'What Does It Mean to Comprehend or Construct Meaning in Multimedia Environments: Thoughts on Cognit

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'What Does It Mean to Comprehend or Construct
Meaning in Multimedia Environments Thoughts on
Cognitive and Assessment Construct Development
John SabatiniFrom FROM ORTHOGRAPHY To
PEDAGOGY 2005

• EDMS 738 Taslima Rahman
• May 01, 2006

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Two major elements .

• Information Representation
• Forms in Language Arts

• Reading Comprehension Assessment

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John Sabatinis two theses .

• Integrate media education with traditional
  reading literacy
• Use assessment as a heuristic research tool for
  furthering our theoretical and pragmatic
  understanding of multimedia comprehension

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Reading from a cognitive perspective ..

• Reading is to construct meaning,
• Reading makes language into an object of thought
  and discourse
• Reading is a mutually constitutive system
  background knowledge shapes our reading
  experience and reading experience reshapes our
  background knowledge
• Re-reading enables different understanding,
  different interpretation, different meaning

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A shift in language arts
Print forms

• Audio forms
• Visual forms
• Live presentation forms
• Hybrid forms

Print forms
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Media not yet part of K-12 curriculum (1)

• Print media dominates the pedagogy, due to the
  persistent centrality of print in published
  curriculum materials
• Media is perceived and understood in the context
  of news and entertainment
• Some views
• input through the eye vs. ear produces different
  forms of thought
• Other than print requires less effort, so retain
  less and learn less

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Media not yet part of K-12 curriculum (2)

• Reading construct is defined in terms of print in
  major assessments
• NAEP ability to understand what is read, to
  construct memory representations of what is
  understood, and to put this understanding to use
• PIRLS ability to understand and use those
  written language forms required by society and/or
  valued by the individual
• PISA understanding, using, and reflecting on
  written texts in order to achieve ones goals, to
  develop ones knowledge and potential, and to
  participate in society

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Across IR formsMeaning, Understanding,
Interpretation

• Questions about the construction of meaning such
  as theme transcends the representational forms
• Questions about other aspects such as perceived
  tone or setting may differ significantly

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IR forms and Literacy

• Address different aspects of the world
• Offer different affordances
• Render different interpretations, thus derived
  meanings some are common and some are unique
• Impact differently depending on the pre-existing
  domain knowledge

• Any form of representation can cultivate literacy
  
• All forms for literacy activate multiple
  functional areas of brain
• All forms require knowledge, skill, and strategies

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Print forms Books, Newspapers
Print forms Describes to read
Affordance
Audio Forms Radio, Narrations, Musical
recordings, audio recordings of all kinds
If literacy is defined ability to understand,
to construct memory representations of what is
understood, and to put this understanding to use
Audio Forms Describes to listen
Visual Forms Graphs, maps, pictures, photos
Visual Forms Summarizes to view
Live Forms Plays and other performances
Live Forms Performs to enjoy
Hybrid Forms Television, movies, Filmstrips,
movies of dramatic performances
Hybrid Forms Simulates to be entertained
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Role of comprehension construct

• The construct of comprehension should not be
  limited to visual texts. The construct when
  conceptualized broadly e.g., a media literate
  person can decode, evaluate, analyze, and produce
  both print and electronic media (National
  Leadership Conference on Media Literacy)permits
  integration of different IR forms.
• Construct of comprehension that permit the
  contrast of different representational forms can
  provide richer evidence about both specific and
  general proficiencies.

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Role of Assessment in multimedia literacy

• An assessment can help us understand better what
  we would like our learners be able to do with
  emerging multimedia forms
• Assessment strategy with convergent and divergent
  qualities across media could highlight unique
  affordances of specific representational forms.
• Measurement tools can be varied such as
  open-ended, observation, interview, and artifact
  collection

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Role of Assessment for multimedia literacy

• Traditional measurement practices distort and
  defeat new conceptions of desired learning and
  interest to promote
• Underestimate the uncertainty about proficiency
  and its measure
• Assessment/measurement should not be an
  afterthought
• Assessment should have formative and summative
  role. Assessment should be given forward thinking
  treatments

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ECD and media literacy

• As a heuristic tool, use ECD because it
• Builds on modern conception of validity
• Helps make claim based on handful of what
  students say or do
• Uses theories and experiences to reason from
  particular data to particular claim
• Articulates relationships of student proficiency
  to task to evidence rules to claims which in turn
  permits comparisons across representational
  forms, reducing the risk of inferring
  proficiencies falsely

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Psychological perspective

• Sabatinis emphasis on multi-media in language
  arts integrates cognitive, socio-cultural, and
  developmental perspectives
• Cognitive perspective already discussed
• Socio-cultural perspective K-12 literacy is a
  socio-cultural factor as students go to school,
  learn to read through various medium,
  interaction, sharing knowledge with peers. An
  affordance of a medium is also determined by
  socio-cultural aspects.
• Developmental perspective Literacy progression
  is through developmental stages. Different media
  impacts differently depending on the stage of
  learner. It is a learners pre-existing domain
  knowledge which makes

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Implications for Assessment

• What to include
• How to incorporate various IR forms
• What to observe
• What focal KSA
• How to synthesize
• How many to assemble
• How to make delivery efficient so policy makers
  do not give up

SM

• AM

EM
TM
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Implications for Task analysis

• Determine essential features common across the
  forms
• Determine constraints posed by different forms
• Determine the extent paper pencil form be
  adjusted/accommodated or just copied from one
  medium to another
• Determine the form makes comprehension harder
• Match the IR forms with learners level