NYU ECT students at AECT 2005, Orlando, FL:
AECT 2005 site

Ian Aronson & So-Young Oh (10/20/05, 2:15-3:15PM):
"Beyond Linear Video: Using Digital Media to Address Complex Social Issues"
- This presentation will discuss the creation and theoretical underpinnings of Mi Querida America, an online learning environment that pairs interactive video with discussion questions and role-playing exercises to explore the subject of immigration. Mi Querida America http://www.digitaldocumentary.org/america makes extensive use of interactive, accessible, and engaging online documentary video to facilitate an inclusive discussion of immigration - an issue that causes social, political, economic and cultural conflict yet is central to the history of our society.

Chaoyan Dong (10/22/05, 10:45-11:15AM):
"Effects of Anxiety on Problem Solving in a Multimedia-Integrated Learning Environment"
- This study is expected to discover how anxiety affects problem solving in multimedia integrated learning environments, and how some aspects of anxiety are promoted or avoided, depending on the instructional materials and tasks. Discovering the effects of anxiety on problem solving in multimedia integrated learning environments will lead to design advice regarding the interface and instructional materials in the learning environment will be provided for instructional designers and users.

Eun Joon Um & Jonathan deHaan (10/20/05, 8:00-9:15AM):
"How Video Games Can Be Used As An Effective Learning Environment for Cognitive Apprenticeship Theory-Based Learning"
- Video games have become one of the most influential forms of technology. As an attempt to apply current learning theories to video games in learning contexts, this paper examines the potentials of video game technology as a cognitive apprenticeship based learning environment by exploring the principles of Collins-Brown’s (1989) model of cognitive apprenticeship in current video games, focusing on how the principles are effectively designed using the unique characteristics of video games.

Dr. Mitchell Rabinowitz, Fordham University
The Design of Practice
March 4, 2004, 1:15 PM, East Building, ROOM 319.

My research investigates the relationship between practice and knowledge acquisition. It is based on three premises: 1) there are two types of skill - retrieval and procedural, 2) the two skills are related to two types of knowledge structures, each based on specific processing constraints, and 3) each skill type is acquired as a consequence of different forms of practice. Both types of skill are seen as important and contribute to the acquisition of competence in a domain. The two forms of practice suggest that the pattern of learning, and the ability to transfer knowledge, should differ for the two knowledge systems. The goals of this research are to investigate the effects that variations in practice formats have on knowledge acquisition, flexibility of strategy use, perceptions of task difficulty, reasoning by analogy, knowledge transfer, and individual differences in learning. Implications for the design of technology-based instructional systems will be presented and discussed.


Dr. Roxana Moreno, University of New Mexico
Extending Principles of Multimedia Design to New Instructional Technologies: A Cognitive Load Perspective
September, 3, 2003, 12:00noon, East Building, Room 319.

How can technology be used to reduce the high cognitive load that some multimedia learning environments present to low prior-knowledge learners? According to cognitive load theory, when new information is presented to the learner, it must be processed in a working memory that is severely limited with respect to both duration and capacity. When new information includes multiple, interacting elements that must be processed simultaneously in working memory before the information can be understood (such as the case of interactive multimedia environments), then working memory load will be high. In this talk, I will examine the classical distinction between media and methods and examine two methods that have proven to reduce working memory load: spoken explanations in multimedia environments and guidance in discovery computer games. To do so, I first, present a theoretical framework based on cognitive theory of multimedia learning and cognitive load theory. Then, I report two sets of studies that tested the role of the modality of the verbal information in instructional technology and the role of guidance. The main thesis is that both methods help learning by freeing working memory resources, thus facilitating the selection and organization of the multiple representations included in a multimedia environment. Lastly, the practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Dr. Orly Lahav, School of Education, Tel Aviv University
Virtual environment for supporting blind persons
Friday, May 2, 2003, 12:00noon, East Building, Room 319.

Mental mapping of spaces, and of the possible paths for navigating these spaces, is essential for the development of efficient orientation and mobility skills. Most of the information required for this mental mapping is gathered through the visual channel. Blind people lack this crucial information and in consequence face great difficulties (a) in generating efficient mental maps of spaces, and therefore (b) in navigating efficiently within these spaces. The work reported in this presentation follows the assumption that the supply of appropriate spatial information through compensatory sensorial channels, as an alternative to the (impaired) visual channel, may contribute to the mental mapping of spaces and consequently, to blind people's spatial performance.

The main goals of the study reported in this paper were: (a) The development of a multisensory virtual environment enabling blind people to learn about real life spaces which they are required to navigate (e.g., school, work place, public buildings); (b) A systematic study of blind people's acquisition of spatial navigation skills by means of the virtual environment; (c) A systematic study of the contribution of this mapping to blind people's spatial skills and performance in the real environment. In the presentation a brief description of the virtual learning environment is presented, as well as results of blind persons' learning process with the environment.

Dr. Paul Ayres, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Mathematical errors and working memory load
April 15, 2003, 12:00noon, East Building, Room 319.

This presentation will examine the empirical evidence that working memory load (cognitive load) can be a significant cause of mathematical errors. Specifically, I will argue that problem solvers often make systematic errors at particular points within mathematics problems where the working memory load is greatest. At such points cognitive overload causes temporary information to be lost, and interferes with the recall and manipulation of information from long term memory. Consequently, errors are not made because of lack of knowledge, but because of working memory deficits.

In particular, the results from two studies will be reported. The first study demonstrates that errors in the algebraic domain of bracket expansion tasks occur in set patterns. Independent evidence to support the working memory hypothesis is provided by a dual-task methodology and self-rating measures of cognitive load. The second study tested the effectiveness of instructional strategies (based on worked examples) to reduce cognitive load in this domain. Test problems revealed a significant interaction between learner knowledge and instructional strategy. Students with poor mathematical knowledge benefited the most from receiving instructions in a highly simplified, cognitive load-reducing, format. In contrast, students with greater mathematical knowledge learnt more from more complex instructions without a cognitive load-reducing strategy. Overall the results demonstrated an example of the expertise reversal effect.

Dr. Roland Brünken, Erfurt University, Erfurt, Germany
Cognitive Load and Modality Effects in Multimedia Learning
December, 2001, 12:00noon, East Building, Room 319.

Based on cognitive load theories of learning with multimedia, in two experiments high-school students learned with a visual-only or an audiovisual learning system containing textual and pictorial information about the blood circulation system. Knowledge acquisition of textually and pictorially information was tested separately. In both experiments, students working with the visual-only system acquired less knowledge concerning the textual information than those working with the audiovisual system, but knowledge acquisition concerning pictorial information was equal for both groups. The visual-only presentation of text and pictures produces cognitive overload which students seem to reduce by focussing their attention on pictorial information.