Multimodal Learning Through Media: What the Research Says

By Metiri Group – Commissioned by Cisco

Here is where I demonstrate how smart I am or how will my higher order thinking skills process complex information. Yeah, right. What I understand is that the authors began their research by questioning the following assertions:

We remember…

10% of what we read

20% of what we hear

30% of what we see

50% of what we see and hear

70% of what we say

90% of what we say and do

Research into the origins of these assertions has shown that not only are they based upon a misinterpretation of original theory, they also are patently untrue. In other words it is a myth that we remember 90% of what we do.

Wouldn’t it be nice if it were that easy and our brains were that simple. The authors go on to describe in more detail how the brain works, how the different aspects of memory function together and how multimedia can improve learning outcomes. I will quote the following to contextualize my response to this reading:

In general, multimodal learning has been shown to be more effective than traditional, unimodal earning. Adding visuals to verbal (text and/or auditory) learning can result in significant gains in basic and higher-order learning.

Many authors speculate that unless students have been trained to interpret visuals, the impact of multimedia will be minimal.

These assertions bear directly upon the rationale for the ENGL 7741 course. The days of being a written text-based English language arts teacher are pedagogically over. Essentially, teachers who ignore the advances in technology and the opportunities they present for learning and demonstrating learning are doing a disservice to their students. Not only are our students “wired” to plug into the read/write web better than older generations, but older generations are too. Perhaps this explains the decline in reading across all demographics. As a new teacher, I have to think about these different modalities of learning both for my students and for myself. The reason why we have been creating wikis and blogs and examining pictures and videos and websites and logos and sculptures is really to help us access the visual cortex, learning to recognize that written text is not the only medium through which ideas are communicated. I don’t think this article is refuting the received value of written text. I think that it is through language that we can articulate ideas no matter how they are represented. It is through language that we are able to contextualize new ideas. Language is the primary referent for ideas. Otherwise a visual like a photograph would be no more than a collection of colors and shapes that we couldn’t talk about. But I understand that the value for student learning of multimedia is something to be examined, and is something that can be added to, through classroom activities, and by extension through digital media and literacy. Clearly, being able to talk about visuals is better than talking about ideas that could be represented by visuals alone. Point taken.