Metacognition and motivation

I tried my hands on the Movie Maker. Windows Movie Maker allows you to add custom transitions/effects/titles. It is   easy to add effects , by clicking on to the Visual Effects tab,  and selecting on an effect to apply. Titles and captions can be added easily. Users can add desired text and a font, color, or size. Movie Maker enables addition of music and the transition effects automatically so that movie looks professional.

I also reflected on the term metacognition. The simplest definition of Metacognition is "thinking about thinking." It is awareness and knowledge of the cognitive activity. Learners with higher intrinsic motivation and metacognition show improved learning as compared to poorly motivated learners. Clark compares metacognitive activity with hands, those have flexibility to accommodate the kind of thing they are using. Similarly, the metacognitive activities must be tailored so that they can accommodate the needs of the learners.

Journal 8

I’m liking this browsing, reading, creating and experimenting with different tools. There are so many authoring tools available for the teachers who wish to bring a difference in their teaching methodologies. The best part is that for many of the tools a teacher can start authoring almost immediately with one or another Web editor. It is also straightforward to convert existing material into interactive format. This gives teachers an advantage to fully concentrate on the course content, and resulting good course product, rather than first learning technology and then using it. Students learn and retain information for a longer time if blended with interactive quizzes and assessment tools that make the lessons engaging. Other activities include video-based tutorials, games; podcast, slide presentations and other web-based tools attract students and help them transfer the knowledge to real life situations.

I was browsing some tools on the internet and realized that digital natives really need to be taught the way the kind of the world they are born in. Marc Prensky describes modern children as Digital Natives because they have grown up with the technology as compared to the teachers those have adapted to it, the Digital immigrants. Thus, instructors can increase reliance on technology and combine it with the way our brains process information to dramatically enhance student learning through multimedia instruction. Multimedia can certainly improve perception, attention, selection, organization and integration of information (Sweller, 2003). I’m working on my e-portfolio as well. I still have to work a lot and most importantly-I’ve to add the plug-ins.

Reference-
Sweller, J. (2005) Implications of cognitive load theory for multimedia learning. in R. E. Mayer (Ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.