Week 2: VCT 5660 Evaluating Interactive Media

The article Evaluating What Really Matters in Computer Based Eduction by Tom Reeves, explains the differences between objectivist epistemologies and constructivism styles of teaching.  He explains the objectivist style is passive learning similar to the  traditional lecture type learning experience.   The student is expected to memorize the information for testing and unless the information is relevant to the persons career, most of the information is lost shortly after the class is over.  The constructivist style is described as exploration and discovery learning.  This style is based on learning by trial and error, discovery and experimenting.  Students are encouraged to learn by doing and discovering and then apply what they have learned.

 A blending of both styles of teaching seems like it would be most effective. Some information  has to be presented by lecture/chalk type, or by reading, but following the presented material with an image, a video, a question and answer session, small group discussion or some type of interatctive activity  can bridge the gap in learning styles.  Not only does this teach to different learning styles, but can it teach students to learn in different teaching styles.

After evaluating the 3 different interctive multimedia learning modules posted on the MERLOT site I found the Neuroscience for kids collection, the most interesting and entertaining module.  Maybe its just the kid in me, but the site was fun and interesting and easy to navigate. The question and answer page was engaging and of course the experiment page with the interactive puzzles was fun.  The MEC Movie tutorial site did not catch my interest at all, and with all the math, I couldn’t even begin to try it out, but I could see the relevance for an engineer student, and I can see the effectiveness of a tutorial type module for learning.  The DNA from the begining simulation was interesting at first, but there were so many slides that I started to lose interest after about 25, then I skipped to the gallery, and other icons at the bottom which were intriguing.  I went back to the slides, but by the end was mostly just scanning them. 

Interactive multimedia educational/training module criteria\

1. Easy to navigate  2.  intuitive for navigation and flow.  3.  somewhat entertaining  4.  interactive  5.  accurate and unbiased information.  6.  aesthetically pleasing. 6. Engaging 7. Stimulating. 8.

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