Working with Lateral Approaches Toward Learning Outcomes
Defining Lateral Approaches
Most teachers have multiple strategies to illustrate or explain a given exercise or
educational concept. With student based learning strategies, a teacher first employees the
strategy that seems most likely to reach the majority of the students in a class,
considering the skills, interests, and abilities of the students in the class. When students
are struggling with a concept, one goes to “Plan B” for the group – or there may be
particular strategies one can employ for particular students. Where one goes with an idea
often depends on the response a student makes. A teacher may be sensitive (especially
after teaching a particular concept for many students through the years) to know where
the common errors in understanding are likely to occur.
A controlled hypermedia multimedia project can systematize the process of lateral
approaches into a learning outcomes package. This package can be very useful in
advancing understanding of a classroom principle – either through introducing a concept,
or allowing review of a concept already presented in the classroom.
First, one develops an idea through a multimedia presentation.
Now, list two or three ways a student might misunderstand, or fail to grasp the concept.
 One point of failure could be that a student simply failed to listen/read closely
enough, and a second run-through might help.
 Learning styles preferences, or brain based learning strategies, could provide
other alternatives. Consider the ARCS motivation strategies from last week’s
articles.
 There may be points within the topic that are stumbling blocks, based on incorrect
base assumptions or other points of divergent thought.
Given these possible points of misunderstanding, how might one know what the point of
misunderstanding was causing the problem? In the classroom, you would find these
lapses out through class discussion or a pop quiz, perhaps. In either situation, what would
you ask to see if your students grasped the concept wholly and completely?
Once a point of misunderstanding has been identified, what would you do to remedy the
error? This process of developing another way to explain a concept is the lateral approach
to accomplishing a learning outcome.
Bridging to Multimedia
In the 1980s and early 1990s, as educational computing began moving past the “flash
card” phase of its infancy, teachers began stringing series of these “cards” together to
built concepts from the factoids of the individual cards. This was the premise of early
programs like HyperCard, SuperCard, HyperStudio, etc., plus the ability to bring in
multimedia elements for graphics and sound in ways not previously possible. The idea
that a screen was a “card” was carried through to explain that a series of cards was a
“stack.” One stack led to another, literally, through hyperlinks.
Also, in the early days of educational computing, a commonly held belief was that
everyone needed to know how to program. It was not too long, though, before simple
programs gave way to more complex where threads of programming code became hard to
follow as those threads intertwined with one another. The solution was found in
developing a structured programming model that used subroutines for specific functions
that could be called upon by the main (root) program as needed. Determination of
whether to call in a particular subroutine often rested on an “If-then” statement. That is,
“If XXX is true, Then do subroutine YYY.”
The parallel between multimedia “stacks” summoned by hyperlinks and subroutines
called up by “If-Then” statements quickly came to light. For a time multimedia was
considered by some, at least, to be a form of programming. With the ascendance of the
internet, hyperlinks and multimedia took on a different context and the question of
programming, or not, in the context of hypermedia and multimedia of HyperCard,
SuperCard, HyperStudio, etc., became more or less moot.
For roughly the last 12-15 years, multimedia has meant web authoring, presentation
media, or (more recently) digital video. Web authoring always operated in a less
controlled computing environment than the older multimedia systems. Now, the level of
complexity for web authoring in both software and hardware manipulation make it
substantially more difficult to use for controlled educational objectives. Digital video is
linear and not interactive. Presentation media usually is seen as linear and typically is not
recognized for its interactive qualities, but here is where traditional educational
multimedia is coming into a revival or renaissance.
Instead of calling screens “cards,” presentation media (like PowerPoint) calls screens
“slides.” Many people print their slides as transparencies – to make a “stack” of
transparencies. So, the card and stack principles of older multimedia packages still are
there. It is a small step to think that one could make lateral presentations for a concept in
separate PowerPoint files. One can hyperlink between PowerPoint files, although there
are some considerations of complexity to take into consideration. (More about those
issues will come for project 3.)
An alternative strategy to linking many small presentations together is to use a subroutine
strategy to create separate stacks within a single PowerPoint (or similar presentation
software) file. Use of single file avoids linking issues that can arise with multiple files.
Prepare the primary, initial presentation for one’s initial string of slides, followed by (or
incorporating) decision / assessment strategies leading to branching. Next, prepare the
lateral learning sequences, one after another, in the same program. It helps me to easily
see each lateral track within the file to set each apart with black slides between the runs
of slides, and to make the slides in each run hidden. The kiosk mode makes the use of
black slides and hidden slides unnecessary, as long as the program functions in kiosk
mode, but visually it still appears that it might be useful to use the black slides to identify
the different “stacks” within the slide sorter view as you work on developing and refining
the program.
Branching Strategies
Lateral learning strategies rely on the quality of branching strategies. Ultimately, the
content of the questions will determine the power of the use of branching. There are at
least two ways to structure branching: quizzes and gauntlets.
With quizzes, a question is posed with an array of answers. Depending on the answer
chosen, the lateral learning presentation is selected.
A gauntlet poses a series of questions. Each question may have as few as two answers.
One answer would branch to the lateral learning sequence indicated as a need, while the
other would affirm mastery of that particular issue and allow progress to the next
question.
The branching strategy to use will depend on the complexity of the concept taught and
the level of mastery required for an acceptable learning outcome.
Conclusion
Well developed lateral learning strategy multimedia can significantly help a teacher use
class time more effectively by shifting some presentation time to an out of classroom
experience. The resulting time freed in the classroom can allow more breadth or depth of
content exploration within the overall scope of the course. As our articles on the use of
educational media noted, the use of multimedia technology is not necessarily better than
face to face strategies, but it can help shift the way time is used within a course of study.
Developing a multimedia project will take a good deal of time to think through the lateral
learning strategies. As one article noted, if a similar amount of time was spent on another
teaching strategy, it well might be as effective. However, a multimedia project saves well
and that initial investment can be drawn against in the future, rather than having to
replicate that amount of time for a particular unit every time it is taught. All multimedia
projects should be reviewed in advance each time it is used to determine what updating
and editing might be needed. Even with updating and editing time in successive uses,
though, a well developed project should be able to be re-used with far less preparation
time than starting from scratch in successive uses.
The next segment of this course will discuss the differences in group presentations versus
one-on-one multimedia projects. Lateral learning strategies can be used in group
presentations as well – usually with different screen layouts and branching strategies,
since more of the content will flow with the speaker. (Much of the screen text and
branching questions will be left to the speaker to carry. Branching buttons probably will
be hidden, known only to the speaker.)
I once was teaching an adult class in which one student was fairly confident of himself
and tended to lead the discussion for his classmates, as much by dominating the
discussion as anything. He was a likable guy who really was wrestling with the issues in
the class. I was using some presentation material into which I had built some lateral
learning branching. At one point I posed a question that really had the class divided.
Although he was unclear, he made what possibly was for him an almost arbitrary choice,
so that we could move forward with the discussion. I moved smoothly into the lateral
learning approach chosen and it appeared to him as though I had planned that all along
(based on his assumption of a linear presentation). He asked me after class how I knew in
advance what his choice would be to have my presentation set up that way. I showed him
how I just as easily could have gone another way. Surprised him!
So, I hope you have a good time with using multimedia for lateral learning projects!