Honestly, I found these 2 chapters much more interesting than the previous ones.
Memory is such a complex animal. The whole concept of no matter how much faster a computer's processor was, it still took a "million" steps to get to the next step verses the one-hundred of the human brain, blew me away. I have always been able to recall huge amounts of song lyrics to the amazement of my wife. She always wonders why I can remember the words of a song that I haven't heard in over 20 years, but can't remember what we talked about in the previous hour. I've really never given this a lot of serious thought until Hawkins goes one step further with his explanation of how we are able to recognize a song no matter what key it is in due to our mind being able to "fill in" the missing pieces by its' amazing ability to predict.
Kayleigh and Cheryl posed the following question:
Can we utilize the concepts of the memory-prediction framework of intelligence in instructional design? Could this theory aid in designing more effective courses?
I would say we could. Any opportunity to capitalize on things that learners are able to recall and "predict " as a means of gaining even more information to store in memory and recall later, would be of benefit. In the case of a learner excelling in a subject they are really interested in. Could this simply be that because of this, those memories are more accessible or have stuck so to speak, more than the things we choose not to hang onto? If so, then certainly this kind of theory would aid in designing a more effective course for learners.
Rob -
ReplyDeleteI also found these chapters more interesting than the previous ones! I agree with the idea of the memories that "stick" are the ones that are more interesting to us. I think this challenges us as learning designers to make learning as engaging as possible even if the content being taught isn't something the learner is interested in. Keeping that in mind will definitely help to create more effective courses!
- Kayleigh
I agree with you and Kayleigh too - what's more interesting or relevant to the learner always seems to "stick" more (or perhaps they just pay more attention when learning!). Either way, it's important for learning designers to design their training from the learner's perspective, keeping the learner's preferences and interests in mind.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the responses.
ReplyDeleteI'm finding this to ring true as I talk to folks in my company as I plan some of their future training.