Comments on: Research-based support for digital storytelling and Dual-Coding Theory

By: Bethany Smith

Bethany Smith — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:34:20 +0000

I’m actually involved in research surrounding Mayer’s work and dual coding theory. I find it backs up what a good deal of us have known all along. Reading exactly what we put on a PowerPoint word for word, is a service to no one and according to dual coding actually negates itself. (You are so concerned with making the audio match up with the visual you do not process the meaning of the words.) This becomes essential in our teaching strategies, and as more of us take advantage of screencasts for our students, etc. we need to take these into account.

As far as having our students create digital products. I find that when I want my students to work on a project, I don’t want them to all create something on the same subject. They all need to have their own individual threads, this way my students learn from one another and can grasp a greater understanding of the whole concept, even if they focused heavily on one aspect. In essence I am asking them to teach their peers. I would want them to incorporate the tenants of dual-coding theory in their design so that others can learn and understand their topic area better.

In the end, good design, no matter what research backs it up, can only facilitate the learning and creating process.

By: » Design, presentations, and the power of the network Sustainably Digital

» Design, presentations, and the power of the network Sustainably Digital — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:47:30 +0000

[...] Bit #3: Wes Fryer wrote a post discussing digital storytelling and dual-coding theory. Essentially, dual-coding theory states that when a speaker reads information off of a slide, very [...]

By: AKA Riptide Furse » Krossbow’s del.icio.us bookmarks for February 9th - Add me to your del.icio.us network!

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:32:40 +0000

[...] Research-based support for digital storytelling and Dual-Coding Theory » Moving at the Speed o… - [...]

By: EDITing in the Dark » Why not Vodcast

EDITing in the Dark » Why not Vodcast — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:36:07 +0000

[...] has a post today that talks about storytelling and dual coding, this got me thinking about a meeting yesterday [...]

By: storyboards.org.nz » Blog Archive » Web 2.0 and Digital Storytelling

storyboards.org.nz » Blog Archive » Web 2.0 and Digital Storytelling — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:47:46 +0000

[...] Higher education’s storytellers were busy “connecting and reflecting” at last month’s Educause Learning Initiative 2008 meeting. Bryan Alexander ran a pre-conference Web 2.0 Storytelling workshop, the resources for which he has graciously shared, while Gail Matthews-DeNatale expanded on her earlier classroom digital storytelling experiences by examining the story-making experience from the learner’s perspective. Both Bryan and Gail are also featured in this 30 minute conversation also recorded at ELI2008. Meanwhile digital storytelling advocate Wesley Fryer digs up some educational research supporting the use of classroom digital storytelling. [...]

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:36:12 +0000

June: You are absolutely right that the pedagogy or instructional methods make a huge difference in terms of learning. We can’t say “digital storytelling always supports wonderful learning” any more than we should say (or can say with integrity) “computers always support wonderful learning.” I appreciate the reference to Richard Mayer’s work, I will check that out. I haven’t done much reading yet on dual-coding theory, but am interested to learn more from several standpoints– most immediately my own use and design of presentation slides. I think the title of your blog, Praxis Makes Perfect, is a good way of saying this. The WAYS we use technology are really the key. While I do think there are some good things inherent in the process of having students create digital stories, we certainly see many examples in school of PowerPoints as well as videos/movies created by students which reflect little original thought or actual learning. The brain psychology is not the only important issue here in my view, however, the entire challenge of authentically “engaging” students (versus merely enthralling them) fits into this digital storytelling discussion as well. One of the basic things we need to do there is provide students with choices about their learning tasks, and that is a basic idea which many teachers do not embrace yet– and has nothing to do with technology specifically.

By: June

June — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:53:57 +0000

Thanks for the very interesting post. I think to make a stronger “research-based” case for digital media/storytelling/multimedia we have to do a little bit better linking the evidence on multimedia learning to what we’re doing in the classroom. This post (and dual coding theory) is a good start, but what does it really mean for having kids use digital media to create and share?

I don’t think dual-coding theory says anything about the effects of creating and sharing media on learning. What it says is that there are certain ways that we as human beings take in visual and audio cues, and learn from those stimuli. I’d take a look at the work of Richard Mayer (psychologist, his book is called Multimedia Learning). He finds that the way multimedia is presented makes a difference in learning… for example, having a picture appear on one side of the screen with text on the opposite side, is less effective than having the picture and text appear in close proximity (because our brains have to work harder to take in both the text and picture when they are far apart)… this is a clear link between digital media and learning… it DOES NOT say however, that kids who create and share media with each other learn better.

So what about kids creating and sharing media? We’ll need to make better arguments and find (or do) other research, and I think you’re on the right track. I hope my clarification contributes something to the discussion.