I’ve always been really interested in the psychological side of multimedia instruction, studying how multimedia lessons can “reduce the learner’s cognitive load, thus freeing the learner to engage in active cognitive processing” (346). The multimedia principles based on social cues stands out to me because it takes on the motivational side of multimedia instruction. What’s fascinating about the principles based on social cues is that they tap a different theoretical framework. Instead of focusing on cognitive load and cognitive processing, they offer a framework for “designing a multimedia message in ways that increase the learner’s motivational commitment.”
Personalization
If I’m making a video for my students, they’ll respond better to narration that is conversational instead of formal. Voice: If I’m making a video for my students, they’ll respond better to narration that is in a human voice rather than in a weird automated robot voice. By extension, does this mean that they will also respond better to a video with my voice instead of a random stranger’s voice?
Image
If I’m making a video for my students, they don’t need to see my sweet little face in the bottom corner of the screen … or anywhere on the screen for that matter.
Embodiment
If I’m making a video (likely an animation in this case) for my students, my little animated dudes need to be as humanlike as possible.
Principles in PracticeAnecdotally, I see the first three of these principles in practice with my own students. They seem to tune out overly complicated jargon, and often tune out bad narrators. We go rounds on selecting an audiobook narrator at the start of each unit. They have also told me that they prefer videos with me narrating instead of a stranger. I wonder how that fits in with the principles above?
Each of these elements that I see with my students is interesting, and useful for me as I design their learning experiences… but ultimately these elements aren’t about the content of what my students learn, or how I break down what they are learning. These elements are about motivating students to learn and figuring out the cognition stuff later.
Personalization
If I’m making a video for my students, they’ll respond better to narration that is conversational instead of formal. Voice: If I’m making a video for my students, they’ll respond better to narration that is in a human voice rather than in a weird automated robot voice. By extension, does this mean that they will also respond better to a video with my voice instead of a random stranger’s voice?
Image
If I’m making a video for my students, they don’t need to see my sweet little face in the bottom corner of the screen … or anywhere on the screen for that matter.
Embodiment
If I’m making a video (likely an animation in this case) for my students, my little animated dudes need to be as humanlike as possible.
Principles in PracticeAnecdotally, I see the first three of these principles in practice with my own students. They seem to tune out overly complicated jargon, and often tune out bad narrators. We go rounds on selecting an audiobook narrator at the start of each unit. They have also told me that they prefer videos with me narrating instead of a stranger. I wonder how that fits in with the principles above?
Each of these elements that I see with my students is interesting, and useful for me as I design their learning experiences… but ultimately these elements aren’t about the content of what my students learn, or how I break down what they are learning. These elements are about motivating students to learn and figuring out the cognition stuff later.
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