Brainstorm: Cultural Pedagogies, Instructional Design and Educational Multimedia production
12 June 2003, Greenroom, Media Centre, 3-4pm

Resulting Workflow

Startup questions:

1. What cultural considerations need to be taken into account when designing educational multimedia in the South Pacific?
2. What impact do these cultural considerations have on the design of educational multimedia?

Sample workflow

Cultural considerations and their applications to educational MM (32kb PDF)

Goals of Educational Multimedia: Initial ideas for feedback

Allow them to skip to relevant sections (layers of simplicity)

"Those with a pragmatic approach focus on the material relevant to the assignment and limit themselves to what needs to be done to pass the course, ignoring all other material (compare Chief & Hola, 1995). Some say that they would like to study the material more thoroughly but cannot because of time pressures: 'I mean, most of the time I look at the assignment and the first assignment is based on such unit, so those units I read first' (NG, pp. 4-5)." Landbeck, R., & Mugler, F. (2000). Distance Learners of the South Pacific: Study Strategies, Learning Conditions, and Consequences for Course Design. Journal of Distance Education: 15, 1. http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol15.1/landbeck.html

Distance learners as workers: students + employees,

so more time-constraints. Multimedia can give the quick fix, but still leave the resource for future learning later when time permits.

provide alternate explanations (layers of simplicity)

"it’s just you and the books" (Mugler & Landbeck, 1998). "If it’s a statement or paragraph that I don’t have any idea about it, then that’s the time I ask a teacher or someone to help" (WE, p. 10).

"identifying the most important concepts of the course (rather than concentrating on covering content); sequencing them; helping students relate them (with advance and graphic organizers, for instance); and helping them work through misconceptions toward new understandings. This last aim, although vital for the development of deep understanding, is extremely difficult and seems almost impossible to achieve in this present context." Landbeck, R., & Mugler, F. (2000). Distance Learners of the South Pacific: Study Strategies, Learning Conditions, and Consequences for Course Design. Journal of Distance Education: 15, 1. http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol15.1/landbeck.html

segment (layers of simplicity)

"A second challenge to broadening participation is the diversity of users (Kobsa and Stephanidis, 1998). Since skill levels with computing vary greatly, search engines provide a basic and advanced dialog box for query formulation. Since knowledge levels in an application domain vary greatly, some sites provide two or more versions. For example, the National Cancer Institute provides introductory cancer information for patients and details for physicians. Since children differ from adults in their needs, NASA provides a children"s section on their space mission pages. Universities often segment their sites for applicants, current students, or alumni, but then provide links to shared resources of mutual interest. Segmentation creation and management tools would help developers wishing to pursue this strategy." http://www.universalusability.org/definition/diversity.html

give student the hands-on application of concepts they miss

concepts need social application (CULTURAL): "The courses that I did through Extension, I forgot most of the materials and I’m pretty sure that the materials that I did in my Summer School, I won’t forget for a long time and I think similar to courses that are run full-time. People don't forget, they apply that. I think, well, the two reasons that I said, that there is a lecturer teaching you, and you sharing your knowledge with a lecturer and other students." Jonathan Frank & Janet Toland, Email as a learning technology in the South Pacific: An evaluation. Educational Technology & Society 5 (3) 2002. http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_3_2002/frank.html

Cultural Orientation (CULTURAL):

"pacific emphasis on context vs. western emphasis on universals" from table, page 85, Va’a, R. (1997). Cultural accountability in the USP science courses at a distance. In L. Rowan, L. Bartlett, & T. Evans (Eds.), Shifting borders: Globalisation, localisation and open and distance education (pp. 83-97). Geelong: Deakin University Press.

Pedagogically:

situated learning points to application of concepts/ hands-on simulation of activities (see my In Situ paper + refs)

have a generic extensible base:

"Vermeer (1999) enthusiastically states that digital resources 'can, with varying degrees of difficulty, be transported, transcribed and sometimes transformed into an infinite variety of shapes or vessels ?because they are portable, reproducible and malleable in ways traditional printed texts or face-to-face lectures can never be'" http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_1_2002/gold.html

simulate group learning (+ in Situ methods of social simulation)

Student-lead research in ownn language

(ED353: Konai Thaman)

Experiential Learning Modules/ Objects

(Thaman, 14 May, Personal Comm)

Culturally Inclusive/ Contextual

(Collaborative Web Apps)

Utilise existing community structures

(Open University, Aborigines, ICT) (Indonesian farmers with email in "Banana Sheds") (Thaman, 14 May, Personal Comm)

Developer must understand target culture:

"Baron(1995, p. 123) cites Hites (1991) as going even further, she reccomends that someone from the culture of the students should be on the course-wrtiting team and that there should be some analysis of the unique needs and characteristics of the culture, including language competency, value differences, expectations, cultural adjustment problems and motivation" Wah, R. (1997). Distance education in the South Pacific: Issues and contradictions. In L. Rowan, L. Bartlett, & T. Evans (Eds.), Shifting borders: Globalisation, localisation and open and distance education (pp. 69-82). Geelong: Deakin University Press.

Provide flexibility that other media cannot

Less Reading/Writing Based: ''"the fact that reading and

writing are difficult for Pacific island students for whom print as a medium of information and instruction is culturally and relatively new; the wider range of opportunities for teaching strategies to help overcome language and communication difficulties for students for whom English is a second language; that the distances between the campuses and the rest of the region make a multi-media approach inevitable for interactive links between teacher and student;"'' Tuimaleali’ifano, E. (1999). Multimedia course delivery at the University of the South Pacific: Comparing rhetoric and practice. Paper presented at ICDE Conference, Vienna, Austria, 22-24 June 1999.

Less time-dependent than Satelite broadcasts

"In the trial run in semester one of this year of the centre-based video delivery of EC309 (a third year Economics course) feedback from centre staff and students indicated that compulsory attendance at the centre at scheduled video-viewing times was a major problem for the students. To require students to attend centre-based activities at fixed times may make their participation impossible, and for this reason satellite tutorials have been, by policy, an optional course component for extension students."

"Although all centres may be linked up in the USPNet upgrade, the number of reasonable useable hours (usually after work from 5 to 8pm) for interactive purposes across the region is significantly reduced by the 4 time zones of the region." Tuimaleali’ifano, E. (1999). Multimedia course delivery at the University of the South Pacific: Comparing rhetoric and practice. Paper presented at ICDE Conference, Vienna, Austria, 22-24 June 1999.

"owing to the scattered nature of the populations, the best information technology is needed to reach the public, or the advances in education and information will be confined to privileged elites in the places where physical centres of learning exist” (Crocombe and Bahlman, 1988)." Tuimaleali’ifano, E. (1999). Multimedia course delivery at the University of the South Pacific: Comparing rhetoric and practice. Paper presented at ICDE Conference, Vienna, Austria, 22-24 June 1999.

Provide feedback for isolated students

"provision of (effective) learning support; quick evaluative feedback to students and opportunities for interaction (in the use of communcation technology); provision of parity of learning opportunities with face-to-face students;" Tuimaleali’ifano, E. (1999). Multimedia course delivery at the University of the South Pacific: Comparing rhetoric and practice. Paper presented at ICDE Conference, Vienna, Austria, 22-24 June 1999.