Hi everyone,
I hope this note finds you having a smooth start to your week and enjoying some of autumn’s finest!
Thank you to all who have completed the mid-course survey. I
really appreciate the feedback and have made some notes for the next offering
already – thank you for that. I also really value that you are finding this
course interesting and engaging and to that I say a big thank you to all of
you! As always, please keep the feedback coming and if there is anything else
you would like to share, don’t hesitate to drop me a note.
Re: Sept 21 – Oct 4th. As you have seen in the Schedule, these next two weeks are dedicated to Assignment 2. Here is the flow for Assignment Two as outlined in the Schedule and assignment description.
1. A2 Deliverable 1 – (pre-recorded video & document) DUE Sept 28th - uploaded into Moodle Assignment 2: Role-play debate (Pair) – (deliveryable 1: video & document) dropbox
2. Watch the videos for the synch session you are attending (Oct 1 or Oct 2) and then review in depth the video your pair has been assigned (see the column in the Debate Google Doc) between Sept 28 – Oct 1 - DUE by Oct 1st.
3. Participate in the live “Filmmakers Cut” sessions Oct 1 and/or Oct 2 depending on what one you have signed up for and of course, know you can come to both.
4. Submit A2 Deliverable 2 (peer assessment) DUE Oct 4th – uploaded to the Moodle Assignment 2: Role-play Debate (Individual) (deliverable 2: peer assessment) dropbox.
I think I have heard from almost all of the teams about their debate topic and have provided you with feedback. Thank you for sending them along and it is shaping up to be a field of engaging debates.
NOTE: Please ensure your pair has signed up for a time for your live synchronous “Filmmakers Cut” session either Oct 1 or 2nd in the Debate Google Doc and more importantly, don’t forget to add that to your calendar ;)
In terms of Assignment 2 tips, as you are preparing your materials, I thought I would offer some recommendations of do's/don’ts:
1. In producing debate videos, avoid creating a text-heavy PowerPoint, recording the screen, and reading the text back to the reader.
a. It's fine to use some words and graphics on a slide to draw attention to a point that you are making, but because humans can read much faster than can listen, it is distracting to watch a video that includes narration of the same text.
There are more insights like this from cognitive psychology, and to assist you, below I am including Richard Mayer's principles of multimedia learning for some guidance. Kirsten did her Assignment 1 on Richard so you can read more here as well.
These principles are based on years of studies examining how people learn with multimedia. They are condensed in simple recommendations below:
- Coherence Principle – People learn better when extraneous [i.e. unnecessary] words, pictures and sounds are excluded rather than included.
- Signaling Principle – People learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added.
- Redundancy Principle – People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration and on-screen text.
- Spatial Contiguity Principle – People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen.
- Temporal Contiguity Principle – People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.
- Segmenting Principle – People learn better from a multimedia lesson is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.
- Pre-training Principle – People learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts.
- Modality Principle – People learn better from graphics and narrations than from animation and on-screen text.
- Multimedia Principle – People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.
- Personalization Principle – People learn better from multimedia lessons when words are in conversational style rather than formal style.
- Voice Principle – People learn better when the narration in multimedia lessons is spoken in a friendly human voice rather than a machine voice.
- Image Principle – People do not necessarily learn better from a multimedia lesson when the speaker’s image is added to the screen.
2. Avoid long lists of citations in your presentation/debate and reading out loud those names. Feel free to refer the reader to "citations in the description of the video" or "these researchers" (while including their names on a slide) and so on.
a. Think of this as a conversational and informative presentation so as to avoid saying "Jane (2015), Jo (1993), and Johanes and Insuk (2014) said that..." during the presentation/debate. Provide those resources/references for others to explore, but avoid narrating long lists of names.
Last but not least, this week we have Activity 6 - our Unit 2 Book Club session tomorrow, Sept 22nd at 4:30 – 6pm pacific time. I appreciate that this is a timeslot that will not work for everyone and will record the session for those who are not able to join in as always. I know that many of you have also been continuing the conversation in the book club discussion forum and we will add any tidbits from our conversation there as well.
I hope this is helpful as you begin working on the videos, debates, and multimedia you'll use to support your arguments!
Okay, I think that’s it for now. Have a great week and we will speak soon.
Ciao,
Elizabeth