Educational Tech Annotated Bib Astleitner,

Educational Tech Annotated Bib

Astleitner, H. (2000). Designing Emotionally Sound Instruction: The FEASP-Approach. Instructional Science 28(3), 169-198.

Astleitner's work demonstrates a significant association between the ability to learn and emotional intelligence. In the work the author contends that social and behavioral research stresses the importance of emotion in learning, and asserts that the necessity of tailoring educational materials and designs to emotion is evident. According to the author emotions may open learning opportunities or they may close or disrupt them, depending on their nature. Allowing emotion to be a consideration in the development of learning environments as well as curriculum and delivery would therefore seem the most logical next step in educational development. The author them goes on to outline a learning strategy based on the design principles core to emotion sensitive structure and support.

According to the F (ear)E (nvy)a (nger)S (ympathy)P (leasure)-approach for designing positive feeling instruction, the instructional designer has to analyze emotional problems before and during instruction. Fear, envy, and anger should be reduced during instruction, sympathy and pleasure should be increased. Based on the observed problems, emotional strategies have to be designed and implemented into instruction. Then the consequences of the strategy implementation have to be evaluated. (pp.175-176)

The remainder of the work is a more thorough discussion of possible strategies for implementation of the FEASP learning model and to describe the importance of its implications, as well as to outline its possible shortcomings and the need for much more research on emotion as an integral aspect of learning.

Betrancourt, M. (2005). The animation and interactivity principles in multimedia learning. In Mayer (ed.), the Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning, pp.287 -296. New York: Cambridge.

Betrancourt provides in this work an extensive literature review of the effects of animation and interactivity of the learner on learning finding that for the most part the learner did not glean benefits from the application of animation, though it is still promising for utilization in some applications, the most important of which being the ability to demonstrate change over time. The author also stresses that individuals were not as likely as one might hope to take advantage of even interactive opportunity in animation applications and that this demands inquiry, as to the application and acceptance of animation as a tool of instructional learning. The researcher demonstrates that the utilization of animation may be overzealous and should be limited when no benefit can be seen from its application, as less expensive options are available and can be as or more effective than animation in conveying points of learning. The researcher finally offers some suggestions to educational designers, with regard to what the most promising applications of animation are and stresses the importance of more research to determine the most effective applications of interactive and determined animation technology. The researcher, relies heavily on older research, intermingling some more recent applications to reiterate the older points, i.e. that users were did not respond to animation in a positive way and did not use it as a tool to the degree hoped by designers.

Dickey, M.D. (2005). Engaging by design: How engagement strategies in popular computer and video games can inform instructional design. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53, 67-83.

Dickey explores the characteristics of modern video games that make them engaging as a way to discover the characteristics within such games that can be applied to multi-media instructional materials. The researcher focuses on methods, strategies and devices that engage players in video games and compares them to these same aspects in engaged instructional learning games. According to Dickey, "the findings indicate that the characteristics within games that engage players are aspects of player positioning, narrative and interaction in game design," (p.79) Dickey proposes that the work gives evidence to support a detailed method of game design as an appropriate guiding architecture for the design of instructional learning environments. Aspects that Dickey stresses as important include, the backstory of the game/learning environment and how it will be expressed to the player/learner, the perspective of the learner in the environment and the interactive nature of the game/learning environment, including setting, roles an characters, action and feedback. This work is informative, engaging, and approachable and it creates a sense of the nature of the application, as an armature for how to develop learning materials that will be equally engaging and still teach those who play/use it.

Hall, S. (1997). Representation, meaning, and language. In S. Hall (Ed.), Representation. Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, pp. 15-30. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

In this chapter Hall discusses the dimensions of representation, as the production of meaning through language, utilizing three theoretical concepts of representation including reflective, intentional and constructionist. Reflective contends that language simply interprets or reflects a meaning that already exists in the world, intentional meaning that the representation expresses the meaning of the speaker, writer, painter and constructionist, where meaning is constructed through language. The work then goes through several sets of activities that express how meaning is developed through representation exploring aspects of creating a set of codes for the viewer, reader and fellow explorer and then transmitting the information to others with conceptual and language skills. Hall provides practical application exercises to help the instructional developer understand the manner in which members of the same culture communicate with one another about their shared concepts and how this can be applied to instructional design. Thought concepts of the work are rather abstract the activities fully develop the concept into application. The closing of the work follows that the constructionist theory is probably most accurate, and this is especially true with regard to the development of representation in an abstract form, i.e. The educational environment.

Horn, R. (1999). Information Design. In Jacobsen, R. (Ed.), Information Design, pp. 15-33. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Horn explores the profession of information design, first by applying it presence to a broader culture as a new conception of communication assistance, not unlike more obvious examples, like ghost writers, technical writers, ad writers and the like. Horn claims that information designers help create for the individual or group that wishes to convey a message, the most effective message form. "information design is defined as the art and science of preparing information so that it can be used by human beings with efficiency and effectiveness." (p. 15) it goes on to say the main objectives of information designers are to develop documents that are easily understood in a rapid manner and are accurately retrievable and easy to translate to action, designing interactions that are easy, natural and pleasant for the user and to enable people to translate their world of three dimensional space or even virtual with comfort and ease. The work then goes on to explore aspects of information design such as industry specific titles and views of information design through the profession's history and context. The work gives real examples of the concepts that are easy for the would be instructional designer to grasp, and helps the reader better understand why an information designer might be an integral aspect of creating a learning environment or application.

Morville, P., & Rosenfeld, L. (2007). Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd ed.). Cambridge: O'Reilly. [chapter 1, chapter 2]

Chapter 1 of Morville and Rosenfeld's work creates an analogous structure of information architecture as similar to architecture in the real sense, and that if we discover what it is about the built environment that moves and engages us then we will better understand how to create informational architecture to do the same thing. The stress of the work is that the built environment is an underutilized aspect of the educational environment, and especially as it applies to how information is put together to develop informational architecture in web sites that guide the user through the experience of finding the information they seek and need. Instructional design can apply such concepts by seeking out good examples for such development. Chapter 2 then goes on to describe how information architecture is applied and its importance to understanding how interactive learning environments can be systematically developed to impart information more effectively tot the viewer/user of a webspace. This chapter also explores existing information architecture, why it is important, who is qualified to develop it and the concept of information ecologies, or the environments in which information architecture is designed and used. This work would be helpful for anyone seeking to design an application of information architecture to impart information easily in an educational setting.

Norman, D. (1993). Things that make us smart. New York: Doubleday/Currency. [chapters 2, 3, 4]

Norman stresses in his work that the greatness of the human ability lies it its ability to develop systems and objects that can retain information for us and allow us to access it at a later time and in a way that is pertinent to the human experience of learning. Chapter 2 of the work stresses the importance of conveying information through experience, i.e. that utilizing the human mind's ability to convey experience is essential to the development of human centered technology. Chapter 3 stresses the importance both fundamentally and ethically of representing information truthfully and honestly through visual and experiential means that are meaningful to the learner and respect the fact that the individual mind is rather limited and therefore needs human centered externals to help it learn and retain information. Chapter 4 stresses the importance of individuality in the development of technologies that teach and interact with people. The overall work is important as it stresses the fact that technologies, as a creation of man must be developed and manipulated to reflect the humanity of their purpose. The fallibility of the mind is stressed as is its limitations and the possibility of the development of greater tools to impart knowledge is the most important factor in the development of learning tools.

Norman, D. (1988). The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Doubleday/Currency. [chapters 1, 2, 3, 4]

In this work Norman describes how important the built environment is to human understanding by describing why some things are embraced and others are rejected based on the confines of their make-up. Chapter 1 stresses the importance of creating everyday objects, and even more complex objects that are easy for the human mind to understand and therefore use. Chapter 2 stresses that regardless of the fact that the individual is more likely to blame him or herself for failure to be able to work a particular object or item the reality is that the fault often lies in some design flaw that led the user astray and created a missing link in their ability to use an item or object, and that this can apply to simple or even complex items. Chapter 3 stresses that knowledge of everyday objects often has to be stored in the mind to allow the user the ability to use it, stressing that base knowledge is necessary unless the built environment offers clues and directions for use. Chapter 4 stresses that the number of possible functions and/or options of utilizing an object or item guide the user through the progress of using it, and that experience and discovery are usually the best ways to master tasks.

Saffer, D. (2007) Designing for Interaction. Berkeley: New Riders.

Designing for Interaction describes a new frontier in the manner in which the built environment is designed. The work in Chapters 1-5 stresses the nature of the interactive and demonstrative way that usable objects are designed. Some of the items that Saffer uses to describe this new style of design principles are the iPod, and popular websites that are innovative in their ability to engage the user (Flicer for example) the book is written from a designers point-of-view, but is approachable for the lay user, and can seriously help an instructional educational designer to see the ways in which they and the learner can contribute to the development of new educational tools. Though the work does not specifically describe educational tools it does, from a design perspective describe innovative ways that the user can impact the process and interact with a built or virtual environment to develop better products and services that more effectively meet the needs of the user and the purpose of the materials. Hopefully this will be the first of many design centered works that are approachable enough to guide the developer through the process of research and development in a user friendly manner.

Schnotz, W., & Bannert, M. (2003). Construction and interference in learning from multiple representation. Learning and Instruction, 13, 141-156.

Schnotz and Bannert stated goal is to describe, "an integrated view of learning from verbal and pictorial representations. Learning from these representations is considered as a task oriented process of constructing multiple mental representations. Construction of these representations includes information selection and information organisation, parsing of symbol structures, mapping of analog structures as well as model construction and model inspection." (p.141) the purpose of the article is to help a designer of instructional or other material create a system where all the integrated functions of verbal and pictorial representations are applied, through systematic development and include all the aspects the learner will need to understand the construct of the information given. The article is particularly helpful in understanding the viewer/learner role in interpretation and evaluation, i.e. The active role of the learner in materials. Understanding the role the learner plays in development and use of instructional material and especially multi-media material is crucial to the development of instructional material that engages the learner and guides him or her through the process of learning the given information. Multi-media is an aspect of instructional design that is even more dependant upon the learner, and therefore needs to be developed in such a way that the learner can engage with and assimilate material in the most natural way possible.

Schwann, S., & Riempp, R. (2004). The cognitive benefit of interactive videos: Learning to tie nautical knots. Learning and Instruction, 14, 293-305.

Schwann and Riempp developed a research design that attempted to discover the user acceptance of an interactive program that helped them learn how to tie four nautical knots. The program success or failure was then determined by the ability of the individual to interact with the program and effectively learn the material through it. The stress of the experiment was that interactive tools must be designed in such a way that they do not stress cognitive lead, i.e. demand more from the user than they are able to give, by way of over stimulation or other means that detract from the purpose of the learning materials. The key, within this work to the development of an appropriate set of materials was interaction, as the work compared interactive videos, to non-interactive videos, that taught the same task and those who utilized the interactive multi-media materials where more successful in a shorter amount of time that those who utilized demonstrative videos for the same learning materials. This work says a lot about the nature and need for interaction in the learning environment, even among adults. It seems that the sense of control offered the learner as well as their ability to stop and start instructional material, through interaction made a big different e in how well and how rapidly they conquered the tasks, in comparison to those who simply viewed the materials at the pace of the instructor.

Sharp, H. (2007). Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. Hoboken: Wiley. [chapter 5].

Sharp's article develops a significant message about the nature of affect in the development of computer human interaction. The work describes ways in which the interactive environment can display affect, as a set of supporting cues for the user, as well as how this effects the affect of the user, and therefore the core emotions that can guide learning and positivism of any given experience. The idea of the importance of positivism, ties in to the idea that emotions can be the gatekeepers for information learning and its application to computer interactions help guide the educational designer in the manner in which emotions are best elicited by the interactive design of the instructional material. The work uses examples such as interactive emoticons to describe the way in which affect tools can be added to materials to help guide and encourage the individual in the multi-media learning environment and how negative or frustrating interfaces or emoticons can either guide the user back into the material or create negativity and therefore resistance to it. Sharp pays particular attention as to how to design and utilize an effective error message, rather than one that leaves the learner feeling rejected and frustrated by the program.

Shedroff (1999). Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design. In Jacobsen, R. (Ed.), Information Design, pp. 267-292. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Shedroff, stresses the importance of the creation of valuable, compelling and empowering information and experiences for others by stressing that the systems to do so, no matter the media can be translated to those skills we already possess. In other words the author contends that we already understand the systems that are available to create effective communication of material, and we just need to apply them to new mediums to effectively create instructional material. Shedroff states that, "the methods of solving problems, responding to audiences, and communicating to others in any medium are enough alike for us to consider then identical for the purpose of this paper." (p.267) Shedroff then goes on to describe the basic materials associated with the conveyance of information and the various ways they have been effectively organized in the past to create understanding, and then goes on to discuss the manner which these old forms of organization can be applied to new media to elicit understanding from a learner or a participant. The message makes clear that old applications of learning are clearly pertinent to even the most specialized instructional design and should be utilized in much the same way as they have been in the past to generate knowledge and understanding on the part of the learner.

Shneiderman, B., & Plaisant, C. (2005). Designing the User Interface. Chapter 14.5: Information Visualization (pp. 580-603). Boston: Pearson.