This is my first blog post ever, which is exciting, and I will begin by sharing my initial thoughts on the Frey article entitled "A Model for Developing Multimedia Learning Projects" from the Introduction section. I found this to be an intriguing read, and I recognize that I probably see things from a slightly different perspective than many, since I am not an educator by profession. Most of my professional background has been in technical management in the aerospace sector (in satellite systems operations), followed by work in grant and proposal development and review (both commercially for government contracts, and in academia for research grants). And while I have never been employed in the K-12 school systems as a teacher, I have done a great deal of education outreach in classroom settings, as well as professional development in the corporate and university worlds.
In the Frey article, several models were presented for instructional design, software development, and multimedia development. Naturally, there was a fair amount of overlap in the different models. The author(s) advocated a 10-step model for multimedia development that was quite comprehensive:
(1) define the instructional goals, objectives, and audience,
(2) review and investigate existing options,
(3) determine format, budget, and timeline,
(4) determine the content, activities, and assessment strategies,
(5) develop evaluation strategies, criteria, and instruments to determine the effectiveness of the
project,
project,
(6) develop the flowchart, site map, and/or storyboard,
(7) develop a prototype,
(8) perform a formative evaluation,
(8) perform a formative evaluation,
(9) complete the design, and
(10) perform a summative evaluation of product and process.
From my experience and perspective, some of the noteworthy comments and remarks I would make would include the following:
- You can not overemphasize the importance of establishing sound and measurable goals and objectives. I would say that at every stage in the 10-step module, it is important to revisit these to ensure that you are staying true to the goals and objectives, as it can be very easy during the development process to dream up neat ideas (e.g. "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we added THIS capability or functionality?") We used to call this "requirements creep", and it can easily lead to schedule delays, budget overruns, and an end product that doesn't fulfill the initial requirements. It is essential that all stakeholders (educators, developers, etc) be clear and on the same wavelength on this issue, and frequently re-evaluate during the process.
- When the author spoke of "developers", I wondered whether or not they were experienced educators themselves, with an understanding of cognitive learning processes, or are they pure software developers (e.g. Computer Science majors) hired to develop code. So many times when working in the aerospace sector, we had a disconnect between the "developers" and "users" of the software, because developers had no understanding of how the operators planned to use it in the "real world". Again, it is key that developers and educators coordinate closely during the development process, and I thought it was excellent that the model also included student input during the test and design phase to assess the effectiveness, and allow for a "feedback loop" during development.
- One challenge that I see for multimedia development, especially in adult learning settings such as our own course, is accounting for the fact that different students have different learning styles. For example, some are more audio learners, some more visual. Frey alluded to the fact that one needs to try to avoid "the competing nature of the dual channels (auditory and visual) for processing information", which makes sense, but how do you successfully accomodate all learing styles? I assume you just try to vary the multimedia input, without too much emphasis of one over the other, while being careful not to "overstimulate" the student's senses.
- I definitely liked the fact that they recommended an objective, outside or "external" evaluator to come in and perform the summative evaluation. A "fresh set of eyes" is key to coming in and looking at the end product for assessment, and the development team is just too close and too invested in the project to have that sort of critical objectivity.
