MD3Disc2+Group+Work

Module 3 Discussion 2 Group Work (Signaling Principle) **Step 1:** On the Web, find two multimedia pieces that violate your assigned extraneous cognitive processing principle. Provide specific examples and support them with references to your resources. Include a Web link to each site you selected. Each group member should find at least one example to share with the group. Your group can then work in one member’s wiki to discuss the examples and decide which two you think are best negative examples to present to the class. Then, as a group, select the two best negative examples to post in the Discussion. **Step 2:** Post the two examples and Web links to the Discussion by **Week 6**, **Day 3**. Include a brief two-sentence explanation of how each violates Mayer’s principle.


 * __ Heather Rogers- 7/7/2012 __**

Non- Examples of the Signaling Principle The signaling principle states that material should be organized to show clear information with headings and descriptions. The title or headline should explain that overview of the information.

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This Powerpoint was used for a Social Studies presentation by a group of teachers. It is filled with a lot of text, and images filled with too much text and not enough graphics added. Mayer (2009) explains how signaling "provides cues to the learner about what to attend to and how to organize it," but this presentation does not provide any cues as to which parts of the information are most important. []
 * __Tiffany Harrell- 7/8/2012__**

The following Powerpoint presentation was created to inform the audience about Australia. Although there are graphics presented with the text, there are no signaling cues to highlight the important information in the presentation. Mayer (2009) states that "signals do not add any new information but rather highlight (or repeat) the essential material in the lesson." This can be done through an outline, headings, pointer words, arrows, disctinctive colors, flashing, pointing gestures, or graying out. []

__**Sabrina McDow 7/9/2012**__ [] This link takes us to a lesson on solving Order of Operation problems. In this example, the instructor uses some signaling as he points to the number or operation of which he is referencing. The lesson should include more signaling through vocal emphasis and a different color to each phase of the Order of Operation.

[] This link takes us to a lesson on solving two digit multiplication problems in our head. The instructor does not use signaling. Instead, he only shows the numbers and operations of which he is referring to avoid any extraneous processing. However, you are easily lost in the purpose of the steps.

__**Timothy Weaver 7/9/2012**__ [] This link takes the viewer to a PPT presentation concerning basic concepts of multimedia. Though the first five slides seem to be somewhat effective, the rest of the presentation is quite the cluttered-up mess. Along with the plethora of visual information, color-coding seems to be extreme and in many places seemingly unnecessary. Though more research is indeed necessary, preliminary evidence exists that too much signaling hinders effective learning (Mayer, 2009). Though this slide share is only a visual representation of the presentation, it is quite obvious that first, too much information is covered per slide. Next, all of the different colors, fonts, charachter sizes, etc. would easily confuse the audience by naturally drawing the eyes away from what is being talked about. And finally, even with the narrative, I would predict much of the portrayable knowledge would certainly be lost as soon as the presentation ended. Though visually stimulating, the slide show still violates signal boundry conditions by not using thoughtful highlighted visuals sparingly (Mayer, 2009) but, rather to an almost annoying extreme. I could see a couple of other presentations being developed for much of the information and it makes me wonder how loooooooong the presenter narrative must be to cover this. Yawwwwnnn.