A Consideration of Multimedia Instruction
H. A. Russell III
artrussell@mindspring.com
spehar@langate.gsu.edu
Georgia State University
Posted
12.1.98. Minor revisions 3.14.99
This paper has not been peer reviewed. Please do not copy or cite without author’s
permission.
Abstract
Instructional Views
Behaviorist
Cognitivist
Pragmatisit / Sociohistoric
Theoretical Summary
Practical Considerations
Conclusions
References
Three perspectives of instructional design are reviewed: behaviorist, cognitivist, and pragmatist/sociohistoric. Theoretical and selected practical implications of multimedia are briefly discussed.
Greeno, Collins, & Resnick (1996), identified three prominent instructional views that address the nature of learning and knowing, and by implication, education: behaviorist, cognitivist, and situative or pragmatist/sociohistoricist.The behaviorist perspective suggests that "knowing is an organized accumulation of associations and components of skills" (Greeno, et al., 1996, p. 14). It is in focusing on learning as a series of accumulated associations that behaviorism establishes its approach to teaching and learning. One of the implications is that individual students must have the opportunity to respond to instruction and receive feedback based upon the individual student's response. This aspect of the behaviorist perspective provides a basis for the development of programmed guides providing routinized instruction in common skills in diverse areas including mathematics, vocabulary, reading, and military science, and can take the form of printed text as well as multimedia computer programs. Not limited to programmed instruction, products of the behaviorist perspective can be found on the Internet in abundance offering instruction in many forms of computer, multimedia or Internet specific topics.
Deriving from Gestalt psychology, constructivism from Piaget's research with the cognitive growth of children, and information processing theory (from computer systems design), the cognitivist perspective subsumes many different views within its larger framework, but as defined by Greeno, et al., (1996) emphasizes the importance of "organized pattern in cognitive activities" (p. 16). Moreover, the cognitivist perspective suggests that "learning environments can be organized to foster students' constructing understanding of concepts and principles through problem solving and reasoning in activities that engage students' interests and use their initial understandings and their general reasoning and problem solving abilities" (Greeno, et al., 1996, p.27). Not surprisingly, given cognitivism's roots in computer information processing, adherents of the cognitivist perspective have used computer systems to design learning environments in which students progressively construct their own understanding through problem solving related to activities within a domain.
"The pragmatist/sociohistoric perspective views knowledge as distributed among people and their environments, including the objects, artifacts, tools, books, and the communities of which they are a part" (Greeno, et al., 1996, p. 17). In a sense, it is a sociocultural perspective in that it views all human activity as being situated in a social and cultural environment, with the activities of each reciprocally influencing the other. Significantly, the sociohistoric perspective assumes the view of assisted learning, which is "where more able others actively scaffold the individual's performance at a level beyond which the individual could perform alone" (Hickey, 1997) within the zone of proximal development which was first introduced to the pragmatist/sociohistoric perspective by L. S. Vygotsky. Vygotsky's zone of proximal development defines that area in which "the child is initially able to do only together with adults and peers, and then can do independently" (Davydov, 1995, p. 18). It is the zone of proximal development upon which hinges the use of computers. Solomon and Perkins' discussion of social learning observes that the culture can scaffold a learner's efforts or at least greatly help learning by providing "cultural artifacts in the form of tools and information sources" (Salomon & Perkins, 1998, p. 4). Moreover, it is the mediation of "tools in a broad sense, including not only physical implements but technical procedures" (Salomon & Perkins, 1998, p. 9), such as computers and computer programs, which can provide cognitive scaffolding in the zone of proximal development (Salomon, Perkins, & Globerson, 1991). In noting the relationship of individual and social learning, Salomon and Perkins (1998) note that "almost all individual learning is social in some sense, [but] the degree of active social mediation may vary considerably from situation to situation" (p. 15). In a similar sense, computer based instruction can be both individual and social, depending upon the type of instruction involved. Computer based multimedia instruction is representative of the behaviorist and cognitivist perspectives which are essentially individualistic in their orientation in that their instruction is conveniently accessible by only one person at a time. At the other end of Salomon and Perkins' (1998) continuum of degrees of social mediation, computer programs illustrative of the sociohistoric perspective have more recently become available. These programs, in some cases a group implementation of stand-alone programs and games such as SimCity, or high level military simulations, offer an opportunity for student/players to manipulate complex simulations in which point decisions manifest "unpredictable long term outcomes in seemingly unrelated areas" (Mayer-Kress, 1998). As a result, these software programs and simulations may offer a degree of realism more closely "situated" in the student's real world and thus offer greater opportunities for learning and subsequent transfer.
Each of the three instructional views has its own strengths, which in turn influence their implementation through an online environment.
The behaviorist perspective is especially effective when chosen for learning routine tasks, sometimes through drill and practice, but particularly when instruction is individualized on a student by student basis, and can be designed to allow successive approximation to a desired goal state or level of performance. There are already in existence a number of behaviorist inspired Internet sites providing documents for self-paced instruction (e.g., National Center for Supercomputing Applications, 1996; Litchfield, 1997; Zohrob, 1997; & Martineau, 1997), suggesting the broad acceptance of the behaviorist approach and which are representative of one aspect of multimedia instruction.
The cognitivist perspective offers the same ability to learn skills, concepts and facts as that presented by the behaviorist perspective, but goes further in fostering the development of an understanding of various learning strategies (germane to a particular subject field) which in turn encourages the student to construct their own knowledge of the subject. In that process, the student constructs connections between old and new knowledge as suggested by Marshall (as cited in Woolfolk, 1995) and develops a fuller understanding beyond fact acquisition emphasized in the behaviorist tradition. Cognitivist practitioners have recognized the potential for computer-mediated multimedia education which "no longer emphasizes the teacher as the main source of knowledge" (Jonassen, Davidson, Collins, Campbell & Haag, 1995, p. 14) and have fielded several different programs with varying levels of success.
The behaviorist and cognitivist traditions do not fully consider the implications of the social dimension in human learning. This is the strength of the pragmatist/sociohistoricist perspective where individuals participate in a social learning environment. This environment mediates learning as individuals participate in collaboratory knowledge construction which is often scaffolded by cultural tools, such as computers and multimedia methods, and other information sources (Salomon & Perkins, 1998). Group or socially implemented computer programs or simulations such as the multi-player version of SimCity (Mayer-Kress, 1998) offer the opportunity to provide an Internet collaborative learning environment. They may provide the ability to deliver components of instructional activity in support of traditional educational objectives, albeit in a sociohistoricist manner, more efficiently (Pea, 1993). In a sense, these types of programs function as what Jonassen, et al., (1995) referred to as cognitive tools. When used, cognitive tools help students shape their own learning and making of meaning. They facilitate group construction of social artifacts and meaning, and it is the construction of artifacts which leads to learning (Soloway & Bielaczyc, 1995).
Multimedia instruction has an attractive, but ephemeral quality. Properly presented, it does offer the experiential nature of the optimal experience referred to as "flow." However, it also brings with it the threat of amplifying trivia. As such, guidance and reflection are necessary to place the experience into focus. Effective use of multimedia for learning is not easy. It requires considerable effort with the involved assistance of teachers helping to tune procedures and one's conceptual understanding (Norman, 1996).
The question of careful design is important when considering using multimedia. Carefully designed, multimedia instruction can be very effective as a method to increase motivation and alertness (Nelson, Watson, Ching, & Barrow, 1996) and can improve the quality of student responses (Mayer, 1997). Its wide variety of formats such as text, graphics, film, video, hypermedia, and other interactive formats are thought to engage more senses than conventional teaching methods (Mayer, 1997; Najjar, 1997; Nelson, et al., 1996; Pea, 1991) and thus facilitate better learning. Done properly, multimedia can support learning (Mayer, 1997; Najjar, 1997; Nelson, et al., 1996). Typically, this involves the simultaneous presentation of verbal and visual materials which allow students to encode subject materials in more than one manner, thereby increasing possible mental connections (Mayer, 1997; Mayer & Sims, 1994). Improperly done, it can lead the student astray (Nelson, et al., 1996), particularly if introduced as an effort to capture students' attention (Harp & Mayer, 1998). Providing interesting and entertaining, but seductive details interfere with learning and tends to prime recall of inappropriate knowledge (Garner & Brown, 1992; Harp & Mayer, 1998). If used for this purpose, delay presentation of multimedia until after presentation of topic or instruction information (Harp & Mayer, 1998) to allow students to adequately process that which is important. Careful design of multimedia instruction should also consider the role teachers play in scaffolding students' experiences. Teacher scaffolding of the multimedia experience is needed to improve learning outcomes (Lyons, Hoffman, Krajcik, & Soloway, 1997; Nelson, et al., 1996; O'Neill, Edelson, Gomez, & D'Amico, 1995; Tomei, 1997). Moreover, teachers are needed to define expectations for student outcomes (Lyons, et al., 1997). Careful design should also consider the nature of the target audience. Multimedia seems to work best for individuals with high spatial ability and low prior knowledge (Mayer & Sims, 1994). However, it may also be effective for active learners with high levels of autonomy as often seen in practitioners of computer or Internet based training. In either case, it is necessary to objectively assess which individual can benefit from an independent learning environment, or which individual needs hands on assistance and scaffolding of their experience (Tomei, 1997).
Bereiter (1994) would suggest that none of the three instructional views represented here is necessarily better than the other. Rather he suggests that we are free to mix and match instructional views in the best manner to achieve our instructional purpose. So it is in my perspective on the use of the multimedia.
If I'm interested in imparting basic skills in the shortest possible time, it is not necessary to establish a profoundly and fully culturally situated environment (acknowledging that all environments are socially situated to some degree, even when only one individual is present). Rather, the behaviorist perspective might suggest that the quickest, most pragmatic solution could be some form of programmed instruction. Alternatively, if appropriate, the instruction may take the form of text downloaded from the Internet. The question is one of pragmatic consideration. A stand-alone computer providing programmed instruction probably requires fewer resources, both in terms of material and human resources, to implement than an equivalent implementation in the cognitivist or pragmatist/sociohistoricist perspective. However, in implementing the behaviorist paradigm, one must be aware of its instructional limitations. The student may have the information, but have little understanding of that information beyond a sterile representation of facts, skills and concepts. To go farther and provide the student with an understanding of associated processes and strategies requires the assumption of the cognitivist perspective.
The cognitivist perspective is a pragmatic choice in that it provides an opportunity for guiding the development of students' cognitive structures to achieve a fuller understanding of underlying facts, skills and concepts in something more than a sterile presentation of information. Properly implemented, students can gain an understanding of themselves and their subject matter's relationship in the world around them. If needed, teachers or peers can provide needed guidance. Computers can provide similar, but rule based, guidance and mediated instruction either when operating autonomously, or possibly on the Internet. However, with computer mediation, human interaction is not necessary outside the student. Within limits, the computer can provide the necessary guidance. However, the student is limited solely to what he knows. To extend one's knowledge beyond this point requires the assets and possibilities only found in the pragmatist/sociohistoric perspective.
Assuming the pragmatist/sociohistoric perspective is a pragmatic choice when it is not enough to have strategies, facts, skills and concepts. These things can not be divorced from their social situation and still retain the same meaning. They must be situated in a social and necessarily human circumstance. The sum of social groups' values, facts, skills, concepts and strategies are defined in collaboration.
In each case, an objective assessment of the learner's levels of relative knowledge and autonomy within a given instructional domain is necessary. More importantly, the contribution of multimedia to the individual's understanding of illustrated points must be by design, rather than default. Resist the temptation to use multimedia as a means to capture the learners' attention. Rather, present verbal and visual information simultaneously, but as an illustration supporting an already introduced instructional topic. Teachers should not consider multimedia as a stand-alone instructional panacea. If anything, the effective use of multimedia may further complicate their already difficult jobs as they determine how to scaffold their students' learning.
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