What I Learned in C & I 859
Or: How I Spent (the Fall After) My Summer Vacation
By Diane Nolan (Revised 11/26/00)

Possibly the most important thing I learned this semester is that in a class of nearly 30 graduate level students, not only can I speak up and be heard, I can hold my own. I belong here. (Here being defined as in the graduate level program.) I have become convinced I should continue my education and seek a doctorate.

Much of what I learned falls into one or more of three major categories: vocabulary, jargon, and concepts. During a course last summer I read Michael Posner's book on curriculum analysis and adopted the habit of keeping a dictionary close to hand. Not only did Posner use words which were new to me (such as subsume), but he used words I thought I knew in ways I did not recognize (articulate, meaning the way in which middle and high schools provide for the transition between them). Although I found much less need for my dictionary while reading the books for this course, a few spectacular words were learned. Boustrophedonically, meaning to weave down the page in a left-to-right-to-left (serpentine) fashion - gee, the spellchecker does not recognize the word! I did not look that one up since I could glean enough from context to understand what it meant. Fortunately, it was brought back to my attention in class and has now become a word I recognize out of context. Another word from the Tufte book was orreries, meaning the mechanical creations which have been designed to show the motion of the planets about the sun.

One of the more difficult things to acquire when teaching as a tutor or mentor is the appropriate jargon of education. Many important and useful phrases have been used and clarified thoughout this semester through in-class discussion, the assigned readings, or Web searches. One such word which we discussed in class but I still did not understand is scaffolding. I found a site on the Internet which explains scaffolding is when the teacher provides examples, working through them, allowing students to do more and more of the work until the students can confidently attain solutions on their own.

Anchored Instruction
Anchored instruction was a completely new phrase for me when I read "Anchored instruction: Why we need it and how technology can help" in Cognition, Education, and Multimedia (Bransford, et al 1990). Anchored instruction helps students "develop useful knowledge rather than inert knowledge" by creating an anchor or focus to generate interest, creating relevance for the students.

The goal of anchored instruction is for students to "notice critical features and experience changes in their perception of the anchor" (Bransford, p. 123). In reporting about the positive aspects of anchored instruction, the authors point out "they [the students] improved on out-of-context problems as well [as in-context]. . . . spontaneously using what they had learned in class to better understand events in their everyday environment" (Bransford, p. 129). The results of Bransford's research on anchored instruction clarifies the need to establish relevance before teaching methodology, not after. According to Bransford, "There are many everyday examples in which the information presented seems 'old' or even 'trite'" (Bransford, p. 122). Providing even simple problem-oriented acquisition statements helps make knowledge useful rather than inert. These statements need not be difficult or complex, but create a need for the knowledge.

For example:
Rather than telling students that you don't bury survivors (No, Duh!) you state -
Where would you bury survivors, nowhere since they are not dead.
(The first part is the anchor, the second is the method of solution.)
This provides the useful knowledge to solve the puzzle, "If a plane crashes on the border between the U.S. and Canada, where would the survivors be buried? (Nowhere!)

One form of anchored instruction is case-based instruction, where a case is presented and students perceive the usefulness of knowledge in dealing with the case. A critical feature of anchored instruction appears to be the placement of the problem before the method of solution, creating the need for a method. Unlike much of the case-based instruction in Dick and Carey where the case comes almost exclusively after the methodology as a means for practice.

Lessons Learned From Norman
Much of what Norman had to say has been uppermost in my mind for the last few years as we designed and built and moved into our "dream house". Unfortunately, even carefully planned details can turn out to be badly designed. It is one thing to "think" what works best and another to "learn" what would have worked best. It would have been useful to have read The Design of Everyday Things while we were working on the design of the house. Three examples come to mind of problems we could have avoided with hindsight. The placement of light switches in the family room, my electronic cook-top, and the stereo system. The light switches are eight-button panels on opposite walls. In planning it seemed to make sense for the switches to be in the same position on the two switches, but the layout by natural mapping would have been a left to right reflection since the switch plates are on opposite walls. The electronic cook-top is a master example of arbitrary layout, the knobs are in a single line back to front, the front knob "feels" like it should control the burner closest to it, but that burner is actually controlled by the third knob! Even after almost two years in the house I still occasionally turn the front knob for the wrong burner! The stereo system suffers from the too few buttons for too many features malady and exacerbates the problem by having the few labels it boasts be engraved in a black surface so they are virtually unreadable unless they can be viewed a few inches away and not at an angle--and the stereo is placed at about knee level!

The Norman book provided me with jargon to explain "knowledge in the head" versus "knowledge in the world." Computer competency is often based as much or more on knowledge in the world as it is on knowledge in the head. Good instruction in the use of operating systems such as Windows95 or most applications depends on the learner being able to use knowledge in the world to "find" what they know they have seen. We work to help students recognize what type of menu an item will appear in and what it might be called.

Lessons from Tufte
By far the richest source of new information for me in the required texts for this course was Envisioning Information, by Tufte. My copy of this book has nearly 50 book darts (small metal pieces that can mark passages-the modern day dog-ear) along the edges of the pages. I was constantly being struck by information which although not always completely new, was enlightening.

Tufte focuses on visual design, an area which seems to be of increasing importance in a Web-entranced world. If, as has been asserted, education is headed for more and greater use of the Internet as a teaching medium, the creation of clear, useful images is becoming not just an artistic but an educational necessity. Even more than the textbook, the Web page holds many critical aspects of design.

Tufte quotes Paul Rand, "Readers of a report should be unaware of its 'design.' Rather, they should be enticed into reading it by interesting content, logical arrangement and simple presentation. The printed page should appear natural and authoritative, avoiding gimmicks which might get in the way of its documentary character" (p. 34). This could stand as a warning for Web page designers. All too often the designer becomes so involved with "gimmicks" that the usefulness of the information suffers.

Tufte says, "to clarify, add detail" (p. 37) but warns that although rich detail can enhance learning, unimportant detail can detract from the learning. In discussion of the importance of visual information, Tufte says it "can override verbal information and supercede it (p. 31). The use of visual information contains the danger of pulling focus from verbal information. There must be a careful balance of the two. Many pages on the Internet suffer from a problem addressed in a quote from Susan Ayala in Tufte, "An effective trial lawyer, Joe Jamail, noted 'If you use too many pictures and make it like a circus or going to a matinee, jurors will think you think they're stupid'" (p. 35).

Although entertaining, many Web pages detract from their value by including too many graphics for easy download or for serious study. Message design can employ rich data to convey large amounts of information. "Visual displays rich with data are not only an appropriate and proper complement to human capabilities, but also such designs are frequently optimal. . . . High-density designs also allow viewers to select, to narrate, to recast and personalize data for their own uses" (p. 50).

Layout is critical to Web page design and Tufte (unknowingly, since he was speaking of print and artistic media) addresses the issue saying that, "it is not how much empty space there is, but rather how it is used. It is not how much information there is, but rather how effectively it is arranged." (p. 50)

Tufte's quote of Venturi, "Less is a bore!" (p. 51) takes a direct hit at the standard education line of "less is more". Often "less is more" is very appropriate, but it can lead to inadequate design. Successful instructional design requires much planning, even if the eventual product appears to be unstructured. "Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information" (p. 51).

Other design characteristics which I learned from the Tufte book involve color. On the issue of color, Tufte quotes Eduard Imhof, "Pure, bright or very strong colors have loud, unbearable effects when they stand unrelieved over large areas adjacent to each other, but extraordinary effects can be achieved when they are used sparingly on or between dull background tones" (p. 58). Tufte highlights the "the effectiveness and elegance of small spots of intense, saturated color for carrying information" (p. 63). The use of "color spots against a light gray or muted field highlight and italicize data, and also help to weave an overall harmony" (p. 83). All of these notes on use of small quantity of vivid color against dull backgrounds should be taken to heart by many Web designers, a clutter of brightly colored images can not only reduce their effectiveness, but make the use of information difficult.

Tufte again quotes Imhof, "Large area background or base-colors should do their work most quietly, allowing the smaller, bright areas to stand out most vividly, if the former are muted, grayish or neutral" (p. 90). For readability of text and viewability of graphics, this seems to agree with the idea of using very pale colors as background for Web designs. Tufte warns, "For encoding abstract information . . . more than 20 or 30 colors frequently produce not diminishing but negative returns" (p. 81). Color could be considered a critical issue in Web page design. Too much color, two strong of colors, or too many colors can all detract from the visual effect of the page, and resultingly from the educational effect.

Another aspect of design which needs to be considered when designing instruction, especially in the limited confines of the computer screen, is the need for keeping closely compared items visually close. "Comparisons must be enforced within the scope of the eyespan, a fundamental point occasionally forgotten in practice" (p. 76). The use of links between images whether on the same page or on different pages could facilitate comparisons. Similarly, "Separating text and graphic, even on the same page, usually requires encoding to link the separate elements" (p. 116). The use of hyperlinks may help to deal with this problem.

Lessons from Dick and Carey
The main lesson I learned from Dick and Carey was that there is a "blueprint" which can be used for the basis in instructional message design. Although time and funding do not always allow for complete fulfillment of all the steps, at least there is a codified set of steps which can be used to help maintain a degree of order in a process which can easily become disorderly. The steps encourage the designer to examine all the players and the elements when preparing to design instruction.

Lessons from IMD
A large percentage of the information in the IMD book is information which I have read or heard in some fashion over the course of my education, or from the mass media, or have discovered for myself. IMD serves me mainly as a resource list for considering research of others in areas I may wish to explore. The specific information on white space, fonts, and readability, although useful, is based on information older than information which was presented in the research course I took last summer where one of the students had a particular interest in the readability of fonts on the Internet. The design information in IMD that was most important to me was reflected in the information in the Tufte book.

Possibly the thing which sticks with me the most is the research which shows students learn best from the media they prefer least. This seems like a contradiction in facts until I think about what I "like" to do versus what I have to do to be sure I really learn something. And to learn from video, I have to watch it several times.

The design of the instruction is more important than the media. But mix the media and vary the instruction for best motivation.

Lessons from Liao
A meta-analysis of the effects of hypermedia versus traditional instruction (Liao, 1998) analyzed 35 studies and 69 per cent favored the hypermedia form of instruction over the traditional form (Liao, p. 346). Even when the instruction was provided with the same instructors, the hypermedia rated statistically higher than traditional instruction (Liao, p. 349). Interestingly, when the length of the studies and the effects were compared, the influence of the data does not appear to support the common assumption that there will be a "novelty" effect on students when using hypermedia (Liao, p.355). According to Dr. Brooks, the critical factor was the interactivity provided by the hypermedia.

Lessons from Tennyson and Cocchiarella
"An empirically based instructional design theory for teaching concepts" by Tennyson and Cocchiarella explores conceptual learning as a two-phase process, formation of conceptual knowledge and development of procedural knowledge. Instructional design variables are one of the fundamental components of the model. My particular interest was the information dealing with examples. "Best" examples help develop abstract meaningful dimensions for initial conceptual knowledge. "Expository" examples help to provide dimensionality linking information for procedural knowledge. "Interrogatory" examples develop generalization and discrimination skills. All the levels of examples should be used for effective instruction.

References

Bransford, J., Sherwood, R., Hasselbring, T., Kinzer, C., & Williams, S. (1990). Anchored instruction: Why we need it and how technology can help. In D. Nix and R. Spiro (Eds.), Cognition, Education, Multimedia: Exploring Ideas in High Technology (pp. 115-141). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Liao, Y. (1998). Effects of hypermedia versus traditional instruction on students' achievement: A meta-analysis. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 30(4), 341-359.

Tennyson, R., & Cocchiarella, M. (1986). An Empirically Based Instructional Design Theory for Teaching Concepts, Review of Educational Research, 56(1), 40-71.

Other Interesting Readings
Dehaene, S. (1997). The cost of speaking English. The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics. , New York: Oxford University Press. 102-106.

Hsiao, J. (no date). CSCL Theories. (accessed 9/22/98) This is a paper surveying various theories of computer-supported collaborative learning. Although it is not dated, it has 1996 references.

Selden, A., & Selden, J. (1997) Should mathematicians and mathematics educators be listening to cognitive psychologists? MAA Online. An interesting article about research.

Selden, A., & Selden, J. (1998). The role of examples in learning mathematics, MAA Online.

Salomon, G. (1995?) What does the design of effective CSCL require and how do we study its effects? An apparently unpublished paper by Gavriel Salomon (an author cited in several articles in IMD).

Graziadei, W., Gallager, S., Brown, R., & Sasiadek, J. (1998) Building asynchronous and synchronous teaching-learning environments: Exploring a course/classroom management system solution.