Category: Assignment 1 – Midterm Review – Module 1&2 Blog Posts and Comments

Today, different technologies have been developed to enhance the teaching and learning processes. The recent introduction of generative artificial intelligence has given rise to innovations like ChatGPT, which have been used in diverse aspects of the teaching process. Educators may use such tools to enhance their interactions with students. One potential benefit is that such tools provide a high customization strategy, where content can be developed for a specific area and learner. Overall, these resources are meant to improve creativity and boost productivity among teachers and learners.

Throughout my experiences, I found ChatGPT to be a useful generative AI tool. It has offered me a chance to explore different concepts ranging from simulating human interactions to computations and playing games. In the educational setting, this application should be integrated into the various research facilities. The role of this application is to facilitate information gathering, especially in the library section. Allowing students to access ChatGPT in the library will enable them to research information with high accuracy and minimal time. Likewise, it is possible to generate creative and customized responses according to the needs of the topics in the context. However, throughout my experiences, I learned that there is a high risk of unethical use of such tools. Similarly, many schools have minimal to no guidelines to regulate their applications. Students are likely to misuse generative AI tools to complete individual and group assignments, which violate the underlying integrity policies. Therefore, guidelines are required to minimize such cases. 

One such requirement is in cases where students are limited to applying the applications for research purposes. This guideline should be contained in the academic integrity and misconduct policy. The core goal is to govern the use of AI in school work to minimize the risks of plagiarism. Other guidelines should reflect equity, data security, privacy, and accessibility. The technology should be available for the respective users with no limitations or barriers. The school must adopt a policy that guarantees the data security and privacy of users. In adopting these regulations, schools should consider factors like the age of the users, courses, and usage patterns. Such allocations will enable the management to customize the application of such tools to guarantee maximum effectiveness. As a new innovation, the current regulations may be insufficient. Therefore, new policies and standards must be developed to coordinate the use of such technologies, especially for academic-related tasks.

Effective multimedia learning is an important requirement in the digital age. Due to the current changes associated with increasing online educational settings, learning how students gain and process multimedia information can be critical in improving their outcomes. In this post, I will reflect on my individual experience engaging with the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) principles. I will explore the principles that were the most intuitive to me throughout my experience and possibly the ones that surprised me.

Most Intuitive Principes

The modality principle is the most intuitive concept that I encountered throughout the module. It mentions that learners gather and process information in the right way when presented in both visual and auditory channels rather than through the use of a single channel alone. In relation to my past experiences, I realized that the principle comes naturally in many ways, particularly when dealing with diverse learners and creating their content. The incorporation of visual elements and narration helps the students to retain information effectively. On the other hand, the redundancy principle was surprising. I choose this principle because it explores the potential adverse impacts that using two approaches to the same concept may have on the learning process. I observed that presenting the same information through the audio and text simultaneously can have a negative influence on overall outcomes. Initially, I believed that using such an approach could improve understanding. However, this belief has changed as I found that the approach can overload the cognitive capacity of the learners. The principle challenges the initial assumptions and pusher me to reconsider and implement alternative strategies in combining and text in a future project.

Designing Screencast

When creating my screencast, I put more effort into incorporating various CTML principles. One of the principles that I implemented in this case was the coherence concept. I made a concerted initiative to ensure that only essential visuals and information were incorporated. It was essential to resist the urge to add facts that may distract the learners from gaining the intended insight. Further, I attempted to apply the spatial contiguity principle by making sure that all related phrases and images were presented on the screen together. The task presented me with significant challenges when demonstrating the technical aspects of a technology since I had to create a balance between all the interfaces and highlight most of the vital aspects. From the gained experience, I related the challenges encountered in solving a puzzle, where all pieces must fit together in a way that makes cognitive and visual sense.

However, the modality principle presented most challenges. Although I understand the importance of using narration over on-screen text, I experienced difficulties with the idea of not offering written data for complex cases. I further decided to combine on-screen text areas and narration to provide detailed explanations for the concepts that needed more emphasis. This way, I aimed to take advantage of the benefits of the two approaches. The compromises presented unpredicted challenges as I had to attain a balance between the various instructional methods. Regardless, I was successful in integrating these concepts since the resulting screencast provided an integrative learning avenue.