4.3.1 The missing imperatives
4.3.1. The missing imperative Learners can like being told what to do. ‘Think aloud’, Draw a diagram’, ‘Talk to yourself about….. ‘Label this picture’, ‘Explain this to….. ‘Match the items in List A with those in list B’, ‘Conjure up a mental picture of….’Explain to your neighbour….. ‘Listen to the silence in this film’ — […]
4.3.2 The missing overview
4.3.2. The missing overview Learners like to know where they are going. They need some navigational aid (verbal or visual) at the very start of the course or lesson, which maps out, or hints at, the response route they are going to take. In the world of micro-level design, this is often called an ‘overview’. […]
4.3.3 The impracticality of a design
4.3.3 The impracticality of a design ‘Nice’, ‘good’, ‘beautiful’, ‘exciting’, but remaining forever gathering dust in its worked-out form on the designer’s shelf: this is sometimes the fate of a good design. The designer involved has not been sensitive enough to the practicality of the design. A worked-out design must be capable of installation in […]
4.3.4 The missing melody
4.3.4. The missing melody An S-R event in which the primary goal is `to instruct’ has a sharp, business-like sound to it. It has to deliver some pre-defined knowledge or skill. In contrast, an S-B, event which is an ‘encounter’ gives the learner plenty of room to respond in her or his own way. An […]
4.3.5 The non-integration problem
4.3.5. The non-integration problem How many times as a teacher or designer have you heard the complaint that the separate parts of a course ‘don’t seem to belong to each other’? You have probably had to respond to complaints about non-integration in a course or lesson more than once. It’s a common problem. Usually, in […]
4.3.6 Some minor but critical faults
4.3.6. Some minor but critical faults ‘Tek frak’, ‘tooterm’, ‘non crit art’, ‘non crit info’, ‘transition’, ‘wow!’ and ‘speed up’ were some of the editing codes used in editing self-study texts in Basic Systems Inc, New York, in the ’60s.I learned a lot from these codes. Usually written in red pencil or red ink, there […]
4.3.7 An always avoidable fault
4.3.7. An always avoidable fault This refers to any breakdown in the relationship between components in referent 2 (the nth generation of the specified needs).Not long ago I was working with a new subject for a new exercise in the Think Tank workshop. Participants had to design a course for spies. They had to teach […]
4.3.8 A fundamental fault
4.3.8. A fundamental fault If I were a millionaire, I would give away T-shirts with a special emblem; designers of instruction (myself included) would get four each. The emblem reminds us of a fundamental truth about ourselves and about our students. This truth has been mentioned before (par. 1.10): each of us has four quadrants […]