Dave's Learning Blog

Modality Theory and MP4

Richard E. Meyer has written a very interesting text called "Multimedia Learning". A central point he talks about is the "modality effect", which is described as follows: "...the term modality effect ... the idea that "effective cognitive capacity may be increased if both auditory and visual working memory can be used" to process incoming mulitmedia messages. In short, "effective size of working memory can be increased by presenting information in a mixed (auditory and visual mode) rather than a single mode" (Mousavi et al., 1995, p. 320).

Meyer explains that we clog up our processing capability by forcing people to use their eyes to read text AND process visual information (like animation, illustrations, etc.)

Excellence ... a habit

There is a quote I use in my email signature file that is attributed (I believe correctly) to Aristotle that says: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act. It is a habit." I've also heard someone (unknown) quoted as saying "The enemy of great, is good."

My Experience with Personality Types

Personality testing concepts date back to Carl Jung and his book "Psychological Types" published in 1921, which Katharine Briggs and her daughter read and adapted to create the Myers (the daughter)-Briggs (the mother) test. Businesses have used this to analyze appropriateness of job positions for different applicants. There are loads of websites dedicated to such things nowadays as well. And all this was done without notifying me! (Hmmm. "Not notifying me?": I wonder what personality type that makes me) :-)

Independent thought?

I received a message today (actually many) on a Listserve I subscribe to (from a University Instructional and Perfomance Technology department with whom I'm working on my Masters). The questioner asked the list for ideas regarding options available for CBT and e-learning authoring solutions. Initially there was a post for Authorware and Director (and one for WebCT), but then everyone jumped on the Flash bandwagon. What amazed me was that very little thought went into the recommendations except...."hey, people use it" or "it costs less than X".