Cognitive Load Theory, Chapter 7.

The basic idea here is that we, as learners, do not hold the ability to soak up all the information that is out there in the world. Along with limited memory space, we learn well/best by differentiating, processing, and breaking down new ideas and such (aka active learners). In order to aid in this process, the article stresses three guidelines: "Reduce extraneous cognitive processing, Manage essential cognitive processing, and Foster generative cognitive processing." (134)It is crucial that educators follow this outline with, but not limited to, multimedia lessons. The reasoning behind this is that students tend to easily fall behind or be confused with the class materials, especially when new information is fed to them continually. The article also mentions how the segmented group outperformed the continuous group largely because of time management with new materials. What is necessitated from instructors is that they take time with the students to learn the material and in doing so, make it so that all/most parts are relevant and useful for the learners. As mentioned before, we're not robots or a sponge; we simply do not and cannot learn by shoving all sorts of things into our brains. With multimedia learning, it is what instructors make out of it. With relevant media tools, learning can become more wonderful however, it is easy to misuse it. In order to prevent cognitive overload, preparations are necessary for the students' cognitive well-being. As a student myself, until today, my teachers haven't taken full advantage of media/techno. at all. Everything was majorly text-based. Nonetheless, I believe it can be much more than a useful, handy-dandy companion-like tool for instructors as long as they understand how they can be used and how our learning processes work.