Instructional Media And Technologies for Learning

Media, Technology, and Learning
Throughout history, media and technology have influenced education. Most recently, for example, the computer and the Internet have invaded instructional setting. Such tools offer powerful possibilities for improving learning. The teacher, however, makes the difference in the intergration of media and technology into this process.
The roles of instructor and learner are clearly changing because of the influence media and technology in the classroom. No longer are teachers and textbooks the source of all knowledge. The teacher becomes the director of the knowledge. The teacher becomes the director of the knowledge-access process. Along the continuum of instructional strategies, sometimes the teacher will elect to provide direct instructional experiences for students. At other times, with a few keystrokes students can explore the world, gaining access to libraries, other teachers and students, and a host of resources to obtain the knowledge they seek.
It is essential that, as the guide for learning, the teacher examine media and technology in the context of learning and its potential impact on the outcome for student. This chapter concern the nature of learning, the way the role and responsibility of the teacher change with the approach to instruction used, and tthe importance of media and technology within that process.
1. LEARNING
Learning us the development of new knowledge, skills, or attitudes as an individual interacts with information and the environment. The learning environment includes the physical facilities, the psychological atmosphere, instructional methods, media, and technology. Learning takes place all the time. We learn things by walking down the street, watching TV, surfing the Net, conversing with other people, or just by observing what goes on around us. This type of incidental learning is not our major interest as education professionals. Rather, we are concerned primarily with the learning that takes place in response to our instructional efforts. How we design and arrange instruction has a great deal to do not only with what is learned but also with how learners use what they learn.
Psychological Perspectives on Learning
How instructions view the role of media and technology in the classroom depens very much on their beliefs about how people learn. Over the past century there have been several dominant theories of learning.
Behaviorist Perspective. In the mid 1950n, the focus of lerning research started to shift from stimulus design (communication) to learner response to stimuli.
Cognitivist Perspective. Behaviorists refuse to speculate on what goes on internlly when lerning takes place.
A close look at the work of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget illustrates how a cognitive psychologist views the mental processes individuals use in responding to their environment. The three key concepts of mental depelopment in Piaget’s work are schemata, assimilation, and accommodation (Piaget, 1977).
Constructivist Perspective. Constructivism is amovement that extends beyond the beliefs of the cognitivist. It considers the engagement of students in meningful experiences as the essence of learning.
Social-Psychological Perspective. Social psychology is another well-established tradition in the study of instruction and learning.
Approaches to Instruction. Instruction is the arrangement of information and environment to facilitate. By environment we mean not only where instruction takes place but also the methods, media, and technology needed to convey in formation and guide the learners study.
A Philosophical Perspective on Learning. More than a few observers have argued that the wide spread use of istructional hardware in the classroom leads to treating students as if they were machines rather than human beings that is that technology dehumamizes the teaching/learning process.
2. MEDIA
A medium (plural, media) is a channel of communication. Derived from the Latin from the Latin word meaning “between” the term refrs to anything that carries information between a source an a receiver. Examples include video, television, diagrams, orinted materials, computers, and instruction.
The Roles Of Media In Learning
Media can serve many roles in learning. The instruction may be dependent on the presence of a teacher (i.e., instructor directed). Even in this situation, media may be heavily used by the teacher. On the other hand, the instruction may notrequire a teacher.
-          Instruction-Directed Instruction : the most common use of media in an instructional situation is for supplemental support of the “live” instructor in the classroom. Certainly, properly designed instructional media can enhance and promote learning and support teacher-based instruction. But their effectiveness depends on the instructor.
-          Instructor-Independent Instruction : media can also be used effectively in formal education situations where a teacher is not available or is working with other students.
-          Media Protfolio : A protfolio is a collection of students work that illustrates growth over a period of time. Portfolios often include such artifacts as students-produced illustrated books, videos, and audiovisual presentations.
-          Thematic Illustrasion : Many teacher are now organizing their instruction around themes or anchors. Elementary teachers in particular are intergrating content and skills from many subjects. At the secondary level, teams of teachers from different content reas are working together to show the overlap of their course content.
-          Distance Education : Distance education is a rapidly developing approach to instruction worldwide. The approaches has been widely used by business, industrial, and medical organizations.
-          Education for Exceptional Students : Media play an importance role in the education of students with exceptionalities. Adapted and specially designed media can contribute enormously to effective instruction of all students and can help them achieve at their highest potential regardless of their innate biities.
3.   METHODS
Traditionaly, instructional methods have been describe as “presentation forms” such as lectures and discussions. In this text, we will differentiate between instructional methods and instructional media. Methods are the procedures of instruction selected to help learners achieve the objectives or to internalize the content or message. Media then, as already defined, are carriers of information between a source and a receiver.


Ten Method Categories
            The general categoies of methods are presentation, demonstration, discussion, drill-and-practice, tutorial, cooperative learning, gaming, simulation, discovery, and problem solving. Virtually any of the media described throughout this book can be used to implement of these methods.
-          Presentation. In a presentation method, a source tells, dramatizes, orotherwise disseminates in information to learners.
-          Demonstration. In this methd of instruction, learners view a real or lifelike example of the skill or procedure to be learned (Figure 1.12).
-          Discussion. As a method, discussion involves the exchange of ideas and opinions among students and teacher.
-          Drill-and-Practice. In drill-and-practice learners are led through a series of practice exercises designed to increase fluency in a new skill or to refresh an existing one.
-          Tutorial. Tutoring is most often done one on one and is frequently used to teach basic skill, such as reading and arithmatic.
-          Cooperative Learning. A growing body of research supports the claim that students learn from each other when they work on projects as a team (Slavin, 1989-1990).
-          Gaming. Gaming provides a playful environment in which learners follow prescribed rules as they strive to attain a challenging goal.
-          Simulation. Simulation involves learners confronting a scaled-down version of a real-life situation.
-          Problem Solving. Lifelike problem can provide the starting point for learning.

 4.  TECHNOLOGY
The word technology has always had a variety of connotations, ranging from mere hardware to a way of solving problem. The latter is exemplified in the often quoted definition given by econimist Jhon Kenneth Galbraith: “The systematic application of scientific or other organized knowledge to practical task” (Galbraith, 1967, p. 12)