Media or technology?
·
Technology: I tend to think of technology in
education as things or tools used to support teaching and learning. Thus
computers, software programs such as a learning management system, or a
transmission or communications network, are all technologies. A printed book is
a technology. Technology often includes a combination of tools with particular
technical links that enable them to work as a technology system, such as the
telephone network or the Internet.
Media: Media (plural of medium) is another word
that has many definitions and I will argue that it has two distinct meanings
relevant for teaching and learning, both of which are different from
definitions of technology.
Thinking about the pedagogical
differences of media
· Text: The unique pedagogical features of text Ever since the invention of the Gutenberg press, print has been a dominant teaching technology, arguably at least as influential as the spoken word of the teacher. Even today, textbooks, mainly in printed format, but increasingly also in digital format, still play a major role in formal education, training and distance education. Many fully online courses still make extensive use of text-based learning management systems and online asynchronous discussion forums.
· Audio: We have seen that oral communication has a long history, and continues today in classroom teaching and in general radio programming. In this section though I am focusing primarily on recorded audio, which I will argue is a very powerful educational medium when used well.
· Video: Video is a much richer medium than either text or audio, as in addition to its ability to offer text and sound, it can also offer dynamic or moving pictures. Thus while it can offer all the affordances of audio, and some of text, it also has unique pedagogical characteristics of its own.
· Computing: Computing is still an area that is fast developing, with new products and services emerging all the time. Indeed, I will treat recent developments in social media separately from computing, although technically they are a sub-category. Once again, though, social media contain affordances that are not so prevalent in more conventional computing-based learning environments.
·
Social media: Although social media are mainly
Internet-based and hence a sub-category of computing, there are enough
significant differences between educational social media use and computer-based
learning or online collaborative learning to justify treating social media as a
separate medium, although of course they are dependent and often fully
integrated with other forms of computing.