This week, we mainly focus on certain useful and effective theories of media to help teachers emphasize their teaching purpose in the class. It is important for them to use instructional design models to ensure the multimedia lesson can go smoothly.

As for the design process, as shown in the material by McCue (2021), Alexander proposes six stages to create multimedia class, including definition, research, ideation, develop, improve and feedback. Followed by these stages, teachers can illustrate an explicit teaching goal, have more data on it, sum up the key opinions and then create related multimedia contents. In this way, teachers can implement their teaching goals in a right direction.

What’s more, there are some obvious characteristics of instructional design models. For example, it is a must for teachers to design the class as learner-centered, goal-oriented, empirical elements with team effort (Kurt, 2015). Teachers should take these elements into consideration when they design a lesson. During the process of making multimedia lesson plan, teachers should also remember some rules of making PowerPoint. For example, never try to put more than two ideas or six objects in a slide (Jarrett, 2020), which actually relates to cognitive load theory. When teachers keep these in mind, they would improve students’ effective learning in the class.

In addition, What I have learnt most in this week’s materials is about creating learning artifacts with Canva. Canva is a popular tool to create infographics (McCue, 2021). Below is one of the posters I made:

References

Jarrett, Christian (2020, Nov). Cognitive Load Theory provides a useful framework for understanding the different ways the pandemic could be playing havoc with your mental function. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201103-cognitive-load-theory-explaining-our-fight-for-focus

Kurt, S. “Instructional Design Models and Theories,” in Educational Technology, December 9, 2015. Retrieved from https://educationaltechnology.net/instructional-design-models-and-theories/ Dr. Serhat Kurt, Instructional Design Models and Theories. February 17, 2021.

McCue, R. (2021, February 20). EDCI 337—Selected Multimedia Creation Tools [MP3]. https://soundcloud.com/rich-mccue/edci-337-selected-multimedia-creation-tools

McCue, R. (2021, February 20). Introduction to Infographics with Canva & Related Multimedia Learning Principles [MP4]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1k3deWbw2c