last Friday.
Across the Universe
The 10 minute segment I shared in class on Friday night is from the 2007 movie titled: Across the Universe.
The movie is easy to rent, or buy. The bonus features in the DVD provide interesting insights into how Julie Taymor works. Taymor has worked mainly in theater (she created the Lion King stage version), but she's directed a few films including Frida, Across the Universe, and The Tempest (coming in 2010).
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Session 5 Materials Ready
All of the learning materials for Session 5 on Editing are ready to download. Make sure you can download these items before this upcoming Friday class. If you experience any downloading problems, then let me know.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Graphic Design, Blank Pages, & Sharpies
Whenever you want to create a new presentation it's easy to start off using something like PowerPoint or Keynote. There are clearly times where that's the best approach. However, in general, I like the blank page approach where you start with a literal blank page. I prefer the homely piece of paper, but a blank slide in presentation software can also work quite nicely.
What you see above is an example of a rather complicated visual for statistics. This visual was used as part of a multimedia presentation on calculating effect size (Cohen's d to be specific). Below you can download the full presentation that includes a movie and supporting documents (such as the original article the data came from).
You can click on the image above. When you click you'll then be taken to my account in Flickr (free versions are easy to sign up for). When you are in Flickr you'll still see a smallish image, but just above the image you'll see several icons that give you options for how you interact with the image. Click on the "all sizes" button. You'll then be taken to a page where you can see this image in a variety of sizes: including quite bit versions. Pretty cool! Using this technique (I know I'm leaving out the details), one can present a little "preview" image and still let your learners see the full big image.
The movie itself is mainly composed of scanned images. Ironically I then "scan" the scans by zooming in closer to certain sections of the page as the video progresses. The download is 47 Mb.
Fall 2009 Technology Survey Results
Above are the results of the quick survey I did at the beginning of the semester with students in the Multimedia Learning (15) and Applied Statistics (20) courses. These results are very similar to the results from last year.
A noticeable addition to the results is the iPhone (42% of students have one). One key deviation I notice from the year before is that there's now a much bigger percentage of people with digital cameras (97% compared to 83% a year ago). The other change is that there's fewer people reporting having digital audio recording devices (39% compared to 50% the year before). Unfortunately this survey is comparing apples to oranges since the numbers I give from the year before only included people in the Cognition course.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Surveys Open
The five group surveys from the Applied Statistics course are now open to be completed. You need to complete all 5 by September 24th at midnight. These surveys really have nothing to do with multimedia learning, but your responses will help those in the statistics course have real data to work with.
It's probably easiest to answer all 5 surveys at the same time. There will be some repetitious questions, but the data ends up going to different groups so please be understanding.
I have linked the five surveys. That means when you successfully complete Survey 1 then you'll be taken to Survey 2 and so on. After completing Survey 5 then you'll be taken to a general confirmation notice page. In total you can probably respond to all 5 surveys in less than 5 minutes. What a deal!
Please be honest when you are responding. I won't know the names of individual respondents, but I will have running counts of how many people from a few different courses have responded.
It's probably easiest to answer all 5 surveys at the same time. There will be some repetitious questions, but the data ends up going to different groups so please be understanding.
I have linked the five surveys. That means when you successfully complete Survey 1 then you'll be taken to Survey 2 and so on. After completing Survey 5 then you'll be taken to a general confirmation notice page. In total you can probably respond to all 5 surveys in less than 5 minutes. What a deal!
Please be honest when you are responding. I won't know the names of individual respondents, but I will have running counts of how many people from a few different courses have responded.
Monday, September 14, 2009
15 Draft Ideas
I've just posted a 25 minute movie that stars each of you. The purpose of posting this movie is to provide a practical example of how hand-drawn scans can be integrated with something like PowerPoint or Keynote to give them a more "polished" look. This is an optional download. The download is only 21 Mb.
Class List
It's about time we have a convenient class list so people can contact one another if they so wish. Towards that end I've created a new "mini-assignment" that needs to be completed by Monday the 21st. Complete the class list form (see link below) and a list of names, emails, and more will automatically be created. To see the results of the form, click on the brand new class list subpage link just above.
Survey Mania Coming Soon
You may have noticed that there are currently placeholders for your to complete five surveys by September 24!!! Don't worry. Each of these surveys will take you less than 2 minutes to complete (probably much less). You will be supplying data for my students in Applied Statistics to work with. All of your responses will be anonymous. I'll have links to these surveys posted later this week.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Wingfield Audio
There are a few good places to buy audio products including Broadcast Supply Worldwide and B&H Photo Video. However, my favorite website is the one run by Stephanie Wingfield. She's a musician, but her website is all about portable recording devices. She sells (naturally), but she also provides lots of useful information about recording devices, microphones and more. I highly suggest checking out her website if you want to get news, or perhaps buy, some audio equipment.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Session 4 Materials Ready
All of the learning materials for Session 4 on Graphic Design are ready to download. Make sure you can download these items before this upcoming Friday class. If you experience any downloading problems, then let me know.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Paris-in-Three-Days Bonus Audio
I've created a bonus audio product that includes a 30 minute audio file along with 4 maps describing some key places a person might want to visit on a three-day visit to Paris (excluding the typical tourist attractions). This is an optional download, but serves as another example of an efficiently created multimedia product. Read more details at the Session 3 Audio webpage.
Media Release Forms
As discussed in class, having an appropriate media release form is important if you plan on including students in any of your multimedia productions. Please check with your specific institution about requirements and guidelines for creating a suitable release form. You can download some sample release forms. In the downloaded package you'll find three Word documents that U.C. Davis uses with credential students. You'll also find three variations on one document used by Milpitas Unified School District. In the Milpitas case I've included: (1) the original scan, (2) an OCR version of the scan where you can copy/paste the text, and (3) an RTF version which does not come out perfectly but allows you to easily copy text if you want to use their wording in part of a media release form you create.
In general instructors working with over-18s can pretty easily craft their own media release form (but it's always good to double-check with your administration). On the other hand, instructors working with under-18s need to use media release forms that are tightly aligned with the requirements of their particular school district. In several cases those working with under-18s will need to use a district-mandated form.
In general instructors working with over-18s can pretty easily craft their own media release form (but it's always good to double-check with your administration). On the other hand, instructors working with under-18s need to use media release forms that are tightly aligned with the requirements of their particular school district. In several cases those working with under-18s will need to use a district-mandated form.
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