Clark and Mayer (2011) suggest that training resources be designed to be job-specific and to develop cognitive and meta cognitive skills. While general intelligence is certainly valuable, most training programs have a more specific scope. The success or failure of the training will be measured in specific terms and not general terms.
Direct link to video above
The video above is a demonstration of an advanced multimedia technology called augmented reality. Augmented reality involves the employee wearing special eye glasses that impose a layer of real-time instruction as he or she engages reality. Here a BMW mechanic is apparently learning how to perform a specific repair by following instructions displayed in his glasses. In my opinion, this example demonstrates part of Thinking Skills Principle 1, bot only part. It is job specific. But it is a more a crutch than an technology of learning. This kind of instruction is very costly to create. Its application appears to be designed to "dumb down" the responsibilities of a professional mechanic. I want a mechanic who has sense enough to figure out what is necessary to do, and who refers to traditional documentation when needed. We are likely to see may new applications of virtual reality and augmented reality in the near future. I think they could serve to develop human intelligence and not be designed to substitute for human intelligence. I see too many cashiers who cannot count back change in the absence of a cash register. Let's not scale that up to whole-task responsibilities that require a lot of human intelligence. The purpose of education is to education, not to 'dumb down" employment roles.
References
Clark, R. C. & Mayer, R.E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven Guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
No comments:
Post a Comment