A Review of and a Link to a Useful Multimedia Selection Guide

This is a helpful guide for the many considerations for blended learning by authors Dr. Jolly Holden, Dr. Philip Westfall, and Dr. Keysha Gamor:

AN INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA SELECTION GUIDE FOR DISTANCE LEARNING—IMPLICATIONS FOR BLENDED LEARNING FEATURING AN INTRODUCTION TO VIRTUAL WORLDS

http://www.usdla.org/USDLA_Ins_Media.pdf

The strength of this short publication is that it connects cognitive strategies to instructional strategies to tech choices. It also names some of the limitations of those tech uses along with suggestions for types of instructional activities for a particular choice.

The section on virtual world applications clearly defines and discusses the potential for their instructional activity.

This is a useful guide for practioners and designers (and for the many who serve both roles) both early and somewhere along the road. For the more advanced, you may also be asking for more on Virtual worlds, and serious games, but this is a very good start. Nonetheless, the material here will also give the more experienced a chance to examine their current practices.

One point I think about as I design are questions to ask the learners. What are they using? Would their choices help them learn in this particular class? How?

Most recently I’ve also been thinking about the potential for certain activities across multiple applications and platforms. This choice of interoperatibility could immediately increase access to various activities for the various learners likely to come into a course.

Thank you to the authors and USDLA --- this is a clearly written, very useful contribution to the development of 21st century teaching and learning.