ETEC 511: ePortfolio

The debate over how or if media affects the way we learn has been a long standing topic of discussion as Clark unfolds 70 years of research that supports his belief. To address the debate first, I will say, as naive as it sounds, things are just different now with the affordances of the web. Koizma hints at this back in 1994 when he speaks of
how the future digital media “presents the prospect of interactive video integrated with access to large multimedia data bases distributed among people in offices, classrooms, and living rooms around the world.” The YouTube founders must have been listening because that is exactly what happened and the significance of the volume and access to information available free to students has changed this discussion. I’m not sure how Clark would position the importance of instructional methods over media for mature learners in an age where they can immediately access a network of experts, up to the second content, and public discussion on everything – without the existence of instructional methods or even an instructor!

Having said this, I am not sure it really matters if media affects learning or not for the reason that we now live in a culture with media embedded everywhere. Media channels our flow of entertainment, politics, commerce, and social movements. It is not something educators can stop from entering the doors of their school (although I think some try!); students simply expect to learn with it. Kozma’s final remarks really resonated with me when he asserts that we need to move from “Do media influence learning?” to “In what ways can we use the capabilities of media to influence learning…” (1994).

Kozma, R. B. (1994). Will media influence learning? Reframing the debate. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2), 7-19

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