TECHNOS

August 29, 2008

Bricolage: A Theory for Development and Implementation of Visual Technology for Instruction

By Joann Flick, AIT’s Broadcast/Training Professional

Bricolage—from the French-language verb bricoler, meaning “to tinker” or “to fiddle”—is that language’s equivalent of the English phrase “do-it-yourself.”
—Wikipedia, retrieved March 30, 2006

The purpose of instructional technology is to affect and effect learning.
—Seels & Richey, 1994, pp. 1–9

Introduction

The use of images for instruction likely precludes language and continues throughout the historic record of formal and informal instruction. For instance, in previous centuries, children fashioned samplers with decorative images to learn the alphabet. Early textbooks like McGuffey’s Fifth Reader illustrated simple prose to introduce reading. The introduction of motion media in the early 20th Century was accompanied with the expectation that great strides would be accomplished in learning by utilizing the new technology of movies. Thomas Edison (1912) famously predicted, incorrectly, that movies would eliminate the need for textbooks.

Now, with the World Wide Web and video-on-demand services both through electronic transmission and menu-driven DVDs, visual resources for learning are more accessible than ever. Educators envision a day when universal access to instructional media in the form of animations, video, or interactive computer programs will permit an efficient process of endless recombination of learning objects to effect learning, either in a planned learning environment by the teacher or instructional designer or spontaneously by the learner themselves (M. David Merrill, David A. Wiley, 2002).

Wayne Hodgins (2004) has presented the idea that learning will soon become very, very personalized. He calls this idea meLearning and describes a very active role for the learner in which they both activate and control their own learning environment. Broad arrays of learning resources can be accessed as desired, rather than a particular sequence for the instruction. In order for this concept to take hold, content will need to be indexed and retrievable through robust metadata and information systems.

The promise of visual technology for enhancing technology is now receiving renewed interest in the wake of recent research in neuroscience. Visual information is activated in the limbic brain, an area also associated with opinions and attitudes (Bergsma, 2002). Recently, the National Research Council released a comprehensive overview entitled, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (2005). The report noted that the brain processes and retains declarative knowledge better when a visual representation is present (p. 124). In Chapter 9, the report concluded that visual technology is appropriate for:

bringing exciting curricula based on real-world problems into the classroom;
providing scaffolds and tools to enhance learning;
giving students and teachers more opportunities for feedback, reflection, and revision;
building local and global communities that include teachers, administrators, students, parents, practicing scientists, and other interested people; and
expanding opportunities for teacher learning.

As the 21st Century unfolds, new technologies permit both teachers and learners to access short chunks of media more easily, even spontaneously, as DVD technology and networked digital storage and access of media allow teachers to bookmark clips of media and link to them without the cumbersome cueing required with VHS tape technology. Learners and teachers can seek out resources spontaneously as needed. By bookmarking resources and managing play lists and files of links to media, teachers and learners can review and reference materials at will. A new challenge exists for learners and teachers to navigate through an ever-expanding array of visual resources to find valid substantive content and then find it again when they next want to use it. They must also evaluate the available media to judge for accuracy and completeness.

Yet, even as new practices for teaching with media have emerged, and new technologies to support access to media in short segments have evolved, many instructional media developers continue to provide content in a linear, narrative form, without a notion of how their long-format media may be chunked up into smaller media objects for learning in a bricolage technique.

There is a need for a cohesive design strategy that informs and guides the developers of instructional media to supply content that is most useful for teachers and learners in this dynamic technological and learning environment. The Bricolage Theory advocates a design approach that takes into account the implementation strategy of learners and teachers that drives them to select short segments of visual technology. The theory embraces this do-it-yourself approach of learners and teachers and supports that utility in the design, development and implementation of the media.

The term bricolage was coined by Claudio Ciborra to describe an approach that encourages businesses to support staff in revising and adjusting information systems in a bottom-up approach. In education, Seymour Papert applies the term to describe playful trial-and-error approaches to learning (Wikipedia, 2006). In this article, the term suggests an approach to the design, development, and utilization of visual technology for learning.

Goals and Preconditions

The Bricolage Theory applies to the design, development, and implementation of visual media to enhance learning and understanding in any core subject area, K–12.

Instructional designers and developers may not always focus on implementation by designing and planning for ethical and effective marketing practices as well as ongoing support to the resource users for the lifetime of the media. Implementation is very important to learning outcomes. New delivery options are shifting the primary audience for instructional media. Students and parents are accessing media directly without the teacher as a mediator in the instruction, while teachers remain an important consumer of instructional media. The spontaneous use of segments of media out of the context of their complete form must be accounted for in design, development, and implementation.

This theory addresses fidelity of implementation by providing specific methods for effective support throughout the useful life of the media for all potential audiences and stakeholders as well as a range of applications and utility of the media. It addresses the need for flexibility in design and for considering the bricolage approach to the use of media. In other words, the media is conceived of in terms of separate learning objects (Wiley, 2002), even though the finished product may be a more linear video program.

Rich visual media are often used for classroom instruction and include live-action video, printable or projected still graphics or labeled images, photographs, animations, interactive Web-page design, among others. This theory is for a broad range of visual media that will address core subject areas tied to national and state curriculum standards with broad application in traditional and distance learning classrooms.

Values

The theory I pose here is based on a specific set of personal values:

Learners bring myriad prior experiences and levels of readiness into the classroom; therefore, instructional media should support a broad range of learning styles and address a broad range of learner abilities.
Media should facilitate learning by making it easier for learners to grasp and utilize new information and skills and supporting higher-order thinking.
Always do something extraordinary with the media technology that the teacher or learners cannot otherwise easily do by themselves.
Model positive social behaviors when displaying actors and situations, and be culturally inclusive and free from stereotypes.
Display true and unbiased information, free from undue and inappropriate influence, and be transparent about the organizations involved in the production.
Be widely available to learners. Therefore, containing costs, maximizing efficiency, planning for flexible use, and providing appropriate guidance for implementation are important considerations.
Use dramatic visual and auditory elements to provide context and interest to grasp learner attention, but do not overwhelm the instructional elements and learning goals of the media.
Learners and teachers will adapt visual technology to meet their own needs, and instructional design must accommodate the reality of this bricolage, or “do-it-yourself,” approach to the use of media.
Recognize that learners are life-long consumers of media; therefore, instructional media should provide inherent opportunities to promote media literacy.

Methods

The Bricolage Theory follows a design process which is a variation of ASSURE: Analyze learners-State objectives-Select methods/content-Utilize methods/content with fidelity of implementation-Require learner participation-Evaluate and revise (Heinich, Molenda, Russell and Smaldino, 1999)—with the order of the steps revised a bit and with extra emphasis on utilization/implementation.

Analyze the need
The development of K–12 core curriculum materials is predetermined, in part, by state curriculum standards. Grade level, subject, and topics must be generated from curriculum standards in order to have broad appeal for classroom use. Methods for determining curriculum goals should include a review of curriculum standards beginning at the state level, and including consideration of widely accepted national standards. State curriculum standards are more likely to govern what content teachers elect to teach. The marketing and dissemination staff must be involved at the earliest stage of analysis.
Once broad curriculum goals are determined, designers should conduct detailed needs analysis activities to ensure that the chosen media is an appropriate tool for the learning outcomes desired, the target age group and the school setting. They should also be certain that existing materials available are not adequate; in other words, the use of instructional media is necessary. These activities could include:
- Internal discussions with project staff
- Surveys and interviews with teachers and school media buyers
- Literature review
- Marketing survey
All project stakeholders should be identified so that they can be consulted in later phases of development.

If it is determined that a defined need exists, an initial project prospectus in outline form should be prepared, formally or informally, indicating the results of the early analysis.
State and evaluate objectives and goals
The next step is to evaluate appropriateness of using rich media to respond to the need and to define the scope and objectives of the proposed project. Developers should evaluate their available competencies and assets, as well as challenges to determine if an appropriate project can be successfully launched and fully supported through utilization and implementation. They should seek partners, collaborators, and supporters to assist from the stakeholder list that was generated in the first step. From the early analysis, parameters should be set and conditions likely to encourage success identified.
At this time, an analysis of the project on paper should be conducted with input from stakeholders — and if the conditions for the project are not optimal, the project should be delayed or abandoned.

If the project is feasible and desirable, state the specific goals and objectives of the proposed media tool for instruction and:
1. Check in with stakeholders to be sure intervention is addressing the need.
2. Check to be certain intervention meets parameters and conditions to assure greatest potential for success.
3. Set roles for partners, collaborators, and supporters and engage them in the process.
Select methods/content
Plan to use media sparingly for the greatest impact on learning and performance at the least possible cost. Determine that the media’s use will be ultra-positive by providing a resource that will make learning more effective. Here are some specific uses and content ideas for visual technology that should be considered:
1. Create context for learning not otherwise easily achieved in the classroom; don’t just replicate activities that students and teachers could, and probably should, be doing on their own.
2. Begin with generalities and continue with specific examples.
3. Focus on dynamic visual presentations that are beyond what the teacher can achieve with other classroom tools using compelling graphics. For instance, use graphics that illustrate how a heart valve works or shows the relationship of each segment in the Golden Ratio.
4. Provide models so that learners can more easily visualize and practice problem solving on their own.
5. Make expert information available and understandable through carefully selected visual technology.
6. Present examples and non-examples.
7. Expand the walls of the classroom by taking learners to places they could not otherwise visit or experience such as inside a volcano, down a human digestive track, to the Vatican, or into space.
8. Model safe practices, fairness, and social inclusion keeping in mind that motion media uniquely address the opinions of learners and that subliminal messages may be the most powerful learning tool of all.
Evaluate and revise
The development of visual technology for instruction is expensive. In order to make visual technology widely available, developers must gain every possible efficiency. Efficiencies not only increase the amount of content that can be developed but also maintain control on the price of content that is marketed to consuming teachers and learners. Evaluation can be an expensive part of the project, especially if it is conducted too late for revisions to be easily made.

A pilot test using a prototype with the target audience should be conducted as soon as elements of the media are sufficiently developed for the test to be valid. If possible, paper-prototypes of content can be utilized to get feedback on the proposed content even before electronic resources are designed (Boling, Frick, 1997). A storyboard or script of a video segment can also be used to gather feedback from teachers and learners. A combination of one-to-one interviews with stakeholders, content in the context of a lesson with pre-tests and post-tests, as well as focus groups will yield corroborating data. Subsequent prototypes of the visual technology should be reviewed by some of the same people and some new people.

Revise the design as necessary and make every attempt to refer to the original analysis as well as the input of reviewers when determining the final development of the visual technology. Use a series of checkpoints throughout the project to be certain it does not inadvertently drift from the original concept that was conceived based upon the needs analysis. These checkpoints can be formal or informal, as long as they are scheduled at regular intervals throughout the project. Examples of checkpoints are:
- A staff review of the project through a scheduled meeting that asks the question, “Are we meeting the goals we set for this project?”
- Advisors’ review of scripts, prototypes, and rough cuts
- Use of informal communications (email, phone)
- Project leader compares the project to the original checklist of goals and content at regular intervals, making notes in a journal and following up with staff
- Staff members contribute to a file about revisions made in the course of development to be considered for inclusion in ancillary materials or implementation activities
Require and facilitate learner participation
Visual technology has been conceived in the past as a content delivery system that was, in effect, one-way: the learner received information that was prepared by the instructional designer and content producers.

The Bricolage Theory holds that teachers and learners may assemble their own path through the visual technology resources. It is incumbent upon the designer to consider ways to engage the learner in an active way by prompting reflection, assimilation, synthesis, or otherwise some activity that the learner must actively do with the content presented in the visual technology. Not only must this prompt be included at the end of a video, as was often done in the past, but prompts must be planned at every likely juncture between conceived learning objects.

Producers of visual technology now must assume that sections of their content may be used independent of the whole. Toward that end, issues of technique and style must not interfere with the use of segments. For instance, there must be clear breaks between learning objects. It is not recommended to use split audio/video in transitions between learning objects. Likewise, wipes and dissolves may hinder the independent use of the learning object to be used. Animations that include a still image that could be utilized independently should be designed so a freeze-frame can be accessed without on-screen text that is relevant only in the context of the animation sequence. Instructional designers and producers should consider these issues in developing visual technology.
Utilization and fidelity of implementation
The ultimate goal of visual technology is to improve instruction and learning. To reach this goal, instructional designers must communicate their intentions and provide resources that enhance the fidelity of implementation. Given that teachers and learners may not engage in the entire learning resource that an instructional designer plans, or that they may use sections out of the planned sequence, instructional material developers need to provide ancillary resources that anticipate this utilization strategy and provide resources that promote fidelity of implementation.

The issue of fidelity of implementation has been identified in the broader institutionalization of reform curricula. It defines the gap between what instructional designers conceive and how the materials that they create are actually used by teachers and learners. The Bricolage Theory holds that it is expected that teachers and learners will use materials to suit their needs. To embrace this approach, utilization materials should facilitate access to granular content within any visual technology project. Rather than propose a single utilization strategy for the media, ancillary materials should provide background information and support services for users such as:
- Online supplemental materials
- Implementation training for teachers
- Opportunities for users to interact and support each other through online communications

The marketing and dissemination activities for visual technology have often been separate from the design and development activities. Yet, these activities are keys to effective utilization and implementation. Therefore, marketing and dissemination activities must be inherent in the instructional design, and marketing staff must have active roles in the development of visual technology materials.

Here are some marketing and dissemination activities that will impact utilization:

Availability of correlations to state curriculum standards
Create descriptive metadata that help teachers make appropriate selections
Provide information about indexed segments of media that can be utilized as independent learning objects
Provide clear and complete information about resources online
Promote materials to appropriate audiences in appropriate venues
Limit marketing to specific target age groups
Promote utilization strategies in marketing materials
Set appropriate price for materials
Provide online utilization training resources
Promote efficiencies in marketing to contain costs
Support multiple platforms for distribution: DVD, online, networked-based media

In particular, the development of metadata (descriptions of materials, material segments, key words, correlations to state curriculum standards, links to print or online resources, available text scripts, etc.) in useable, transferable database formats will impact greatly the ability of a potential user to find appropriate materials. Likewise, visual technology must be available in an electronic format that is easily viewed, and upgraded over time to reflect the most recent technology. Design and development plans must incorporate plans to support ongoing dissemination for the useful life of the visual technology.

Conclusion

Bricolage Theory embraces the fact that learners and teachers often find imaginative ways to utilize visual technology not within the conceived and planned utility of the designers and developers. The fact that adaptation of material utilization frequently occurs should not be perceived as a problem, but rather facilitated within the design, development, and implementation of visual technology.

Designers, developers, and marketing staff need to work together from the very beginning of a project, and need to continue to work together throughout each phase of the project. Successful implementation is inexorably linked to dissemination and marketing, and plans for successful implementation and continuing support of the utilization of the project are just as important as the design and development of visual technology. Bricolage Theory provides a central role for the implementation staff in both marketing and utilization activities.

The evolving environment for accessing visual media portends that sections of media resources will be accessed in recombinant sequences as prepared by the instructor or at the immediate need of the learner. The confluence of delivery mechanisms (Internet, networked media, DVD) and the emergence of meLearning (Hodgins) are accelerating this evolution. By revising the instructional design approach to be mindful of these conditions, instructional designers can develop visual technology to effect the most positive impact on learning. Implementation and marketing staff must engage in the instructional design process at the earliest stages and provide mechanisms to facilitate access and encourage appropriate utilization for the useful life of the media.

Joann Flick is AIT’s Broadcast/Training Specialist. Contact her at jflick@ait.net.

References

Seels, B.A., & Richey, R.C. (1994). Instructional technology: the definitions and domains of the field. Washington D.C.: Association for Educational Communication & Technology.

Bergsma, L. (2002). Retrieved April 23, 2006 from: http://www.ciconline.com/NR/rdonlyres/eyzzm7vyl6ttcpnvw6brf6vxrerl5leinb5la6gn5blwgyhtdtdcqro3evghcqec2h4lqeftk4b3vhlufr6kxlhsiwb/CICML-Bergsma.pdf

Merrill, M.D. (2001). First principals of instruction. (Submitted for publication to Educational Technology Research and Development.)

Wiley, D. (2002). Instructional use of learning objects, The. Bloomington, IN: Association for Educational Communication & Technology/Agency for Instructional Technology.

Seely Brown, J. (1999). Learning, Working, and Playing in the Digital Age. Retrieved 040806 from: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/seelybrown/

Heinich, R., Molenda, M., Russell, J.D., and Smaldino, S.E. (1999). The ASSURE Model Instructional Media and Technologies for Learning. (6th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.

Boling, E. and Frick, T. (1997). Holistic rapid prototyping for Web design: Early usability testing is essential. In Khan, B. (Ed.), Web-based instruction. Educational Technology Publications.