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MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY

BET 4108 - EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

NAME: MOHAMUD UNSHUR MOHAMED

[Link]: BECD/2019/46548

CAT 1 AND 2

1. Using Edgar Cone of Experiences, Elucidate the importance of Educational media.

Cone of Experience is a model that incorporates several theories related to instructional design
and learning processes. His research led to the development of the Cone of Experience. The
Cone was originally developed in 1946 and was intended as a way to describe various learning
experiences. Essentially, the Cone shows the progression of experiences from the most concrete,
at the bottom of the cone, to the most abstract at the top of the cone.

This cone was merely designed as a visual aid to help explain the interrelationships of the
various types of audio-visual materials, as well as their individual ‘positions’ in the learning
process.

The use of media to enhance teaching and learning complements traditional approaches to
learning. Using media engages students, aids student retention of knowledge, motivates interest
in the subject matter, and illustrates the relevance of many concepts.

According to Edgar cone of experience, the Educational media has the following importance in
the teaching and learning process.

- Direct Purposeful Experiences

This implies concrete reality. At the base of Dale's Cone of Experience, we learn through first-
hand participation with responsibility for the outcome:

It is the rich, full-bodied experience that is the bed-rock of all education. It is the purposeful
experience that is seen, handled, tasted, felt, touched, and smelled. It is the unabridged version of
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life itself—tangible experience, which we commonly refer to as "something you can get your
fingers on," "something you can sink your teeth into," etc.

- Contrived Experiences

Modifying of reality that make it easier to grasp. Some realities are far too much to take in all at
once. Their sprawling acreage or mechanical functions would be complicated and baffling to a
first-time first-hander. That's why mock-ups, working models, and simulations differ from the
original in size or complexity.

Whether they cut the colossal down to comprehensible size, carve out a cross-section from a
concealed interior, or control distractions competing for cognitive load, contrived experiences
are imitations that teach better than the realities they imitate.

- Dramatic Participation

Reconstructing situations for instructional purposes. Level 3 marks the point where learners at
least some of them must shift from observers to participants. Dramatization of real-life
experiences can help eliminate elements that mean little and distract attention, while sharpening
and emphasizing those that really "matter".

Demonstrations

This is how it works and/or how you do it. Like exhibits and field trips, demonstrations may or
may not include an element of participation. In some learning situations, seeing how it's done
isn't much good if we can't try it for ourselves. In others, either the demonstration alone gives us
what we need to know, or hands-on activity is logistically unfeasible.

Field Trips

Sights and sounds of real-world settings. Aside from the occasional opportunity to hop in a fire
truck or milk a cow, the main activity for field trippers is observing from the sidelines.

Motion Pictures

A moving feast for the eyes and ears. Unfolding with a compression of time and space, videos
present on-screen abstractions of real-life processes and events.
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Although streaming experiences can't recreate the richness of reality, and they deliver that reality
in a deliberate and contrived order, this loss of directness has certain compensating advantages.
Not only do learning videos edit out the irrelevant stuff from the live edition of the show, they
can add zoom and slow motion to parts we should concentrate on, which we can rewind and
replay as many times as it takes.

Effective instruction builds bridges between students' knowledge and the learning objectives of
the course. Using media engages students, aids student retention of knowledge, motivates
interest in the subject matter, and illustrates the relevance of many concepts.

2. Describe the reasons behind multichannel learning. Give relevant examples for
emphasis (10mks)

Multi-channel learning is a deliberate use of multi-sensory channels to teach concepts and enable
practice and application.

The channels should provide a seamless interaction and reinforce each other to optimize
learning.

The critical success factor in a multichannel learning program is purposefulness or the ‘why’
behind the learning opportunity.

Learning solutions are more successful if the learner knows why they are learning and what the
application of learning will achieve for them and the organization.

A multi-channel learning approach is a term many schools use to describe teaching methods that
involve engaging more\ than one sense at a time. Involving the use of visual, auditory and
kinesthetic-tactile pathways, a multisensory approach can enhance memory and ability to learn.

The following are some of the reasons as to why multi-channel learning program is important to
use in teaching and learning.

Students learn differently and require different stimuli

As you likely have noticed, not all students process information in the same way. Most students
have a learning type- a way of receiving information that is optimal to their given personality and
cognition.
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Some students are strong auditory listeners and can understand concepts by listening to an
explanation, while some others may need to draw out concepts with a pencil and paper. Some
students are excellent at tracking information with their eyes and prefer to watch a play, while
some other students learn best by physically acting out a play. Speaking to students and going
through examples with them as they follow along may be effective for some, but others may find
themselves lost.

Even the students who do respond well to the watch-and-listen technique may not be processing
information as well as they could be. Multisensory teaching techniques express information that
can be received by multiple senses. This way, each student, regardless of learning type, is
provided with a means of understanding information.

Faster Cognitive Development

Multisensory learning environments also enhance brain function. Each sensory system has
targets in the brain that stimulate cognitive function:

Somatic/tactile learning promotes fine motor skills

Vestibular/kinesthetic learning promotes body memory

Olfaction & gustatory systems provide strong sensations that remain strongly connected to the
information they are associated with

It is not surprising that when students hear information, and it is connected to another sense, they
can conceptualize and later apply that information better than students who just watch and listen.

Multisensory teaching techniques stimulate the brain in a variety of ways so that each sensory
system becomes more developed and higher functioning. This improves essential functions of
the brain such as listening skills, movement, vision, tactile recognition, and conceptualization

Students will be more involved in learning

It’s easy for a student to zone out. The school day is nearly 7 hours long and it is difficult for
students to pay attention to hours of information when it comes to them the same way class after
class and day after day.
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Students are attentive when multisensory teaching techniques are practiced because of how much
the brain is being stimulated at once. If a student is doing something tactically or physically
while listening to instructions and seeing information then there is not much of an opportunity
for the student’s attention to stray.

Teaching in a way that causes many of the senses to work together not only allows students to
make stronger connections to the information, it demands more focus but in a more enjoyable
way for students.

Cognitive development happens faster.

Multisensory learning environments enhance brain function. Each sensory system has targets in
the brain that stimulate cognitive function:

Somatic/tactile learning promotes fine motor skills

Vestibular/kinesthetic learning promotes body memory

Olfaction/gustatory systems provide strong sensations that remain strongly connected to the
information they’re associated with

Because of this, when students hear information that’s connected to another sense, they can
conceptualize and later apply that information better than students who just watch and listen.

Multisensory teaching techniques stimulate the brain in a variety of ways so that each sensory
system becomes more developed and higher functioning. This improves essential functions of
the brain such as listening skills, movement, vision, tactile recognition and conceptualization.

The students are able to experience a lesson through multiple pathways that can best stimulate
their brains and engage them more deeply in the subject matter.

Media can be used in direct instruction, active learning teaching strategies and student projects.
Existing media resources can be used within lectures to stimulate interest in and develop
knowledge of the material being taught. This traditional approach is teacher-centric, and
information is pushed to the learner.
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Reference

Johnson,, M. T., Schwab, R. L., & Foa, L. (1999). Technology as a change agent for the teaching
process. Theory Into Practice/Redefining Teacher Quality, 38(1), 24-30.

Dale, Edgar. Audio-Visual Methods in Teaching, 3rd ed., Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New
York, 1969, p. 108