Blog Reflection 1: Does or Will Media Effect Learning?

Are we asking the correct questions about the influence of media on learning?

Richard E. Clark ignited a firestorm of discussion and laid open may potential research venues when he broached the topic of learning and media in his 1983 position paper Reconsidering Research on Learning from Media. Since that first publication Clark and Robert D. Kozma have been at odds challenging and conceding unwillingly to various points of conflict. Underlying the discord are the very definitions of what defines media, learning success and what divisions can be made to eliminate confounds such as teaching method. In 1994 Clark and Kozma again took to battle with reformulated arguments in their articles Media Will Never Influence Learning and Will Media Influence Learning: Reframing the Debate.

Key to Clark’s argument is his assertion that the definition of instructional method must be autonomous from that of a medium or delivery technology and the confusion of technologies impedes proper research and evaluation. By contending, “when a study demonstrates that media attributes are sufficient to cause learning, the study has failed to control for instructional method and is therefore confounded” Clark ultimately opens even more confounds for exploration. In his attempts to oversimplify the influences of media on learning he ignores the fact that various tools are better suited for completing a task. The fact that a tool not be necessary for instruction or task completion should not translate and define the potential usefulness of the tool. Absent from the Clark discussion are not only the attributes specific to the selected media which lend it to a particular but also external circumstances which must be acknowledged in a thorough evaluation of media efficacy in learning outcomes. Borrowing from Clark and Kozma’s example of analogy use to demonstrate this point of interdependence I offer this example. To understand a forest we need not only to understand each of the individual species internal systems and individual worth but also understand the ecological or external attributes of each organism and how these affect interactions between species and the system as a whole.

In May 2005 Nancy Hastings and Monica Tracey published yet another summary/ rebuttal to the Clark-Kozma argument, Does Media Affect Learning: Where are we now? By immediately addressing Clark’s long standing determination that the only effect media has had on learning is “cost and distribution (of knowledge),” and not increase learning outcome they raise awareness about the direction of research inquiry to date. Clark’s arguments sit upon skill and drill outcomes instead of cognitive process, social value and accessibility to resources. Instead I suggest we begin to evaluate media not merely as tools for replication as a surrogate for “traditional” methods to present content but as channels for development of new instructional methodologies.

Perhaps the question we should ask is…which combination of instructional method and media integration best increases a student’s learning potential defined by successful acquisition and application of knowledge to novel situations?

Added 2/15 (realized upon review of comments my bilographic reference did not make the "cut and paste first time round)

Hastings, N. B., Tracey, M, W. (2005). Does Media Affect Learning: Where Are We Now? TechTrends, 49(2), 28-30. Retrieved February 15, 2006, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 841258651).