Clark and Kozma’s Debate – Instruction vs Media

The articles by Robert Kozma (Will Media Influence Learning: Refraining the Debate) and Richard Clark (Media Will Never Influence Learning) illustrate the debate among academics in educational technology on the importance of media vs. the importance of the underlying instructional method.

It is Kozma’s belief that the media by which instruction is presented can influence learning.

Clark on the other hand argues very persuasively that it is not the medium but the underlying instructional methods that shape the learning process and that similar learning outcomes can be achieved through the use of difference media; learning is not exclusive to one type of media presentation.

I find myself agreeing with both of them although I find Kozma’s defense of the importance of media in instruction to be weak.

To conclude, Clark puts forth a valuable point in that the design of instruction and its relationship to solid pedagogy and epistemological theory is very important in defining learning, however, to state that media has no influence over learning reduces the overall debate to a black and white argument. If learning is in fact multi-modal it goes to follow that certain types of media would be better suited for learning in different contexts with different learners (Lexmilton, 2007).

ICT Vision for State Schools

I have had a couple of exciting meetings this week (30 October 2007) with IT consultants from the Department of Education regarding the vision for ICT and it’s integration into the state schools. This is supposedly what’s happening and where it’s all heading.

* Depending on the technical ability and the technical enthusiasm shown from schools, every classroom will be provided with an interactive whiteboard (IWB) and video conferencing units (VC units) within the next 6 – 8 months (sometime in 2008).

* The current student email portal will change to make it more student focused and student friendly. It will be more simple than what it currently is. It will reflect the social aspect of current popular webmail providers, similar to a Hotmail setup, allowing real time chat etc. It will replicate what is currently happening in the real world.

* Connected Classrooms are going to increase every child’s current 2MB storage to 10MB with a student ‘Backpack’ storage allocation. This will allow students and teachers to access their 'space' anywhere.

* The Department is going to set up a similar program to YouTube. It will most probably be known as DetTube, where students can upload school (educational) based images and video. You will only be able to upload using your DET password and login to reduce instances of cyber bullying and the uploading of inappropriate images.

* Students around the state will be surveyed to find out what they like in ICT to help guide the Department in establishing what learning tools to implement into the school e.g., wikis, chat, social pages (web 2 tools). These tools will be made available to students and be driven by the students (user).

* The current staff portal has an ‘In Principal’ page which will be updated regularly with new software, learning tools, lessons and ideas to keep teachers informed of what’s happening. One idea is for schools to have several ICT Coordinators (1 per 5 staff) to share the responsibilty of keeping updated on changes and then in-service other staff members.

* The staff portal will have online Microsoft courses for the training and development of teachers.

It was also mentioned numerous times that every school will need to begin educating students and staff on the Acceptable User Policy (AUP) for mobile phone use, as mobile phones are being seen as a major learning tool that will most likely be used by every student in the classroom by 2010 (within 3 years).

Repositories and Independent Learners

Digital repositories: “digital content, assets, are stored can be researched and retrieved for later use….they may include journal articles, e-learning objects and teaching materials.” (JISC, 2005)

Digital repositories can be explored in further detail by following this link:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/HE_repositories_briefing_paper_2005.pdf

Something which I took from John’s presentation is how essential it is to allow the learner to take control of their own learning. It is important to understand that a teacher’s presence in the facilitation of a learning sequence is depending on the age and independence of the learner. It can be seen from our online course with Moodle, that as adults, we are taking control of our learning strategies by selecting the resources (repositories) then making decisions and asking questions based on the information provided.

F2F Instruction vs Online Learning

In the article The Imponderable Bloom, Sanders notes:

" ... my students are apprehensive of technologically mediated interaction, arguing that communication and collaboration in an online learning environment is simply not the same as in a F2F environment. While they do not necessarily expect the experience to be the same, they are frustrated by the disconnect they sense between themselves and the other students. My students realize that what they see and hear in an online world is something like a real classroom, but it is not the same as a physical classroom space. Virtually being there is not the same as physically being there. As a result, these students sense a void in what could otherwise be a rich learning environment."

Sanders address’s many of the issues that we as educators should always be questioning. Is the latest new gizmo the best? How can technology promote or enhance the goals of my class? It is and can be a great teaching and learning tool, but as Sanders points out it must have a purpose higher than just because it's available.

The paper is also a good summary of what we have recently been discussing. The notion that just because a technology is new, bright and incorporates all the ‘bells and whistles’’ then it must be of benefit to the student and the learning task, is now being seen as a tool which may in fact only inhibit the learning experience.

Sanders shares the idea that studying online / off campus means that students miss the subtle F2F (face to face) human interactions which are more natural and conducive to different understandings. Software designers and educators ‘need to continue to design and build tools that make online learning more like F2F physical realities’ (p.9).

The article by Sanders points out the importance of educators establishing the learning experiences and objectives first hand and then deciding on what technologies will best support the objectives.

As educators we need to stop, reflect and assess and decide whether a particular learning tool (F2F instruction or learning technologies) is aiding the students understanding of a topic or having a negative effect.

Globalization and the Age of Multiliteracies

Due to globalization and the diversity of communication technologies we need to rethink the way we currently teach literacy. We need to look closely at an evolving era of multimodality in which multiple modes of meaning can now be expressed and obtained through mass media, multimedia and in electronic hypermedia.

This evolution of Multiliteracies requires new decoding skills from our students to enable them to navigate and decode a variety of media. For example, a simple task of reading and interpreting information from a web page can require complex literacies and numeracies.

The New London group discusses the idea of Design, where teachers are the designers of learning processes and they should engage students by tapping into the student’s own experiences. Children of the electronic generation need to be taught to “think, assess, react, decide and act” (Spender 1995 – Prestige pg 8), when learning and interacting with information.

How do we put these ideas into practice when the schools’ current curriculum is already overcrowded? How can we incorporate new technologies into the traditional methods of teaching? What professional development can we allocate to teachers on Multiliteracies when their students are more multi-literate than they are?

New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92.

The hype on e-learning in education. Was it all smoke and mirrors?

“Why Did the Boom Go Bust?”

E-learning failed to deliver on its earlier promises as there was very little research done into how best to use the new technologies. “E-learning took off before people really knew how to use it.” (Zemsky & Massy, 2004 p.3). After the smoke had settled from the hype about the benefits of information technology in education, research showed that it had not raised academic achievement as first claimed.

Previously, we were over zealous with the rush to get new technologies into the classroom and according to Carol Twig (as cited in Zemsky, R., & Massey, W.F. 2003) we adopted the “hope for the best strategy”.

According to Cuban “after and steady and perhaps excessive promotion of technology, computer use in the classroom was uneven and intermittent…access to machines was maximal, change was minimal.” (Cuban, L 2001)

Some recent studies have shown a number of reasons why e-learning technologies were not maximised in education:

1. Most educators are still teaching the way they were taught (Zemsky & Massy).
2. Educators and students are not ‘digitally literate’.
3. Very little research from e-learning designers was done into what students and educational facilities expect from e-learning software and technologies.

Cuban’s critical examination of how computers are currently being used is very relevant and valid. Even at my school, we are continually changing the way our students use ICT. Activities we once thought were beneficial are now seen as having very little educational value.

* Cuban, L. ( 2001). Oversold and underused: Computers in the classroom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

* Zemsky, R., & Massey, W.F. (2004). Why the e-learning boom went bust. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 50, B6.

Technologies in the 1960's

Date	Technology	Educational Use	Research Question
1808: (Just for fun!)	Pellegrino Turri builds the first typewriter. xavier.xu.edu:8000/~polt/tw-history.html	It was built for his blind friend, Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzono, to help her write legibly.	What impact has technologies for the blind had on technologies in education?
1960:	First video game is invented, ‘Space War’. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~chip/projects /timeline/1960machalek.html	The literacy of electronic gaming, paved the way for many other inventions.	How has gaming changed over the years? Why is gaming so popular? What are the negative and positive influences that gaming has on individuals and society?
1962:	The PLATO instructional computing system is widely used in colleges and k-12 schools. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~chip/ projects/timeline/1962fahey.html	Computerized teaching system used in classroom instruction.	This system and company have with-stood the test of time. Plato.com uses the term ‘instructional tools’ for teachers. What educational theories on how students learn do PLATO learning base its software and instructional tools on?
1966:	The Educational Resource Information Centre (ERIC) established. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~chip /projects/timeline/1966punch.html#Past	Is a national information system supported by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Library of Education designed to provide users with ready access to an extensive body of education related literature?	How do we teach our students to critically analyze the information they obtain from the internet to determine its accuracy and authenticity?
1967:	Texas Instruments invents first hand held calculator. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~chip /projects/timeline/1967henke.html	To perform four basic arithmetic functions	What electronic tools with educational value are available for students in the classroom today?