Thursday, October 8, 2015

CECS 5110 Week 7


I believe that when learners can hear the instructor’s voice with instructions, they do benefit and gain extra insight by the instructor’s tone and deliverance of the instructions.  In the real world, I have had to call a substitute teacher and give her verbal directions for my position.  While it was faster for me to tell the substitute what I needed her to do, I do not think it was best for the substitute (my learner).  She had to take notes and rely on her memory of our conversation in order to carry out her duties the next day.  This was a rare situation and I only in extreme cases would I use it again.  I like giving learners (or substitute teachers!) written directions.  I think that when given audio directions (even when pre-recorded and not speaking of a phone conversation) it is harder for learners to go back and review steps or directions that they may have missed.  This is particularly true for longer sets of instructions.  When given a page of text or text/image directions, I think that learners benefit from being able to complete steps at their own pace and review when needed.

I have seen directions recorded on little devices like THESE or QR codes for students in younger grades.  I think small snippets like this, for quick reminders, are a great idea, but I don’t care for audio instruction (on it’s own) for younger grades.  Too many of my students are visual learners and I would not feel as if I was giving all of my students a fair advantage if I solely used audio.  While I enjoy recording tracks and using the software, I don’t think this is the best method for my little friends or those providing instructions that are more difficult/longer.

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