EDU 204 - Technology in the Classroom

Principles derived from the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML; Mayer in: Multimedia learning, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2021) provide valuable guidance for enlisting commonly-available technologies to create effective online multimedia lessons.

The effectiveness of multimedia learning materials are determine by a few core principles introduced by Mayer (2005). According to the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML), modality principle is one of the important principle that needs attention during the development of an effective multimedia teaching material. Hence, this article review the empirical literature pertaining to the effects of modality principle and its impact in developing effective multimedia learning materials.

The data collection tool was developed by the researchers based on the principles of Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer, 2009). Results indicated that the most evident principles violated by pre service teachers' instructors are coherence, modality, and redundancy. Additionally participants thought that their instructors' PowerPoint practices may lower the quality of student-teacher interaction. Results were discussed based on the theory and some implications were suggested.

The multi-display teaching system was deployed on multiple projectors in real educational environments in order to prove that it is effective in improving learning efficiency. An experiment was carried out with 120 college students as participants. Results showed that multi-display instructional material significantly reduced cognitive load and enhanced learning effectiveness.

A multimedia-based learning system to teach children with intellectual disabilities (ID) the basic living and science concepts is proposed. The tutorials' development is pedagogically based on Mayer's Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning combined with Skinner's Operant Conditioning Model. Two types of tutorials are proposed. In the first type; the contents are developed in a static manner while in the second type; the contents are developed using a domain-specific ontology with text processing tools and Google search engine. Both types of tutorials have shown a considerable improvement in the learning process and allowed the children with ID to improve their cognitive skills and become more proactive in the classroom.

This article provides a tutorial overview of cognitive architectures that can form a theoretical foundation for designing multimedia instruction. Cognitive architectures include a description of memory stores, memory codes, and cognitive operations. Architectures that are relevant to multimedia learning include Paivio's dual coding theory, Baddeley's working memory model, Engelkamp's multimodal theory, Sweller's cognitive load theory, Mayer's multimedia learning theory, and Nathan's ANIMATE theory.