Lum quotes Strate’s definition that “[i]t is the study of media environments, the idea that technology and techniques, modes of information and codes of communication play a leading role in human affairs. (Lum, 2000, p. 1) Lum also defines media ecology as “the study of how change in the dominant form of communication media in society may facilitate large-scale cultural changes.” (Lum, 2000, p. 3) and as how “media affect our forms of social organization, our cognitive habits, and our political ideas” (Lum, 2000, p. 4). In our current political climate of fake news and echo chambers, it is all too chilling to consider the “role that the form and intrinsic biases of communication media play in shaping human communication and, on another level, in the construction, perpetuation, and transformation of reality.” (Lum, 2000, p. 1-2)
Image source: Unknown. (Oct 1, 2015). [flow chart][digital drawing]. Medium. https://miro.medium.com/max/700/1*X1TqjVKV9KZLBhgNHPZ3vQ.png
An educational media ecology would involve a deep examination of the technologies and techniques used in education as well as dominant modes of information and communication. An area to examine specifically is the mode of instruction delivered in a classroom. Historically teachers have taken the role of a “sage on the stage” who controls access to knowledge. Galameri (2019) quotes Neil Postman discussing the balance between conservation and innovation in society and education where,
“Conservation is here understood as a continuous rediscovery of one’s own roots and maintenance of values that often came at a high cost via those who preceded us, from antiquity to the present. Innovation is understood as the ability to experience the change necessary to make us protagonists of our time.” (p. 242) Postman is further quoted saying “[t]eaching is an eminently conservative activity of our culture”. (Galameri, 2019, p. 242)
I feel this is representative of a hierarchal structure in a learning environment that should transition to one of the teacher being a “guide on the side”. The instructor is there to facilitate the students’ discovery of concepts, providing the opportunity for innovation from the learner. This falls in line with Postman’s recommendation that the education system should rediscover its “authentic purpose: to bring people, feelings, and thoughts together.” (Gamaleri, 2019, p. 242) As the teacher is no longer the sole conduit of information, this gives the student ownership of their education as they must be an active participant in their own learning. This line of thought is mirrored by de Castell, Droumeva, & Jenson who state that education is “is an active, situated, knowledgeable, and skillfully productive one. Or it is no education at all.” (2014, p. 89)
Technology can help bring about a learner-first environment but it is important to recognize the disparity that can occur due to socio-economic, logistical, or cultural differences. It is also important that, in a haze of reformative furor, technology access does not replace an education. Strate and Lum state how “highlighting media and technological revolutions often goes hand in hand with a degree of overstatement and hyperbole and a tendency towards technological determinism.” (2000, p. 65)
Image source: AJC1. (April 3, 2013). The Flipped Classroom [digital drawing]. Wikimedia Commons. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/The_Flipped_Classroom.jpg
Sources cited:
de Castell, S., Droumeva, M. & Jenson, J. (2014). Building as interface: Sustainable educational ecologies. MedienPädagogik Vol. 24, Berlin, Germany. Or online at https://www.academia.edu/8301131/Building_as_Interface_Sustainable_Educational_Ecologies
Gianpiero Gamaleri (2019) Media ecology, Neil Postman’s legacy, Church, Communication and Culture, 4:2, 238-244, DOI: 10.1080/23753234.2019.1616585
Lum, C. M. K. (2000) Introduction: The intellectual roots of media ecology, New Jersey Journal of Communication, 8:1, 1-7, DOI: 1080/15456870009367375
Strate, L., & Lum, C. M. K. (2000). Lewis Mumford and the ecology of technics. New Jersey Journal of Communication: The Intellectual Roots of Media Ecology, 8(1), 56-78. doi:10.1080/15456870009367379