Dervin’s: From the Mind’s Eye of the User:
Sense-making is used to study the needs, images and satisfactions of users and potential users of information/communication systems Sense-making is the term which is used to describe a set of methods developed in order to study the making of sense that people do in their everyday lives. What humans perceive to start with can be translated differently by different parts of our body, & therefore, people get different messages. There are many different ways to judge things – people see things differently. Through discussion and observation humans can arrive at more stable observations. Not all information is fully accessible to all human observers due to time constraints and intellect. Human information systems and use of human information needs to be studied from the perspective of the end-user not the observer. Questions are asked which start in the observer’s world, not the end-user. Designers of the system give order to the system, not the people that are using it. Sense-making focuses on internal and external behaviors & is all about how things are interpreted. People interpret things differently according to past behaviors and experiences. When entering a new situation people try to use past experiences to help them ‘bridge the gap.’ People also interpret things differently depending on when they happen and what happens. Life is unpredictable – humans create different responses according to their class, income, education. Chpt 4-6 Baggio: The Visual Connection: The brain works in patterns; prior knowledge context and expectations influence the way people learn Using prior knowledge to help us learn involves the use of NAPs, which are previously travelled pathways in the brain. It’s beneficial to try something different as new pathways are created in the brain Prior knowledge is the place in the closet where we hang new thought. Simple visuals are the most effective Context is important to adult learning because it provides relevance. If something is really different in contrast to another, we tend to remember it. Our expectations are things we imagine might be true or are likely to happen. Imagination is one of the most powerful words in learning. Learning styles are approaches to teaching and learning that presume that the learner has a way of learning that is dominant. You are influenced by the way you take in information. People tend to know what their learning styles are/what works best for them from the feelings they get inside. Most of us are attracted to visuals – 85% of us are visual learners. There is a limit to working memory – this is why chunking information is important when learning. Visual design for learning should not be overwhelming or overshadow the content & should act in harmony with it. Otherwise people may tune out rather than tune in. When designing visuals make sure that the learner’s eye is focused on the important part of the screen. When creating/designing a visual you need to be cognizant of the fact that the reader takes the visual in all at once - objects, space, light, angle, distance and brightness are combined to form a total effect or style. Clark Chapters 1-2: The technology of training Poor job training results in a loss of productivity for businesses. Instructional Technology is built on the ISD (Instructional Systems Design) model which is used to plan, design, develop and evaluate training. Learning outcomes can be guaranteed. ISD model – stages; needs analysis, task analysis, definition of assessment, development of learning materials, try-out & revision & implementation of the final product. The training has 4 major parts; the information of the training, the performance outcomes, the instructional methods and the instructional media. Information = content of training program Performance outcomes = what the trainees will do with the information provided & are defined in learning objectives. The instructional methods are what causes learning to happen; informational displays and practice with feedback Instructional media = the delivery devices of the instructional methods. None are better. Use cost effective media - instructor/video It is a myth that learning is occurring if there is an instructor present and a chalkboard, or taking a course on the internet. Trainers can’t just have knowledge of the technical information, they need to know how to impart the knowledge successfully. Some training is really no use and can have adverse effects on trainees. Business need to adopt sound training programs. Often products are designed (ie software) but training on how to use the product is an after-thought and inadequate. It is important to spend time in the analysis and design of the lesson as it avoids problems later. Instructional systems development – ISD Model = analysis and design, development, evaluation & implementation When designing a training program, you need to assess and identify appropriate solutions, assess needs, define the content of the training program and then write clear learning objectives. Writing these objectives is very important. Structured lesson design; technical lessons should include and introduction, supporting information, the key lesson task and a summary. Questioning techniques – open and close-ended. Direction of questions individual (targeted), group, relay (starts from trainee to another trainee), reverse (questions thrown back to the asker) and rhetorical questions. I can relate to many of the points here related by the authors and they are all in some sense intertwined. All of our students are different, and their attitudes and learning abilities can often be affected by how they perceive things, which is in turn affected by their class, education and intellect. It is very complex. As educators, we need to try and reach every student and not deliver a one-size fits all type of education. When designing lessons we need to think about learning from our student’s perspectives and not from our own. We need to effectively try and put ourselves into our students’ shoes. Sense-making makes a lot of sense in that it effectively defines how people go about interpreting situations and then trying to use their former knowledge to solve problems. Baggio focuses on visuals and how important they are. In World Language classrooms we often have signs on our walls with simple phrases & pictures that students can use in everyday situations. They are very easy to interpret, and so whenever a student has a common need, i.e. they need to tell you that they left their homework at home, or that they need to use the bathroom for example, they can do so using the foreign language by looking at the picture and reading the phrase underneath. After a while, students just need to look quickly at the picture and then will remember the phrase. Also when introducing new vocabulary, I use a lot of visuals. I try and use unusual pictures so that the word associated with that picture might stick in a student’s mind over another word. We repeat the word, then I ask students is it this, or that, and then finally I will ask them “What is it?” Generally, by that point they can remember the word or phrase. Students are only taught vocabulary words in smaller chunks say 13-14 words in the hope that they will enter their working memory and then be transferred to their long-term memory if we keep reviewing them periodically once they have been taught. Many students also do projects on different cultural projects and will make a google slides or powerpoint presentation. When presenting, I generally tell students to make the slides as simple and succinct as possible, and that they should use each slide just like they would a flashcard, in that each phrase is a spring board for them to talk to the class about something. When there is too much information on the slide I have noticed that some students do tend to zone out, whereas they seem much more focused when the presentations outwardly look more simple. The technology of training was interesting to read about as it showed things more from a business perspective. A key point that was made was that a trainer can have much technical knowledge of a product, but that is not enough – the trainer needs to know how to impart that knowledge to others. From personal experience, I remember having a Chemistry teacher at high school who had come from Industry and seemed to have much in depth knowledge of the subject matter, but we found it very difficult to understand the concepts that he was trying to teach us. It was very frustrating. The ISD model made a lot of sense too; when designing a course and writing a syllabus it is so important to effectively define its content and give clear learning objectives. Too often as teachers, I think, at the beginning of the year we define the course objectives, but then later get bogged down in some of the minutiae of the course. At our school we have started using backward design; we have our course objectives clearly mapped out on our UBD (Understanding By Design) templates, and we also design our final exams nearer the beginning of the semester to ensure that we are effectively teaching the course that we had originally mapped out to teach. It requires a lot of work initially, but it is good at keeping you on track and focused on what the main requirements and important objectives of the course are.
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AuthorI am a French & Spanish teacher at Justin-Siena High School wanting to get new ideas to motivate my students. Archives
March 2019
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