Cognitive Overload is mentioned several times in our book in chapters 6 and 8 when discussing course design. In the textbook, Bates (2016) speaks about ways to avoid cognitive overload by chunking information and making sure that the information given is presented in a way that students are prepared to receive. He speaks to this point once in chapter 3, as well, noting that with project-based learning, students can feel overwhelmed by cognitive overload when the knowledge they have is not sufficient to begin to solve the problem at hand.
Darren McNelis’s (2014) opinion on cognitive overload is not about being overwhelmed with too much information related to solving a problem, or about not having enough information to solve the problem. He refers to cognitive overload as what happened to him when he was distracted from his learning by too much screen time. He felt his memory and ability to learn decreased because he was distracted by video games due to his ADHD. I would argue that the screen time is not the culprit, but a brain seeking a dopamine hit that can be satisfied by playing video games and not by reading or learning – at least not in the standard classroom form.
All brains want the dopamine hit that comes from playing games and using social media. With a phone in our hands everywhere we go, teachers now must compete with the applications on phone for students’ attentions. Our task becomes to make the content as engaging as the video game that is drawing the attention of the students. If the course we present is as fun as their phone, they will engage with the content and learn. When learning is fun, students learn more.
To create a course that is engaging, we must use the elements of TPaCK. We of course need to be comfortable with our content and the pedagogy, but we also need to be comfortable seeking out new technology that can engage students with our content in new and fun ways. In the video “Thinking about Classroom Technology Integration via the TPaCK Framework,” Olmanson (2014) describes a geometry teacher who is highly credentialed in her content and pedagogy but is struggling with the technology aspect of preparing materials for her students. Olmanson (2014) talks about how the teacher could use Geometer’s Sketchpad. In 2014, when this video was produced, Geometer’s Sketchpad was pretty good. It was clunky and looked a lot like windows 3.1, though. As a math teacher, I know we have come a long way in the past 7 years. Desmos, a free online graphing calculator, cannot do everything Geometer’s Sketchpad can, but it certainly can do a lot, and they improve every day. It is also free, online and has an app for a phone, unlike Geometer’s Sketchpad.
To make our courses engaging enough to compete for and win our students’ attention, we need to stay current and ahead of the game technologically. We need to focus on the games and tools our students use and find ways we can harness them to teach our content.
Bates, T. (2016). Teaching in a digital age: guidelines for designing teaching and learning. SFU Document Solutions.
McNelis. (2014). Cognitive overload -- rewire your brain in the digital age. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ztO86ImQg&t=140s.
Olmansju. (2014). Thinking about Classroom Technology Integration via the TPaCK Framework. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPoqKg5KOo8.
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