The success of implementing interactive technology in Distance Education lies primarily on the appropriate selection of media and on the way these media is put forward taking into account its strengths and weaknesses rather than on its technological components. The different choices of media available for the delivery of instruction, range from printed material, audio and video recording, radio and television broadcast, teleconferencing as well as computer mediated communication. Each of these delivery systems provide characteristics that account for their convenient use in different learning environments. In order to secure the success of media selection, such characteristics must be measured in accordance with media selection models. Media selection models allow for a rational of procedures to follow when the choosing the appropriate medium. As such, they suggest that it is necessary to: a) identify the attributes of the media according to the instructional objectives or learning activities; b) identify the students characteristics relevant to the media; c) identify the characteristics of the learning environment, and d) identify the economical or organizational factors that may influence certain media. This process should be carefully analyzed when a decision about which technology to use is in question and paired to the learners' objectives, needs and learning environment.
The scope of Distance Education provides sufficient examples of projects put forward that serve as a forum for discussing not only the technologies employed but also the selection of media and explore its results as to determine the degree learning achievements. Intelligent Learning Environments (ILE) http://www.acm.org/sigs/sigchi/chi95/proceedings/doctoral/tc_bdy.htm ; are learning systems that advocate to constructivist approaches towards the use of tutoring systems and cognitive tools in discovery learning. Following this trend, the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (TCGV) is developing The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury Series , a sequence of video-based adventures designed to motivate students and help them learn to think and reason about complex, real life problems.
The story traces Jasper's development over the past seven years including its testing in classrooms and revisions based on feedback. It was written for two major reasons -- to organize the thoughts and experiences of the nearly 80-member team who worked on the project, and to give other professionals the opportunity to learn from the team's experiences dealing with issues of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and teacher learning/professional development. The intended audience are teachers who utilize Jasper and wish to learn more about the project and/or those interested in educational improvement issues; a supplemental text for undergraduate and graduate students in cognition, education and technology. The theoretical framework for the project is consistent with constructivist theories and emphasizes generative learning anchored in meaningful contexts. The project presents the contexts of instruction in the form of stories on video discs called "macrocontexts". In such environments, the learners are motivated to solve a variety of interconnected problems involved in complex situations. The aim is to foster constructivist learning in the context of an anchored instruction curriculum.
The products developed by the Jasper Woodbury Problem Solving Serieshttp://cswww.vuse.
vanderbilt.edu/~biswas/Research/ile/learning.html;
comprise:
The Jasper Project may be considered unique as regards the design of computer-based learning environments (Macrocontext and Plus Microworlds) in which the framework of traditional microworld exploration is anchored within complex, realistic problem solving situations. Within such an environment, the student is provided with comprehensive focus and objective for the development of solutions. The design of the trip planning problems incorporates a number of tools to facilitate the problem solution, including and icon pallet, a planning notebook, a timeline, a time simulator and a planning coach. Both the framework design as well as the planning tools allow the students to develop representations that make explicit the concepts such as sequencing or performing independent actions as well as to reduce the time allotted to the activities.
The materials in use are an important element in the design of both macro and microcontexts. The microworlds follow a "basics first" approach by requiring students to reach some performance threshold before introducing additional microworlds. MPMs (macrontexts), however, follow a "guided generation" model of teaching which emphases the generative activities of students. That is, ICMs (complex microworlds) force students to follow the bottom-up approach of first learning component tasks and then putting them together to solve higher tasks. In an ICM environment, the system controls when a student moves from one microworld to another. MPM students are able to explore microworlds of their chosing, always within the anchoring macrocontext. Similarly, MPM students may develop problem solving skills in a self-determined order.
The Adventure Player project was recently evaluated in a study carried out with 48 six grade participants. The study included three of the capabilities of the system: a) the icon pallet for accessing information, b) the planning notebook for generating and editing a plan, and c) the video map for referential information. Some of the results discussed showed that the majority of the students (77%) in the time/simulation group were able to complete a solution while the only 8% of the students using the unembellished system generated a complete plan. The analysis discussed is suggestive that there was value-added by the timeline, simulation and coaching capabilities of the system. In conclusion, it is apparent that the Jasper Project advocates to an epistemological and didactic framework in developing learners cognition. The project conducted by the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, closely supports a careful selection of media as well as an analysis of the procedures of the media selection models described by Moore and Kearsley.