I learned about two new things from the wiki task: wiki server program and Marshal Mcluhan’s insights.
I. wiki server program
A wiki allows a visitor to logon to the "wikified" website to edit the content of a site from their own computer. Visitors can also create new content and also change the organization of existing content. Basically, a wiki website operates on a principle of collaborative trust (Jennings, 2006). If someone doesn’t want his/her writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, they won't submit it on wiki. Instead people can turn to blogs for publishing their ideas and opinions on the Internet. As a collaborative online learning and communication platform, wiki empowers peers to monitor and review the progress and development of the task. Although some people are worrying about the absence of academic authority and the quality of writing produced by the visitor editing method, the group authoring process, in order to resolve controversies, can reduce individual bias to real factual resource. Nevertheless the group authoring process still will leave plenty of scope for personal commentary. Overall the wiki task will be a good tool for learning and thinking.
When our team worked on the wiki task, we worked on figuring out how to use the wiki service and how we should cooperate to complete the four McLuhan’s Tetrad questions. We cared more about what was written on our wiki but had too little time for communication. As a result, we didn’t have enough time to contribute something from each other’s field of specialty to extend the breadth and depth of the subjects on the wiki site.
II. Marshal Mcluhan’s insights
Some of McLuhan’s ideas provided with me an opportunity to understand the concepts about technology and education. The most famous of McLuhan's statements was “the medium is the message”. It is also one of his best-known and least-understood insights. It means that the mere use of a medium has a greater impact on society than does any particular way in which that medium is used (Levinson, 1999). Then, is the content unimportant? From McLuhan’s points, there is no medium without content. Could you imagine a television without programs? If it is without programs, then television loses its medium role already. McLuhan's "tetrad" -- or "four laws of media" -- might help give us a better view of the road we've traveled, and where we're going (Levinson, 1999). The four questions can help us measure any medium and its impact on education.
From the horizon report (2006), we got to know emerging technologies and what will likely have an impact on teaching or learning. The technologies which will be employed in future learning environments could eventually change teaching contents, methods and techniques within the learning process. For instance, context-aware technology will retrieve collaborative work among people in shared physical locations, and it will bring about the possibility of gathering children from different grades in one room directed by one teacher in one specific location (Adams, 2006). This technology will resolve the problems such as the high demand for more teachers and more schools.
[ Reference ]
Adams, C. (2006). Context-Aware Environments and Devices. Available: URL http://lstpresentation.jot.com/TetradQuestions
Jennings, E. (2006). Web Services Definitions – wiki. Available: URL
http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci943070,00.html
Levinson, P. (1999). Millennial McLuhan: Clues for Deciphering the Digital Age. The Chronicle Review. Available: URL http://chronicle.com/weekly/v46/i08/08b01001.htm
The Horizon Report (2006). The New Media Consortium & EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Learning with Media
To understand the relationship between media and learning, it’s better to take a few steps backward, and arrive at a definition of them. From there we can ascertain where we are going in respect to media usage in learning and cognition. Media used in learning environments include books, television, computers, or multimedia settings. These media are distinguished by cognitively relevant characteristics of their technologies, symbol systems, and processing capabilities (Kozma, 1991). When learning, people use physical, mental, and social experiences to construct personal conceptions (schemes) of the world (Snowman & Biehler, 2006).
Does the incorporation of media have any effect on learning? Clark believes that the media should be separate from method because method is the “active ingredient” or active independent variable that may or may not be delivered by the medium to influence learning. However, Kozma thinks medium and method could have a more integral relationship. In good instructional designs, a medium’s capabilities enable methods, and the methods that are used take advantage of these capabilities (Kozma, 1994).
I would not agree with Clark that technology in instruction is simply and only a means of delivering instruction, and I believe separating media from method within the learning environment is a misleading argument at best. Medium is a technology comprised of matter, and ideas lie behind the matter. So how different media are employed, and what instructional method is applied will all influence the learning outcome. The two experiments Kozma analyzed in his article demonstrate how learning is supported by the methods employed within the specific media. Therefore, from Kozma’s point, research should be focused on ways we can use the capabilities of media to influence learning for particular students, tasks, and situations (Kozma, 1994).
Technology can have a positive effect on education. The instructional design task is to figure out what makes it useful in what situations in order to control their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.
[ Reference ]
Clark, R.E., (1994). Media will never influence learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2), 21-29.
Kozma, R. B., (1991). Learning with media. Review of Educational Research, 61(2), 179-211.
Kozma, R.B., (1994). Will media influence learning? reframing the debate. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2), 7-19.
Snowman, J., & Biehler, R., (2006). Psychology applied to teaching (11th ed. ). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Does the incorporation of media have any effect on learning? Clark believes that the media should be separate from method because method is the “active ingredient” or active independent variable that may or may not be delivered by the medium to influence learning. However, Kozma thinks medium and method could have a more integral relationship. In good instructional designs, a medium’s capabilities enable methods, and the methods that are used take advantage of these capabilities (Kozma, 1994).
I would not agree with Clark that technology in instruction is simply and only a means of delivering instruction, and I believe separating media from method within the learning environment is a misleading argument at best. Medium is a technology comprised of matter, and ideas lie behind the matter. So how different media are employed, and what instructional method is applied will all influence the learning outcome. The two experiments Kozma analyzed in his article demonstrate how learning is supported by the methods employed within the specific media. Therefore, from Kozma’s point, research should be focused on ways we can use the capabilities of media to influence learning for particular students, tasks, and situations (Kozma, 1994).
Technology can have a positive effect on education. The instructional design task is to figure out what makes it useful in what situations in order to control their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.
[ Reference ]
Clark, R.E., (1994). Media will never influence learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2), 21-29.
Kozma, R. B., (1991). Learning with media. Review of Educational Research, 61(2), 179-211.
Kozma, R.B., (1994). Will media influence learning? reframing the debate. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2), 7-19.
Snowman, J., & Biehler, R., (2006). Psychology applied to teaching (11th ed. ). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
History of Technology's Use in Education
Educational technology brings instructors more ways to share and communicate with learners. The motion picture projector, or instructional films, and the advent of media incorporating sound, helped strengthen the communication between learners and instructors. Since the computer and internet affect most educators’ lives, it is possible to increase interactive capabilities among learners, instructional contents and instructors (Reiser, 2001). Moreover, with the exploration of virtual reality as a learning medium, the learning process will be a combination of immersion, telepresence, immediate visual feedback, and interactivity (Roussos, Johnson, Moher, Leigh, Vasilakis, & Barnes, 1999).
Although technologies may have an impact on instructional practices in schools, people’s acceptance of these technologies is still the most critical element in learning environments. If technology cannot provide an ideal environment for learners and instructors, people will stay conservative and will not use the technology. As Reiser (2001) points out, if teachers resist using television in their classrooms, instructional television will have minimal impact on educational practices. Similarly, teachers reported that computers were being primarily used for drills and practice in public schools (Reiser, 2001); in most cases, the use of computers was far from innovative. In my point of view, there will be a lot of work in the instructional technology field, seeking new applicable technologies, or reorganizing the implementations already in this field.
[ Reference ]
Lewis, L., Snow, K., Farris, E., Levin, D., & Greene, B., (1999). Distance education at postsecondary institutions: 1997-98 (NCES 2000-013). Washington, DC: National Academy of Science – National Research Council.
Reiser, R.A. (2001). A history of instructional design and technology: Part 1: A history of instructional media. Educational technology research and development, 49(1), 53-65.
Roussos, M., Johnson, A., Moher, T., Leigh, J., Vasilakis, C., Barnes, C., (1999). Learning and building together in an Immersive Virtual World. Presence, 8(3), 247-263.
Although technologies may have an impact on instructional practices in schools, people’s acceptance of these technologies is still the most critical element in learning environments. If technology cannot provide an ideal environment for learners and instructors, people will stay conservative and will not use the technology. As Reiser (2001) points out, if teachers resist using television in their classrooms, instructional television will have minimal impact on educational practices. Similarly, teachers reported that computers were being primarily used for drills and practice in public schools (Reiser, 2001); in most cases, the use of computers was far from innovative. In my point of view, there will be a lot of work in the instructional technology field, seeking new applicable technologies, or reorganizing the implementations already in this field.
[ Reference ]
Lewis, L., Snow, K., Farris, E., Levin, D., & Greene, B., (1999). Distance education at postsecondary institutions: 1997-98 (NCES 2000-013). Washington, DC: National Academy of Science – National Research Council.
Reiser, R.A. (2001). A history of instructional design and technology: Part 1: A history of instructional media. Educational technology research and development, 49(1), 53-65.
Roussos, M., Johnson, A., Moher, T., Leigh, J., Vasilakis, C., Barnes, C., (1999). Learning and building together in an Immersive Virtual World. Presence, 8(3), 247-263.
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