Below you can review my content proposal. To me creating this document was almost as stressful as writing my thesis so I welcome any and all critiques on the content as I know all you have great ideas and can think of areas I have missed that need to be addressed.
Content Proposal:
Countering the Developing Ergonomic Problems
Associated With Computer-Based Learning
Content Proposal
EDM-613 Media Asset Creation
Education Media Design & Technology MS Program
Full Sail University
Prepared by:
Donna Tracy
March 2, 2010
I. THESIS ABSTRACT
Today’s children spend exorbitantly more time using technology and working at a computer than any preceding generation. As the ratio of time on computers expands teaching techniques to prevent future repetitive stress injuries and other ergonomic-related issues becomes more and more important. Establishing an online education tool to help train young students in these prevention techniques and provide an online training aid for teachers to introduce ergonomic instruction early in a child’s technology experiences will help foster healthy ergonomic habits in school children and potentially reduce the development of injuries and pain in their later adolescent and adult lives.
II. Introduction
Problem Addressed
The problem addressed is the failure of children to develop healthy ergonomic computer habits that can help prevent future repetitive stress injuries and other related issues stemming from the extended time they spend on computers and other technologies.
Target Audience
The project is designed for six- to twelve-year-olds working on computers in their classrooms and on laptops in the home.
Sharing the project
The plan is to create the main segments of the project using MyUdutu.com and incorporating the various sections into a website. This site can then be accessed directly or through links on teacher, classroom, school, and other educational websites. Social networking tools such as Facebook can also be utilized as additional dissemination options to families with homeschooled children.
III. Goals and Objectives
Instructional Goal
The project will focus on healthy ergonomically-sound habits that will help reduce the potential for today’s children to develop repetitive stress injuries as adults. The activities in the project are intended to help students become more aware of the relationship of their bodies to their computer use and to train them in recognizing various ways of reducing stress on their bodies. In addition, the project will incorporate physical activities that will encourage the children to develop specific ergonomically beneficial habits that reinforce the application of the ergonomic knowledge they gain through using the media.
The need for this type of knowledge to be instilled at an early age becomes more essential daily. As technology – specifically desktop and laptop computers – become more and more a part of younger children’s educational activities the need for training in how to use the equipment ergonomically becomes more and more important. Statistics illustrate a trend for repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome to begin developing in younger adults at a higher rate today than a generation ago. As the use of computers in early education expands so does the potential for today’s children to develop such RSI issues as young adults. Establishing healthy ergonomic habits early in a child’s experiences with computers could help ameliorate their potential RSI risk. By using the media project and incorporating the knowledge and training it is hoped the ergonomically healthy habits can be incorporated into unconscious computer habits that will extend into the child’s later life.
Learning Domain
The instruction in this media project primarily falls into cognitive and somewhat into psychomotor. The cognitive skills relate to the recognition of the relationship between body stresses and computer use and the knowledge learnt regarding reducing such stresses. To some extent the project is also falls into the psychomotor domain. Though the children will not necessarily learn new physical skills, they will learn to be more cognizant of their body’s relationship to their computer equipment and how to use various exercises and techniques to reduce stresses on their bodies.
Learning Objectives
1. The student can recognize and correct body positions that are ergonomically detrimental.
2. The student can assess a workstation and manipulate it to be ergonomically sound for their individual needs.
3. The student understands ergonomically sound principles and applies them to their study and work habits.
4. The student uses work time effectively to incorporate ergonomic techniques into their productivity.
5. The student takes initiative in developing suitable physical activities that do not interfere with other students.
IV. Presentation
Instructional Approach
The majority of the media project will fall into the behaviorist learning theory and much of the project will be quite linear in its presentation. However, that said, some of the activities included will also require the student to develop their own techniques for solving the supplied problem and, as such, will incorporate some constructivist learning theory also. Research in the field of children’s ergonomics is still a rather small field. There are a few key authors whose work is repeated and quoted often in other papers and articles. The three main contributors to the research field seem to be Bennett, Dockrell and Straker with a few others that often publish with these individuals as well as on their own. Sadly, Bennett, who Legg acknowledges as a champion for children’s ergonomics and who founded the International Ergonomics Association Technical Committee on Ergonomics for Children in Education Environments, passed away in 2007. (Legg, 2007).
Lesson Structure
The content of the lesson would begin with a brief overview of ergonomics centering on what ergonomics means in relation to classroom and home computer use. Students will then have the opportunity to explore several activities that will develop the students’ knowledge and skills in recognizing and correcting ergonomically-detrimental elements of their own computer habits. These activities can be done individually or as a class. This format was chosen to offer a flexible content that can accommodate a single student working from home or an entire class but which also provides a grounding in the core concepts or ergonomics as it relates to computer usage.
V. Evaluation
Observing and evaluating changes in how students position themselves while working at their computers will provide visual feedback on their absorption and internalization of the core concepts being taught through the media. As students begin to manipulate their workspaces to fit themselves their knowledge of the material becomes evident. Unfortunately, it will take a generational study following the students and evaluations of their computer use with the ergonomically recommended parameters in comparison to students without ergonomic instruction before knowing if the instruction is successful in reducing the potential for students to develop ergonomic related disorders.
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VI. References
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