Week 4 Readings

This week we were asked to read Chapter 3& 4 in ELSI and to read the article “5 Ways to Reduce PowerPoint Overload.” As usual, I found the information quite informative. It is finally nice to know the “rules” of using multimedia. The three broad concepts to keep in mind when using multimedia are:

• Using visual+audio will help students learn better
• Be aware of cognitive overload- remove any extra words or visuals
• Learning comes from actively participating with the material

For example, if I were asked to convey the principles of multimedia, to colleagues, I would use the program Prezi to create a power point like presentation. I would also use Camtasia to add audio to the program and adhere to following guidelines:

• Use newspaper like headlines to introduce the concepts- the Signaling Principle
• Keep the words to a minimum- the Segmentation Principle & the Coherence Principle
• Add an image or graphic- the Multimedia Principle
• Use words and lines to connect the visual to words- the Coherence Principle
• The spoken word should be in-sync with the words and graphics- the Modality Principle

Using these guidelines will help ensure my colleagues (learners) have the best possible chance of retaining information and achieving the objectives of the presentation.