Requirements
Instructional Barriers – Materials – How Our Brains Interact with Media
When we use a mix of media, and use each medium based on a conscious choice of its characteristics, then we can create powerful learning materials.
That “conscious choice” has to be necessarily informed by flexibility. Lecture is not very flexible. If it is recorded (and brief), then it can become flexible because it has been put into electronic format. That would allow the learner to listen to it multiple times or play it in a different environment where there are not background noise interferences.
Rose & Meyer identify four characteristics of digital media that are valuable in designing universally accessible materials. Digital media:
- are versatile – digital media can display content in multiple types of formats
- are transformable – when designed well, the display can be modified to present the content in different ways based on learner needs or preferences
- can be marked – elements can be “tagged” in such a way that learns can cut through and search content in different ways, and the markup can be hidden or displayed
- can be networked – learning materials can be linked to additional supports so a learner can access additional information or support as necessary
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