2.2 Learning With Digital Media

Last week you learned how to find, evaluate, and select digital media tools and resources for teaching and learning. Before you start designing a digital media product or lesson plan, it is critical to understand how people learn with digital media.

How People Learn

Let’s start with how memory works. When you come across new information, it is captured in your short-term memory. Your short-term memory is, well, short. You can only hold one small chunk of information (like a phone number) in your short-term memory for a limited amount of time. The information must be processed in your working memory and consolidated in order to make it into your long-term memory. (For more information about the different types of memory, see What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory?).

Learning Activity: Short-Term Memory

Activity Objective: This activity allows us to examine how much information we can hold in our short-term memory.

Activity Instructions: Let’s practice our short-term memory! Participate in this fun, quick Short-Term Memory Test or watch the first 60 seconds of the video.

How did you do? Share your results and thoughts on Twitter using the #digmediacourse hashtag.