One of the most fascinating things to me lately is memory. Since I could remember, I have had such a vivid memory. No, I mean incredibly vivid.

I am that person who hears a song and can tell you the year it came out, how old I was, what I had on when I heard it, and any other major or minor events associated with it. In fact, my childhood friends used to be like, “Go ahead, Kellie. Tell us everything you remember about this song!” I was always happy to oblige, so I did.

I remember things so much that I get annoyed when other people don’t. Well, I used to get very annoyed but I have “grown out of that” now. It was really bad–the expectation I had for others to remember things. It got to the point where my closest cousin who was my faithful playmate growing up would pretend that she remembered anything that I brought up because she said, “If I don’t, you get so frustrated.” So, she would play along until I realized that was what she was doing.

So, as I began studying instructional design, it was so intriguing to learn how critical it is for those who design instructions to truly understand how memory works. It seems that as an educator, in the field since 2004, I would already have a good handle on this concept, but even as an early childhood teacher educator, it hardly ever comes up. In fact, I am teaching an infant and toddler development course right now where brain development and memory are covered in one chapter, but when it comes to the upper-level courses where lesson plans, curriculum development, exceptionalities, and even behavior are discussed, memory is never a part of the conversation.

So, I felt compelled to begin a new series, called Using Visuals to Enhance Learning, because if I am a teacher educator and this topic is not covered in my field, I am pretty certain that there are plenty of higher educators in other fields (unless of course, it is neuroscience or psychology, or the like) who have not been exposed to this information enough to apply it as they design instruction.

As a result, the instructional designer in me had to step forth and share while the educator in me had to break it down from the beginning and build up to the series moniker. So, in the first episode, I set the foundation by outlining the basics of our three memory stores–1)sensory memory, 2) working memory, and 3) long-term memory. I had so much fun creating this video and it is just for you.

I invite you to go on this journey of learning how to create more appealing, effective, and meaningful instruction for college students, particularly online, but honestly, on land and sea as well. 🙂 Watch the first installation of the series and share your thoughts here or over on YouTube. I look forward to “conversing” or even learning from you.