Technology and the Future of LearningIII

7/27/2019 Technology and the Future of LearningIII

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THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL

Technology in Education.

Media, Social Factors and the Future of Learning.

Being a Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of

the requirements for the Degree of M.A.

in the University of Hull

by

Slrn Bjrg Kristinsdttir

July 2000

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Contents

Introduction 1

1. An Overview of Educational Theories 3

a) General Principles of Educational Technology 3

b) Behavioral Theories. Passive models of Learning 4

c) Constructivism. Active models of learning 6

i. Jean Piaget (1896 1980) 7

ii. Lev Vygotsky (1896 1934) 9

2. Instructional Media 13

a) Interaction of Media and Cognition 13

b) Developments of the Tools of Instructions 16

c) Media and Instruction 18

d) Distance Learning 21

3. Mass media 25

a) Features of Media 27

b) Newspapers 27

c) Films 28

d) Radio and Television, the Broadcast Media 29e) Recorded Music 30

f) The Internet 32

4. Social Factors of Learning 34

a) Visualization, Media and Perception 34

b) Television 35

c) Audiences 39

d) Control 40

e) Social Aspects of Learning 40

5. Future 45

a) Future Role of Education 45

b) Teachers Role 45

c) Lifelong Education and Cultivation of Knowledge 48

d) Computer Technology and Future Perspective 52

6. Summary and Conclusions 56

7. References 61

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Introduction

Who has not heard the assumption that technology is creating a revolution in

education? In order to develop a view on this matter it is helpful to consider how

technology has affected our society in resent years. In barely 20 years, electronic

technology has dramatically penetrated into every area of society, and every aspect of

our social and cultural lives. Television was the initiator. Broadcast images

inaugurated a new, immediate, and powerful way of experiencing ideas and events.

Television rediscovered and recast the world as a direct experience and made it

possible for events a world away to appear in the sitting room of the receivers.

Computers made vast amounts of information, from airline reservations to the

contents of encyclopaedias, instantly available and modifiable with a keystroke.

Writing has become a matter of screens and printers and text is permanently flexible,

always ready to be immediately changed.

These technological changes have affected very much the way children today

comprehend their environment compared with children 20 years ago. Today children

grow up with remote controls and spend more time watching television and videosthan reading. Toys are now filled with buttons and blinking lights, interacting with

them, talking and listening to them the way the stuffed animals and hobbyhorses of

the past did not. Computer-based information kiosks have become a common feature

of shopping centres, museums and other public places. Children today are brought up

with instant access to knowledge, a world where vivid images embody and

supplement information formerly presented solely through text. They are used to an

environment where they control information flow and access, whether through a video

game controller, remote control, mouse, or touch-tone phone.

Although the schools are embedded in our culture and reflect its values, the

technological changes that have swept through society at large have left the

educational system largely unchanged. In the past two or three decades the gap

between the process of teaching and learning and how children obtain information in

society has widened substantially. Curriculum and teaching methods are often very

much the same as 100 years ago. In the classroom, knowledge is presented in a

linear, didactic manner that differs in many ways from childrens experience outside

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the school. In contrast with the vivid images and self-directed flow of the interactive

home and society, schools tend to be rigid and conservative.

This breach between schools and society may well be a product of the structure and

practices of our educational system. Many methods of didactic education assume aseparation between knowing and doing, treating knowledge as an integral, self-

sufficient substance, theoretically independent of the situations in which it is learned

and used. Recent investigations of learning, however, challenge this separating of

what is learned from how it is learned and used (Brown et al., 1989).

Activity, in which knowledge is developed and deployed, is not separable from or

supplementary to learning and cognition. Nor is it neutral. Rather it is an integral

part of what is learned. Situations are said to co-produce knowledge through activity.

Learning and cognition are fundamentally situated. Given the environment that

children in Western society are brought up in today it is interesting to look at the

factors in our society that are the most influential in shaping us/our children ideas

and nature. What kind of theories do the schools use? How is learning and teaching

conducted? How influential are the mass media? Will the revolution in technology

and telecommunication change the way in which learning and teaching will be

directed?

As an attempt to answer these questions I will start with an overview of the principles

of the behavioural theories and then take a more thorough look into cognitive theories,

the work of J. Piaget and the socio-cultural theories of Vygotsky. The cognitive

theories provide the rationale for the approach taken in this dissertation and the

analysis of media driven culture today.

The consideration of the media will be the next task followed by a chapter of social

facts of learning concluding with future perspectives in learning and education.

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1. An overview of Educational Theories

a) General Principles of Educational Technology

The philosophical or theoretical view that is most often shared by the scientists of a

given period is referred to as its Zeitgeist a German word meaning the spirit of the

times. In the early days of a science, the zeitgeist can change dramatically from one

time to the next. Major change in thinking concerning one of the most basic issues of

human development had already appeared several times in the centuries before the

science of developmental psychology emerged in the mid 1800s.

In the mid 19th

century Charles Darwin, the British biologist, presented his theory of

evolution. With his theory he offered the likelihood that many human behaviours had

their source in the past and as the 20th

century dawned, the theories of biological

definitions of development swung back to the environmental site or objectivism

(Vasta, et al., 1995). The philosophy of objectivism is that the world is completely

and correctly structured in terms of entities, properties and relations. Experience

plays no role in structuring the world and meaning is something that exists

independently from experience. Therefore, the goal of understanding is to know the

entities, attributes and relations that exist. The objectivist view acknowledges that

people have different understandings based on differing experiences. Because ofprior experience it is unlikely that two people have identical understanding.

Nevertheless, the impact of prior experience and human interpretation is seen as

leading to partial understandings and biased understandings. An objectivist view of

instructions will call for an active learner, but the purpose of that activity is to cause

the student to pay closer attention to the stimulus events, to practise and demonstrate

mastery of knowledge (Duffy and Jonassen, 1991). In the light of this environmental

understanding a new approach objectivism or behaviourism was recognised. From the

behavioural point of view, learning is viewed as the ability to perform new behaviour,which is defined in terms of goals by the researcher or in applied situations, the

teacher. There is an effort made to create conditions that will enable the learner to

demonstrate these behaviours and continue to perform them over a period of time.

One creates these changes in behaviour by manipulating the environmental

conditions. Attention is given to these environmental changes both before and after a

response from the learner.

The principles of programmed learning based on the behavioural approach, require

active responses of the learner but these responses apply only to the specific model of

the program, and do not take into account the construction of knowledge and the

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situation of learning therefore the learner is seen as an passive receiver of instruction

(Duffy and Jonassen, 1991).

During the 1960s, discontent with the inadequacies of behaviourism another school of

thought was developing involving cognitive aspects leading to the constructivist

approach. Constructivism provides a different approach to the objectivist tradition.

They agree that there is a real world that is experienced, but the learner imposes

meaning on the world. There are many ways to structure the world and there are

many meanings or perspectives for any event or concept. Consequently, there is no

correct meaning of the world (Duffy and Jonassen, 1991). Meaning is seen as rooted

in and manifested by experience. Each experience with an idea and in the

environment of which that idea is a part of will be the meaning of that idea. That

experience must be examined to understand if learning has taken place. The cognitive

approach sees the learner as an active learner constructing knowledge in different

situations as well as receiving information on a given subject (Clark and Sugrue,

1995). The socio-cultural theories, based on the constructive thought, explain how

learning is situated and how individuals are actively constructing knowledge.

b) Behavioural Theories. Passive models of learning.

From the behavioural point of view, learning is viewed as the ability to perform new

behaviours that are defined as goals by the researcher or in applied situations, the

teacher. An effort is made to create conditions that will enable the learner to

demonstrate these behaviours and continue to perform them over a period of time.

One creates these changes in behaviour by manipulating the environmental variables.

Attention is given to these environmental changes both before and after a response

from the learner. The learner is seen as a passive receiver of information where the

variable is the key factor in changing the condition of the learner.

Ideas in behavioural psychology stem from research done in the 19 th century. Most of

the early research was done on animals though the theories were applied to a wide

range of human behaviours including both classroom and therapy situations.

Amongst those who laid the basis for the development of behavioural theories at the

beginning of the century were Thorndike, Pavlov and Watson. The theories of

example Skinner, Gagn and Bloom are amongst those, which developed further the

principles of the behaviourist theories.

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The reliance upon specific goal statements is a device, which also allows the learners

to know specifically when they have achieved their goal. By using such a statement

students can monitor their own progress. Therefore the statements of goals and

objectives can also serve as reinforcement.

Table 1 gives an overview of the foundations of the behavioural approach.

Table 1. An overview of behavioural theorists

Name Key ideas Related ideas

Edward Lee Thorndike(1874-1949)

Connectionism:

One learns by selecting a response and

receiving reinforcement if right or wrong

Law of EffectLaw of Readiness

Law of Exercise

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov(1849-1936)

Stimulus-response:

Unconditioned stimulus (food) makes

unconditioned response (salivation) becomeconditioned if paired often enough with

conditioned stimulus (bell, light)

Four aspects, based on

classical conditioningexperiments:

1. Reinforcement

2. Extinction3. Inhabitation

4. Generalization

John B. Watson (1878-

1958)

Stimulus can be predicted, given the

response; given the stimulus, the responsecan be predicted

Evaluation of learning is

determined by pre-organizedgoals.

B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) Shaping technique with stimulus-responsemodel

Learning has occurred when aspecific response is elicited by

specific situation or stimuluswith a high degree of

probability. The more likely

the response, the moreefficient the learning has been

(Romiszowski, 1997)

Robert M. Gagn (1916-) Learning in 9 sequential events:

1. Gaining attention2. Telling the learner the learning

objective3. Stimulating recall of prior learning

4. Presenting the stimulus5. Providing learning guidance

6. Eliciting performance7. Providing feedback

8. Assessing performance9. Enhancing retention

Five categories of learning:

1. Intellectual skills2. Cognitive strategies

3. Verbal information4. Motor Skills

5. Attitudes

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Benjamin Bloom (1914-) Learning for mastery. Majority of students

can master the curriculum given the time

and instruction they need. Sequential stepsare made where the student master each step

to continue to a set goal.

Taxonomy of Cognitive

Objectives:

KnowledgeComprehension

Application

AnalysisSynthesis

Evaluation

http://curriculum.calstatela.edu/faculty/psparks/theorists/501learn.htm

The implication of behavioural approaches for instructional design is that instruction

is planned to identify the desired target behaviour and then elicit the desired student

response. In the classroom the teacher controls the experiences that the students are

exposed to in a series of sequential steps. Correct answers are rewarded so the student

eventually learns the target skill of knowledge.

c) Constructivism. Active models of learning

During the 1960s, another school of thought started developing besides the

behavioural thinking group. The behaviourist perspective cannot easily explain why

people attempt to organize and make sense of the information they learn. One

example includes remembering general meanings rather than word for word

information. Among learning psychologists there emerged a growing realization that

mental events or cognition could no longer be ignored.

Cognitive psychologists share with behaviourists the belief that the study of learning

should be objective and that learning theories should be developed from the results of

empirical research. However, cognitivists disagree with the behaviourists in one

critical aspect. By observing the responses that individuals make to different stimulus

conditions, cognitivists believe that they can draw inferences about the nature of the

internal cognitive processes that produce those responses.

David Merrill gives an overview of the assumptions of constructivism regarding

instructional design (Merrill, 1991):

Learning Constructed. Knowledge is constructed from experience. Learning

is a constructive practice in which the learner is building an internalrepresentation of knowledge.

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Interpretation Personal. There is no shared reality; learning is a personal

interpretation of the world. Learning results from a personal interpretation of

experience.

Learning Active. Learning is an active process in which meaning is developed

on basis of experience.

Learning Collaborative. Meaning is deal with from multiple perspectives.

Conceptual growth comes from the sharing of multiple perspectives and the

simultaneous changing of our internal representations in response to those

perspectives. The role of education is to promote collaboration with others to

show the multiple perspectives that can be brought to bear on particular

problem and to arrive at self-chosen positions to which they can commit

themselves.

Learning Situated. Learning should occur in realistic settings (situated or

anchored). Learning must be situated in a rich context, reflective of real world

context.

Testing Integrated. Testing should be integrated with the task not a separate

activity. The measure of learning is how instrumental the learners knowledge

structure is in facilitating thinking in the content field.

Many ideas and theories of constructivism can be traced back to the early decades of

the twentieth century. Of all theories, the theories of Jean Piaget of Switzerland are

the ones that have provided psychology with very elaborated account of

developmental changes in cognitive abilities.

i. Jean Piaget (1896 1980)

According to his theory, human development can be outlined in terms of functions

and cognitive structures. The functions are inborn biological processes that are

identical for every one and stay unchanged throughout our lives. The purpose of

these functions is to construct internal cognitive structures. The structures change as

the child grows (Vasta et al., 1995).

Piaget emphasizes two main functions; one is organization (or equilibrium).

Organization refers to the fact that all cognitive structures are interrelated and that any

new knowledge must be fitted into the existing system. It is the need to integrate the

new information, rather than adding it on, that forces our cognitive structure to

become more elaborate.

The second general function is adaptation. Adaptation refers to the tendency of the

organism to fit into its environment in ways that promote survival. It is composed of

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two terms; assimilation and accommodation.Assimilation is the tendency to

understand new experience in terms of existing knowledge. Whenever we come

across something new, we try to make sense of it, and build upon our existing

cognitive structures. Accommodation occurs when the new information is too

complex to be integrated into the existing structure - this means that, cognitivestructures change in response to new experiences (Spencer, 1991, p. 175).

The educational interest of Piagets work lies firstly in the way he made educationists

aware of the childs thought processes and the conditions under which intellectual

structures are established at different ages. There are four principles that are most

often cited in Piagets theory with regard to education. The first is the important of

readiness. This principle follows from his emphasis on assimilation. Experience,

educational or otherwise, does not simply happen to a child; rather it must always be

assimilated to current cognitive structure. A new experience can only be of any value

if the child can make sense of it. Teaching that is far from the childs level is unlikely

to be useful.

The second principle concerns the motivation for cognitive activity. Educational

content that is either too advanced or too simple is unlikely to be interesting. The

educational subject has to be slightly beyond the current level of the child so that it

provides experience familiar enough to assimilate however challenging enough to

provoke disequilibria.

The third is the awareness of what level the child has reached and the information of

what it can be expected at that level and what not. Piagets studies often identify steps

and sequences through which particular content domains are mastered. It is therefore

possible not only to determine where the child is but also to know the natural next

steps for development.

The final principle is more functional. It concerns Piagets emphasis on intelligence

as an action. In his view education should be built on the childs natural curiosity and

natural tendency to act on the world in order to understand it. Knowledge is most

meaningful when children construct it themselves rather than having it imposed upon

them (Vasta et al., 1995).

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In acquiring new knowledge through action two different kinds of knowledge

develop, the physical experience and the logico-mathematical experience. Physical

experience produces knowledge of the properties of the objects acted upon. Logico-

mathematical experience result in knowledge, not of the objects, but of the actions

themselves and their results (Donaldson, 1987).

The aim of education, according to Piaget, is to make individuals who are critical,

creative and inventive discoverers. So a major part of the childs learning relies on

active experimentation and discovery. The active classroom has been associated with

the term progressive teaching, where pupils are in an active role, learning

predominantly by discovery techniques, with an emphasis on creative expression.

Subject matter tends to be integrated, with the teacher acting as a guide to educational

experiences and encouraging cooperative work. External rewards and punishments

are seen as being unimportant, and there is not much concern with traditional

academic standards and testing (Spencer, 1994).

As a biologist Piaget tended to look at development more from the physical change

and the readiness for each stage to develop any further. Another perspective in the

cognitive movement was from those who saw the connection between the

environment and the child development in a constructive way, and Vygotskys socio-

cultural theories represent those views.

ii. Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

Vygotsky was born in Russia in the same year as Piaget. Vygotsky was not trained in

science but received a law degree from the Moscow University. He went on to study

literature and linguistics and obtained his Ph.D. for a book he wrote on the

psychology of art (Vasta et al., 1995).

To understand Vygotskys theory, it is important to look at the political environment

of that time. Vygotsky began his work in psychology shortly after the Russian

revolution, when Marxism replaced the rule of the czar. The new philosophy of the

Marxist emphasized socialism and collectivism. Individuals were expected to

sacrifice their personal goals and achievements for the improvement of the larger

society. Sharing and co-operation was encouraged, and the success of any individual

was seen as reflecting the success of the culture. Marxists also placed a heavy

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emphasis on history, believing that any culture could be understood only through

examination of the ideas and events that had shaped it (Vasta et al, 1995).

Vygotsky incorporates these elements in his model of human development that has

been termed a sociocultural approach. For him, the individuals development is a

result of his or her culture. Development, in Vygotskys theory, applies mainly tomental development, such as thought, language and reasoning processes. These

abilities are understood to develop through social interactions with others (especially

parents) and therefore represent the shared knowledge of the culture.

Vygotsky states:

Every function in the childs cultural development appears twice: first,

between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child

(intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical

memory, and to the formation of ideas. All the higher functions originate as

actual relationships between individuals (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 57).

Mental abilities and processes similarly were viewed in terms of the historical

sequence of events that produced them. Whereas Piaget believed that all childrens

cognitive processes follow a very similar pattern of stages, Vygotsky saw intellectual

abilities as being much more specific to the culture in which the child was reared

(Vasta et al., 1995). Culture makes two sorts of contributions to the childs

intellectual development. First, children acquire much of their thinking (knowledge)

from it. Second, children acquire the processes or means of their thinking (tools of

intellectual adaptation) from the surrounding culture. Therefore, culture provides the

children with the tools to develop what to think and how to think.

Vygotsky viewed cognitive development as a result of a dialectical process, where the

child learns through shared problem solving experiences with someone else, such as

parents, a teacher, siblings or a peer. Originally, the person interacting with the child

undertakes most of the responsibility for guiding the problem solving, but gradually

this responsibility transfers to the child. Although these interactions can take many

forms, Vygotsky stresses language dialogue. It is primarily through their speech that

adults are assumed to transmit to children the rich body of knowledge that exists in

their culture. As learning proceeds, the childs own language comes to help as his or

her primary tool of intellectual transformation. Children can eventually use their own

internal speech to direct their own behaviour in much the same way that their parents

speech once directed it. This transition reflects Vygotskys theme of development as

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a process of internalization. Bodies of knowledge and tools of thought at first exist

outside the child, in the culture of the environment. Development consists of gradual

internalization, primarily through language, to form cultural adaptation (Rogoff,

1990).

The second aspect of Vygotskys theory is the idea that the potential for cognitive

development is limited to a certain time span. He calls this the Zone of Proximal

Development (ZPD) which refers to the gap between what a given child can achieve

alone, its potential development as determined by independent problem solving, and

what they can achieve through problem solving under adult guidance or in

collaboration with more capable peers (Wood and Wood, 1966).

Vygotsky refers to what children can do on their own as the level of actual

development. In his view, it is the level of actual development that a standard IQ test

measures. Such a measure is undoubtedly important, but it is also incomplete. Two

children might have the same level of actual development, in the sense of being able

to solve the same number of problems on some standardized test. Given appropriate

help from an adult, one child might be able to solve an additional dozen problems

while the other child might be able to solve only two or three more. What the child

can do with help is referred to as the level of potential development (Vasta et al.,

1995).

Full development during the ZPD depends upon full social interaction and the more

the child takes advantage of an adults assistance, the broader is its Zone of Proximal

Development. If adults wish to provide learning opportunities, they must evaluate

the childs present developmental level and estimate the length of the ZDP. But, the

child must be able to make use of the help of others; it needs the competence to

benefit from give-and-take activities and conversations with others (Bruner, 1983).

Vygotsky acknowledged the maturational limits of the ZPD, but most psychological

research has emphasized the role of the environment: parents and other adults who are

expert models and guides for a young learner.

The socio-cultural aspects in Vygotskys theories are interesting when analyzing the

learner in the information age society. How do we educate the child raised in a world

of instant information, where interactive technologies have led them to believe they

can act on the world with the press of a button?

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In this section I have given examples of learning models derived from different basic

philosophies. The fundamental challenge of constructivism is in its changing the

locus of control over learning from the teacher to the student. Educators with

foundations in behavioural psychology have sought to design programmes in such away that students would be enticed to achieve prespecified objectives whereas those

building on constructive models of learning look at students actually formulating their

knowledge with regarding to the environment and culture around them. The most

obvious factor in shaping our culture is the media. People spend more time in

absorbing information from the media than any other activity. Progress in media

development is rapid and society is modified along with it.

In his book The Medium is the Massage Marshall McLuhan starts with the

observation:

The medium, or process, of our time-electric technology- is reshaping and

restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our

personal life. It is forcing us to reconsider and revaluate practically every

thought, every action, and every institution formerly taken for granted.

Everything is changing you, your family, your neighborhood, your

education, your job, your government, your relation to the others. And

theyre changing dramatically (p. 8).

With this in mind the next chapter will be about the media.

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2. Instructional Media

Media consumption is embedded in the routines, rituals, and institutions, both public

and domestic, of everyday life. Here the term media includes printed material,

broadcast media both audio and video, and computers. Among the questions to be

answered are whether media interact with cognition and whether people are passive or

active receivers of the message. An historical overview of how media and the

audiovisual movements developed as powerful tools in education is given. Mass

media will be analyzed to with respect to what they are and who controls them. We

begin with a study of the interaction of media and cognition.

a) Interaction of Media and Cognition

Romiszowski (1988, p. 8) defines media as: the carriers of message, from some

transmitting source [which may be human being or an inanimate object] to receiver of

the message [which in our case is the learner] . Quite often the messages are

received by a combination of senses to provide the desired communication. They can

be quite complex and may involve carefully designed information with the purpose of

communicating the exact meaning intended by its author.

The study of media in education implicitly assumes that each medium entails some

particular attributes that affect learning, depending on the symbol system it involves

(Salomon, 1981). Media are our cultural device for selecting, gathering, storing, and

passing knowledge on in representational forms. Representation, as differentiated

from direct experience, is always coded within a symbol system. If one attempted to

remove picture from film, cartography from maps, or language from texts, what

would be left? Media without symbol systems are as unlikely as mathematics without

numbers. According to the cognitive theories of learning all cognition and learning

are based on internal symbolic representation. If symbol systems are central to media

of communication and to thinking, then the interactions and interdependence between

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the two systems cannot be disregarded. For example, it is possible that symbolically

different presentations of information differ as to the mental skills of processing that

they require. It is also likely that the major symbol systems of the media develop

mental skills differentially and that one learns to use medias symbolic forms for

purposes of internal representation (Salomon, 1981).

Bruner (1964, p.1) considers

that the development of human intellectual functioning from infancy to

such a perfection as it may reach is shaped by a series of technological

advances in the use of the mind. Growths depend upon the mastery of

techniques and cannot be understood without reference to such mastery.

These techniques are not, in the main, invention of the individuals who are

growing up; they are rather skills transmitted with varying efficiency and

success by the culture language being a prime example. Cognitive growth,

then, is in a major way from the outside in as well as from the inside out.

The psychological effects of media and how people learn from media are of concern

to educationalists. The way one recodes a verbal description into an internal spatial

representation is likely to differ from the way one recodes a drawing or a picture into

internal propositions. Psychological and neuropsychological evidence tends to

support this contention (Salomon, 1981).

It is difficult to ignore the possible role symbol systems play in the cultivation of

mental skills not just as carriers of information about skills or as carriers of skill-

models, bur rather as the mental-skills-to-be. As Bruner argues internal representation

of the environment depends on learning (Bruner, 1964, p.2), precisely the

techniques that serve to amplify our acts, perceptions, and our ratiocinative activities.

Media, to which we all are heavily exposed, must certainly be included among these

techniques. Our era, the twenty-first century, can be characterized as the age of media

and technology. As channels for information and entertainment, mass media surround

us day and night. Vygotskys theories of social interactionism inform us that learning

takes place through engagement with contextualised and situationalised socio-cultural

environments and through contact with a culture of material and social resources that

everywhere supports cognitive activity (Crook, 1994).

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Gavriel Salomon has summarized the symbol systems of media effects and the

acquisition of knowledge, in his bookInteraction of Media Cognition and Learning

(1981) as follows:

1. Symbol systems highlight different aspects of content.

2. Symbol systems vary with respect to ease of recording.

3. Specific coding elements can save the learner from difficult mental

elaborations by overtly supplanting or short-circuiting specific elaboration.

4. Symbol systems differ with respect to how much processing they demand or

allow.

5. Symbol systems differ with respect to the kinds of mental processes they call

on for recoding and elaboration.

Therefore, according to Salomon, the symbol system partly determines who will

acquire what knowledge from what kinds of message (Salomon, 1981). The

differential effects of medias symbol systems on the gaining of knowledge are

connected to the effects on the mastery of cognitive skills. The use of skills in the

service of knowledge achievement allows their gradual development leading to the

gaining of more and different kinds of knowledge. Three factors can be identified as

the focal points leading to these developments (Salomon, 1981, p. 238):

1. Environmental factors: Medias symbol system, the information they carry,

and the learning task one is to perform.

2. Personological factors: The learners capabilities, mental schemata, and

information preferences.

3. Behavioural factors: The specific actions or behaviours one carries out while

handling coded information.

Agreeing with the assimilation/accommodation model of Piaget, Salomon agree to

that psychologically, people seek out resemblances in dense, nonnotational symbol

systems, even when such perceived resemblances are erroneous. Objects in ones

environment, whether real or represented in some symbolic form, are recoded and

elaborated in terms of ones schemata. New information yields a conception or forms

of internal representation, which change to some degree ones schemata, which is then

expressed in other recoding and elaboration activities, and results in an alteredperception of the object. When a later encounter with a symbolic representation of

the object is easily recoded and requires little change of schemata, the person judges

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the representation as resembling the object, although in effect it resembles the stored

image in his schemata. Judgement of resemblance determines, in turn, the application

of, say, a pictorial standard of recoding by the person (Salomon, 1981).

The symbolic system of media can be mentally demanding and the effects of medias

content are determined by what the viewer brings with him when encountering the

media. Therefore it is relevant to look at the viewer not as a passive audience but as

an active participant in comprehending the message of the medium.

The use of media as a tool to mediate messages to the masses for an educational

purpose does not have a long history. In the next section an overview of that will be

given.

b) Developments of the Tools of Instruction

The audiovisual movement developed early in the 20th century, focusing on machines

and materials rather than the learner. This thought was concerned with the effects of

devices and procedures, which were seen as acting as a remedy to the extreme

verbalism of traditional methods (Spencer, 1991). The rapid development in this

subject came during and after World War II, in the 1940s. The military workforce

had to be trained for their own survival and the war effort. To meet this need,

thousands of training films and other mediated learning materials were distributed,

and 16mm projectors and filmstrip projectors were purchased and circulated. Still

photographs, audio recordings, transparencies and slides were used for instructional

purposes.

Many of the individuals hired by the military to work on the wartime training were

well-established researchers and the military training became an example of what a

well-funded research and development effort, directed toward education, could

accomplish (Romiszowski, 1997).

In the 1960s the field for instructional development grew very fast, with a base in

behavioural approaches. What characterized this period was the articulation of the

components of instructional systems or the system approach. The leaders of the

educational profession who had thought of themselves primarily as media specialists

began to lobby actively to broaden the field of audio-visual (AV) instruction to

embrace the larger concept of instructional development and technology. From this

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school of thought Skinners linear teaching machine was derived and Postlethwaite

devised the Audio Tutorial system (Romiszowski, 1997).

Developments in mass media were quite rapid at this time and the development of

television was to have a major effect on how western households conducted theirdaily life. There were great expectations for TV as an educational medium and after

the emerge of video, in the 1970s, the potential was realized. The influence of

cognitive psychology on the refinement of instructional design was notable at this

time (Sharon, 1995).

The advent of microcomputers in the 1980s and developments in computerized

education in the 1990s, concern educationalists today. Interactive video, CD-ROM,

and other storage systems with instructional programs are becoming more

sophisticated with adaptations to the idiosyncrasies of individual learners.

Seigel and Davis (1986) talk about the three waves of the technology and related

know-how. The first wave was associated with the new technology itself in the

design and programming of computers and applications. Only a small proportion of

the population was involved and they required highly technical, job-specific training

in the science of computing and programming. The advent of the cheap

microcomputer and its use by a much greater section of the population characterised

the second wave. The development of a movement in education towards computer

literacy for everyone grew. Finally, the third wave is characterised by the access of

all sectors of social and professional activity to computer systems. This wave brings

with it the need for a range of new skills and attitudes, which will enable us to use

these tools and systems efficiently, without necessarily being expert in the skills of

programming, or having any specialist knowledge of computer science. In this third

wave people are using computers as they use cars or television sets or telephones

Technologies in communication and delivery systems have changed the way

education can be performed. Satellite television, developments in communication and

the Internet have transformed the means of how education can be conducted. The

evolution of the Internet started in the late 70s with a research project in the U.S.

Department of Defence to find a way to make computer networks more reliable.

Linking government and university laboratories soon developed into an efficient

means of exchanging information, an unanticipated bonus (Hackbarth, 1996). The

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World Wide Web evolved from these developments of computer networking to be the

main source of information and communication, at least in the industrialized world.

When the earlier technology (films, television, overhead projectors) was seen to

support the teaching and learningstatus quo computer technology is associated with

economics, employment prospects based on skills needed for new era (Kerr, 1996).

c) Media and Instruction

As the term instruction is defined it requires a two-way communication process. Most

media are one-way transmitters and therefore are not capable of receiving, store or

interpreting any message that the learner may transmit. These presentation media

have been the main support for teachers, until now with the developments in the

computer technology. In typical face-to-face teaching situations the teacher is the

receiver, storer and interpreter of anything the student may say or do and the media

are used to enhance or enrich the teachers presentation. With the developments in

telecommunications and the computer technology the role of the media can be both

the transmitter and receiver and storer of the instructions. The changes, from pure

chalkboard methods to the use of audiocassette, radio, television and video, have

taken place, but with the World Wide Wed the way information can be enhanced

make these changes even more revolutionary. With a push of a button information

can be sought for and reached from around the world.

We have already learned from the theories stemming from the behavioural, objective,

stimulus-response models and the cognitive, constructive, cultural reproduction

models that interaction plays an important role in learning and developing.

Interaction implies a dialogue between two parties. According to Steuer (1992, p.

84), interactivity is the extent to which a user can participate in modifying the form

and content of mediated environment in real time.

Various elaborations of basic computer models introduce the potential for more

interactivity and adaptation in computer education. By incorporating simulation, a

computer package enables students to examine how process change when parameters

are varied: unlike simulations on video, individual students can choose which

parameters to change and by how much (Koumi, 1994). Computer based simulations

create a powerful artificial environment with which the learner can interact to

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discover principles and develop methods for solving problems in a much more

effective way than a tutor could ever give through dialogue alone.

Romiszowski lists the benefits of simulations and games, in his book The selection

and use of Instructional Media (Romiszowski, 1997, p. 265-266):

1. They can provide the student with experiences and practice, which are

much closer to real-life situations he will encounter than might otherwise

be possible in training course. In particular they can reproduce the

pressures and stresses under which students will have to work.

2. They can therefore be useful as methods of measuring how well students

are able to apply previously learnt facts, concepts, or principles to real-life

situation.

3. They allow one to simplify reality, controlling which aspects of a real-life

situation a student should attend and respond to.

4. They are often economically justified as a substitute for on-the-job practice

when it would be difficult to arrange this, e.g. expensive, easily broken

equipment (medical simulation), remote situations (space-travel simulators

or school geography games), equipment used for production day and night

(industrial process simulators), etc.

5. They are often justified on safety grounds, in that they enable students to

practice dangerous or threatening jobs without any danger (pilot-training

simulators, simulations of highly-stressed personal situations such as

dealing with discipline problems in the classrooms, war games, etc.)

6. A well designed simulation or game is generally found to involve students

in the learning task more than other available techniques, both intellectuallyand emotionally.

7. As a result of 6 (and also of 3) they have been found to be an extremely

effective way of measuring, changing and reinforcing student attitudes.

8. Finally, simulation can of course be used as a research technique. The

model being used in the simulation should reflect reality. If we understand

the real- life phenomenon under study sufficiently, we should be able to

construct a valid model. If, however, we do not fully understand the real

problem, we construct a tentative model- a model which reflects our

hypotheses about the problem. We then operate the model and observe the

effects, comparing them with the effects we obtain in reality. Any

discrepancies are analysed and the model is redesigned, and our hypotheseschanged, if necessary. The study of complex systems such as political

systems, nervous systems, sophisticated electronic systems (i.e. the science

of cybernetics) rely heavily on simulation as a research technique

One of the main attractions in using computers are, computer-based simulation

programs which introduce the learner to these real life situations. Computer-based

simulations are sometimes the only way of developing certain types of learning

experiences; in medical education, trainee doctors learn how patients with diabetes

react to the intake of sugar in various quantities; in science, learners may explore the

flow of fluid through nozzles, interference and diffraction patterns of light waves or

motion of satellites on orbits; and in economics, students can investigate how the

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effects of interacting market forces, tax laws or inflation rate may combine with

surprising effects under certain conditions (Romiszowski, 1997).

The common ownership of PC computers has made it possible for children to play in

the simulation or artificial environment. Many of the computer games that areavailable on the market put the user in real-life situations. Here the user confronts an

artificial environment that operates under a set of rules. His role is to act within this

environment and then observe the results. For example in Geography Search one

relives the voyages of early explorers crossing the Atlantic, plotting the course and

making adjustments along the way, and accounting for changes in winds and currents.

SimEarth provides opportunities to redesign our planet and its inhabitants and then

witness the consequences of ones actions (Hackbarth, 1996).

Opinion about the primary role of media in learning remains divided. One view, long

ago introduced by Marshall McLuhan is that the medium is the message. When

looking at the effects of media as such it can be agreed upon that specific content

(comedy, news, weather, games, drama and terror) is less significant than changes in

human relations brought about by reading, viewing and playing. Yet the pervasive

exploitation of sex and violence across media also must have harmful effects on

society.

The opinion of Richard Clark at the University of Southern California that the media

are the mere vehicle for delivering goods is a different point of view. Therefore,

learning is affected by such variables as organization of content, match with student

characteristics and appropriate instructional strategies (Hackbarth, 1996).

The new cognitive paradigm assumes that instructional powers do not reside solely in

the media, for the way media are perceived influences what we learn from them. The

perception is founded on the kinds of information and instructional methods delivered

by different media (Clark and Sugrue, 1995).

As said before technological developments in media have had a significant impact on

the way teaching and learning can be conducted. Systematically designed programs

transmitted by printed material, radio, TV and computers provide challenging learning

experience. Along with technology these learning programs enrich instruction and

make it more individualizedand accessible

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Instructions enrich through added dimensions, special effects and unique

programming. Time-lapse motion microphotography portrays actual chemical

reactions and the life cycles of minute organisms. Video technology allows the

student to observe the ongoing behaviour of the universe. Television providesdocumentaries, plays and musicals. Computer simulations permit manipulating

variables and observing consequences within manageable space and time frames.

Virtual reality affords the sensation of acting within novel environments (Hackbarth,

1996).

Instruction is individualizedwhen teachers interact with the students in the selection

of objectives, content and methods that match their abilities and interests. The

computer can help the student to diagnose their difficulties in understanding a given

problem, it can provide remedial instruction or recommendation in viewing a film,

read a section of text or consult with the teacher. Interactive multimedia and tutoring

systems and access to the Internet permit student-initiated explorations grounded in

their lived worlds and guided by their felt needs to make sense of their experiences.

With the latest technology instructions are made accessible to all. By analyzing the

learning needs of diverse students, and creating programs to meet them, technology

can help. Radio and TV transmit information via satellite to remote villages

throughout the world and by way of cable, to hospitals and homes (Hackbarth, 1996).

Special equipment helps to compensate for obstacles encountered by people with

motor and sensory disabilities. Programs are sent via distance education systems to

schools lacking enough teachers and from schools to learners in remote settings.

Computers searches speedily locate material on the Web, in databases or in libraries

worldwide (Hackbarth, 1996).

d) Distance learning

The instant exchange of information between people allows instant access to

databases and online information services, and provides multimedia technical

resources such as interactive audio and video. As indicated before the developments

in telecommunication have made it possible for learning to take place in and out of

school environment the global classroom. Although distance learning has been

known for many years the arrival of the Internet has changed the way distance

learning can be conducted. Schools in rural areas can collaborate in other ways than

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before. Many educational institutions are attempting to use technology to solve the

problems of growing numbers of both home-based and distance students and limited

resources of teachers and funds. When education is undertaken at a distance it is

necessary to consider how best to attain the essential elements of the process

providing information and facilitating the negotiation of meaning through dialogue.The large-scale open and distance institutions make use of a range of media to convey

course content to learners. Many distance-learning programmes have been developed

to achieve the potential of the communication technology to enhance distance

learning and teaching. Although written texts are usually the core teaching material

of courses they have been supplemented with broadcast television and radio

programmes, audio and videocassettes, experiment kits and computer software.

Recently there is a greater emphasis on using computer and communication

technology to convey the dialogue between the participants in the educational process.

Network-based education introduces new approaches to teaching and learning and

opens up the possibilities of computer conferencing, which enables information,

ideas, problems and strategies to be discussed and explored by course participants.

On-line working can be used for task-focussed collaboration, where this is appropriate

for the pedagogic approach adopted.

A project in Northeast Scotland recently explored how an electronic network could be

used to help able children develop their thinking skills. This project STARS

(Superhighways Team Across Rural Schools) was aimed at small rural primaries,

where able children are often not stretched to their full potential. They are alone at

the top of the class and their ideas are unquestioned and unchallenged by other

children. Because schools were so small, separating out only the able pupils, one or

two children at most taking part, would have caused social problem, so others were

included in the school groups of four or five. The objective was to teach thinking

skills through problem solving, promoting critical thinking, creative thinking and

collaborative learning. Computer-based assignments, all with a space theme, were

published on Web sites called launch pads, and some projects involved doing research

on the Internet. On some problem solving exercises the children had to come up with

a single solution on behalf of their school, working together in their own group and

reaching some agreement. To get to the best solution the children had to argue their

case and accept others point of view. In other cases they had to cooperate with theother schools (Walker, 1998).

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According to Jim Ewing who ran the project the main findings were (Walker, 1998. p.

41):

One idea was that children should listen to others and respect their

contribution. That was definitely an outcome. At first they were disappointed

when other people shot down their ideas and it took them some time beforethey understood that other peoples ideas might be worth considering. They

were learning, as they might not do in a small rural school, that there were

other people around who were just as bright as, or brighter than, they were

themselves

Other findings showed that the able children took responsibility as group leaders and

co-ordinators with other schools. Their problem solving became more systematic,

and there were distinct gains in their use of critical thinking skills. The teachers role

in this project was to provide the children with setting the project in motion, helping

with concepts and vocabulary, and in the end to register what they had learned.

This STARS project is taken here as an example of how the interactive-technology

can improve the quality of teaching and learning. Teachers in the schools involved

reported that the project had (Walker, 1998. p. 42). awakened their professional

interest in distance learning, in differentiation in teaching for different pupils, and in

teaching thinking

Many online programs have been developed to improve the quality of distance

teaching and learning. First Class, LearningSpace, WebCT are only a few course

tools which could be mentioned. WebCT and LearningSpace learning programmes

create a virtual meeting place on the Web where the course members are able to get

the learning material in the form of text, audio or video files and the communication

tools allow them to be in contact both in real-time or asynchronized. Members of the

course have the opportunity to put some personal information and a photo in a

database (profiles) of the course, which enables them to get to know each other and

have the notion of being in a real class with classmates which they can relate to

because they may not have the opportunity to meet face to face.

What matters is not whether the quality of open and distance learning is enhanced by

the application of technologies as such, but how it is used (Kirkwood, 1998). The

concern should be how technology could contribute to the educational process of both

teaching and learning. The production and use of high quality material does not by

itself ensure an improvement in the educational process if there is a lack of support

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for the learners. The learning programmes described earlier (WebCT, LearningSpace)

give instructors and course members improved opportunities to facilitate two-way

communication and dialogue in the educational process. But whether or not the

process of teaching and learning are improved by the use of computer and

communication technology or the latest online learning programs will depend on thepedagogic design devised by the educators rather than on the technologies themselves.

Therefore whether distant learning is passive or active is based on the instructional

program delivered.

Mass media have become a very influential factor in shaping the culture of our era.

The task of the next section is to give an account of what mass media stands for.

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4. Mass Media

a) Features of media

With the media being such an influential factor on our lives, it important to

understand key aspects of the term media such as the ideology of media; how they are

organized; how they construct and communicate their message; and how the audience

react to the message. When talking about mass media the media referred to are:

Newspapers

Films

Broadcasting (television and radio)

Recorded music

The Internet.

Print media, films, broadcasting and recorded music can be identified as passive in the

sense that the recipient passively receives the message without any influence on the

incoming message whatsoever, whereas with the Internet the receiver has the

opportunity to interact with the incoming message and construct a new one.

In the history of mass media four main elements can be recognized: a technology; the

political, social, economic and cultural situation of a society; a set of activities,functions or needs; and people especially as formed into groups, classes or interests.

These four elements have interacted in different ways and with different orders of

primacy, sometimes one seeming to be the driving force or precipitating factor,

sometimes another (McQuail, 1997). What kinds of relationships exist between the

media and their ideologies? To answer this question it is necessary to draw together

several features of mass media.

The media communicate ideas.

The media represent an outside reality to audiences.

All texts are produced by people.

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All individual producers of texts and media institutions have viewpoints.

No text can exist without offering its consumers a position, or point of

view to adopt.

Audiences make meanings and sense from texts in accordance with their

existing knowledge.

Somebody owns all media institutions.

Many media texts appear to be seamless. Sometimes it is hard to see accurately how

and where the component parts are joined together, as the development of the

narrative diverts the audiences interest away from the ideological structure. Yet it is

the structure of the text that can give the researcher of the media the best insight into

the ideologies, which run through the text. For example, the way technologies are

used to represent race, gender or age, the way characters are lit or shot and the actions

that we see them carrying out can all reveal something about the ideology encoded in

images. The kind of story, what is included or omitted, and whether the text fits into a

particular genre are all the results of a choice and these choices contribute to the

ideological viewpoints expressed (Downes and Miller, 1998).

Narratives offered to audiences in media do much of the hard work of connecting andorganizing events and thoughts for the audience. Audiences participate in the

narrative by interpreting it, based on previous knowledge and experience as well as on

information given in the text. The audiences of media can choose to consume the

mass media in a broad range of settings, at home or publicly, and can control the

condition in which they are received. This makes the media easy to adapt according

to the need of each individual. Media talk is notably related to the management of

social relationships, both as a means of maintaining social connections as much as itis motivated by interest in the mediaper se.

The makers of media text, unlike the common audience, are able to decide on and

control most elements that make up the final version of their narrative, given that the

narrative is a fiction. They can create characters, places and events, predict the future

of these elements, and make things happen. Audiences are presented with a finished

product, which consist only of what the makers have decided to incorporate and is

sometimes dissimilar to the real live events (Downes and Miller, 1998).

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Mass media can be characterised as follows (Downes and Miller, 1998, p. 5):

1. They normally require complex formal organizations.

2. They are directed towards large audiences.

3. They are public the content is open to all and the distribution is

relatively unstructured and informal.

4. Audiences are heterogeneous of many different conditions andwidely separated from one another.

5. The mass media can establish simultaneous contact with a large

number of people at a distance from the source and widely

separated from one another

6. The relationship between communications is collectively unique

to modern society. It is an aggregate of individuals united by a

common focus of interest, engaging in an identical form of

behaviour, and open to adversion towards common ends, yet the

individuals involved, all unknown to each other, have only a

restricted amount of interaction, do not orient their action to each

other and are only loosely organized or lacking organization.

The history of modern media begins with the printed book that was in a sense only a

technical device for reproducing the same or rather similar ranges of text that had

previously been handwritten. With the technology of printing, text could be

distributed to a much larger population than before. Almost two hundred years later

the newspapers could be distinguished from the handbills, pamphlets and newsletters

of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries (Curran and Gurevitch, 1997).

b) Newspapers

Improved technology, rising literacy, commerce, democracy and popular demand all

played a part in the extension of newspaper reaching masses beyond the educated elite

or business class (MacQuail, 1997). In a sense the newspaper was more of an

innovation than the printed book. Its distinctiveness, compared to other forms of

cultural communication, lies in its individualism, reality orientation, utility, secularity

and suitability for the needs of a new class: town-based business and professional

people. Its novelty consists not in its technology or manner of distribution, but in its

functions for a distinct class in a changing and more liberal social-political climate,

the middle class had arrived. What distinguishes the newspaper as a medium is

(MacQuail, 1997, p. 14):

Regular and frequent apperance

Commodity form

Informal content

Public sphere functions

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Urban, secular audience

Relative freedom

The late-nineteenth-century bourgeois newspaper was a high point in press history

and contributed much to the modern understanding of what a newspaper is. It was the

product of several events and circumstances: the triumph of liberalism and the

absence or ending of direct censorship or economic constraint; the emergence of a

progressive capitalist class and several new professions, thus forging a business

professional establishment; and many social and technological changes favouring the

rise of national or regional press of high information quality.

The main features of the new prestige or elite press which was established in thisperiod were: formal independence from stable and vested interests; recognition as a

major institution of political and social life; a highly developed sense of social and

ethical responsibility and the rise of a journalistic profession dedicated to the

objective reporting of events. Many current expectations about what a quality

newspaper is still reflect several of these ideas and provide the basis of criticisms of

newspapers which deviate from the ideal, by being either too partisan or too

sensational (MacQuail, 1997).

The mass newspaper has been called commercial for two main reasons: it operates for

profit by monopolistic concerns, and it is heavily dependent on product advertising

revenue. The commercial aims and underpinnings of the mass newspaper have

exerted considerable influence on the content, in the direction of political populism as

well as support for business, consumerism and the free enterprise.

Usually newspapers are publicized on a daily basis carrying the latest news and other

material which can be entertainment, reviews, cartoons, editorials, features or

advertisements for. Traditionally a newspaper organization is characterised by the

concentration of a number of different functions in the same place. Management,

editorial and production are usually located in the same building to facilitate the goal

of working under pressure to fulfil deadlines. However, the distribution can be in the

hands of a separate organization. Newspaper workers are organized as hierarchies,

with strong demarcated lines of authority and control (Price, 1997).

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c) Films

At the end of the nineteenth century film began as a technological novelty. It

introduced a new means of presentation and distribution of an older tradition of

entertainment, offering stories, spectacles, music, drama, humour and technical tricks

for popular consumption. As a mass medium, film was partly a response to theinvention of leisure time out of work and an answer to the demand for economical

and usually respectable ways of enjoying free time for the whole family. Thus it

provided for the working class some of the cultural benefits already enjoyed by the

social betters.

The film as a medium can be identified by (MacQuail, 1997, p.18):

Audiovisual technology

Public performance

Extensive (universal) appeal

Predominantly narrative fiction

International character

Public regulation

Ideological character

Film for the use of propaganda is important, based on its great reach, supposed

realism, emotional impact and popularity when applied to national and societal

purposes. The news films from the Second World War are good examples.

Noteworthy turning points in the film history were the coming of television and the

Americanisation of the film industry and film culture in the years after the First World

War (Tunstall, 1977). The relative decline of the potential European film industry

reinforced by World War II contributed to a homogenisation of film culture and a

convergence of ideas about the definition of film as a medium. Television took away

a large part of the film viewing public and diverted the social documentary stream of

film development and gave it a more congenial home in television. A notable turning

point is also the reduced need for respectability; the film became more free to cater to

the demand for violent, horrific, or pornographic content leading to a ever increasing

level of immunity (MacQuail, 1997).

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d) Radio and Television The broadcast media

Radio and television grew out of pre-existing technologies such as telephone,

telegraph, moving and still photography, and some sound recording. Radio has a

history of seventy plus years and television about forty years. Although there are

obvious differences regarding content and use, both seem to have been a technologylooking for a use, rather than a response to a demand for a new kind of service and

content (MacQuail, 1997). As stated by Williams (1975, p. 25),

Unlike all previous communications technologies, radio and television were

systems primarily designed for transmission and reception as abstract

processes, with little or no definition of predicting content.

The content of radio and television borrowed from already existing media film,

music, stories, news and sport.

The main innovations common to both radio and television have been based on the

direct observation, transmission and reception of events as they happen. Another

distinctive feature of radio and television has been a high degree of regulation, control

or licensing by public authority initially out of technical necessity, later from a

mixture of democratic choice, state self-interest, economic convenience and sheer

institutional custom. A third and related historical feature of radio and television

media has been their centreperiphery distribution and the association of national

television with political life and the power centres of society, as both radio and

television have become established as both popular and politically important. Radio

and television have hardly anywhere acquired, as a right, the same freedom that the

press enjoys, to express views and act with political independence (MacQuail, 1997).

The broadcast media radio and television can be characterized by (MacQuail, 1997, p.

19):

Very large output, range and reach

Audiovisual content

Complex technology and organization

Public character and extensive regulation

National and international character

Very diverse content forms

e) Recorded Music

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The recording and replaying of music began around 1880 and was fairly rapidly

diffused, on the basis of the wide appeal of popular songs and melodies. This

popularity related to the already established place of the piano (and other instruments)

in the home. Much radio content since the early days has consisted of music, even

more so since the rise of television. The music television station MTV is an example.Although there has been a tendency for the phonogram to replace the private making

of music, there has never been a large gap between mass mediated music and personal

and direct audience enjoyment of musical performance (concerts, choirs, bands,

dances, etc.). The phonogram makes music of all kinds more accessible at all times in

more places to more people, but it is hard to distinguish a fundamental discontinuity

in the general character of popular musical experience, despite changes of type and

fashion (MacQuail, 1997).

Changes in the broader character of the phonogram have been noticed and the first

one can be related to the radio broadcasting. The radio broadcast of music increased

the range and amount of music available and extended it to many more people than

had access to gramophones. The change of radio from a family to an individual

medium in the post-war transistor revolution was a second main change. This opened

up a new market of young people for what became a growing record industry. Since

then, portable tape players, Sony Walkman, the compact disc and music video have

all developed and given the spiral another twist, based mainly on young audiences

(MacQuail, 1997). This has resulted in a mass media industry that is very

interrelated, concentrated in ownership and internationalized (Negus, 1993). In spite

of this, music media have significant radical and creative stands that have developed

regardless of increased commercialization (Frith, 1981).

Music and its relationship to social events has always been recognized and

occasionally celebrated or feared. From the rise of the youth-based industry in the

1960s, mass-mediated popular music has been connected to youthful idealism and

political concern, to supposed degeneration and pleasure-seeking, to drug-taking,

violence and an antisocial way of thinking. Music has also played a part in various

nationalist independence movements (e.g. Ireland or Estonia). It has never been easy

to regulate the content of music although the distribution has been in the hands of

established institutions. Most popular music has continued to express and respond to

enduring conventional values and personal needs. The recorded music (phonogram)

media can be distinguished by (MacQuail, 1997, p. 20):

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Multiple technologies of recording and dissemination

Low degree of regulation

High degree of internationalization

Younger audience

Subversive potential

Organizational fragmentation

Diversity of reception possibilities

e) The Internet

The Internet refers to what is sometimes called telematic media, telematic because

they combine telecommunications and informatics. The telematic media have been

heralded as the key component in the latest communication revolution that will

replace broadcast television, as we know it. The Internet is a multifaceted mass

medium, that is, it contains many different configurations of communication. Its

varied forms show the connection between the interpersonal and mass communication

(Morris and Organ, 1996). Since the 1970s these new media have been widely taken

up as a mass media (MacQuail, 1997). Several kinds of technology are involved: of

transmission (by cable or satellite); of miniaturization; of storage and retrieval; of

display (using flexible combinations of text and graphics); and of control (by

computer). The main features by contrast with the old media, are: decentralization

supply and choice are no longer predominantly in the hands of the supplier of

communication; high capacity cable or satellite delivery overcomes the former

restrictions of cost, distance and capacity; interactivity the receiver can select,

answer back, exchange and be linked to other receivers directly; and flexibility of

form, content and use.

Not only does this new media facilitate the distribution of existing radio and

television it also offers computer video games, virtual reality and video recordings of

all kinds. CD-ROMS (standing for compact disc, read only memory) offer flexible

and easy access to very large stores of information, by way of computer-readable

discs (MacQuail, 1997). In general, the new media have bridged differences both

between media and also between public and private definitions of communication

activities. The Internet communication takes many forms, from World Wide Web

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pages operated by major news organizations to Usenet groups to E-mail messages

among colleagues and friends. The Internets communication forms can be

understood as a continuum. Production, for example, need no longer be concentrated

in large centrally located organizations (typical of film and television), nor so

centrally controlled. The sources of the message can range from one person in E-mailcommunication, to a social group in a Listserv or Usenet group, to a group of

professional journalists in a World Wide Web page. The messages themselves can be

traditional journalistic news stories created by a reporter and editor, stories created

over a long period of time by many people, or simply conversations, such as in an

Internet Relay Chat group. The receivers, or the audiences, of the messages can also

number from one to a potential millions, who may or may not move fluidly from their

role as audience members to producers of message (Morris and Organ, 1996).

What distinguishes the telematic media is (MacQuail, 1997, p. 22):

Computer-based technologies

Hybrid, flexible character

Interactive potential

Private and public functions

Low degree of regulation

Interconnectedness

The expansion of channels of media communication has increased the means through

which government can communicate with society and social groups. The media have

become essential in the process of elections and government publicity. In the same

way the broadcast media rely on government for their licenses to operate, and all

news operators depend on government as a major source of stories (Burton, 1999).

Levinson (1999) has considered the circumstances surrounding any medium. Radio,

for example, magnifies the human voice right away across vast distances to a mass

audience. It makes print obsolescent as a mass medium, we prefer to hear the first

news on the radio instead of waiting for an extra addition of a newspaper. Radio

retrieves the town crier who had been extinct by the print. Acoustic radio, when

pushed to its limits, transforms into audio-visual television. This process is repeatedwhen we look at the television the medium that radio reversed into. TV amplifies the

visual, but in an acoustic all-at-once sense, not in the one-on-one sense of

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individuals reading separate newspapers, most likely not all on the same page. TV

made radio obsolescent; it retrieves the visual but not in the way the visuality of print

had been made obsolescent by radio. The retrieval of the visual in TV is something

new, a hybrid of previous visuality with current electronic attributes that is genuinely

different. When limned to its full extent, the screen of television flips into the screenof the personal computer (Levinson, 1999).

5. Social Factors of Learning

a) Visualization, Media and Perception

In a society in which advertising images can lure people into a sense of emotional

security while undermining their health, in which political images can affect

emotional response before critical analytical abilities are invoked, and in which mass

media entertainment images of violence can have devastating provocation effects, the

nature of battle for survival has changed considerably since our brains evolved from

the primal environmental response pattern. Visual media such as television, video

and computers are the main channels in getting the messages perceived by the mass

audiences.

Those theorists that deal with perception accept that it is largely confined to

individual consciousness and is subject to differing sensory abilities. They also agree

that perception is continually affected and often substantially altered by memory and

emotion (Barry, 1997). In building up perception through our senses vision plays a

crucial role. Vision is a result of a number of subsystems functioning independently

of each other and is beyond all introspective understanding (Wolfe, 1983). Perception

is not only liable to misrepresentation it is highly vulnerable to emotional

manipulation on an unconscious level, which in turn affects our conscious thinking.

Lightning, shadow, and colour can be changed to produce a more positive or negative

emotional impact; context can be subtle but suggestive enough to alter our conscious

option of the subject within it. These entries occur before we knowingly form a

judgment that we believe to be informed, objective, and unbiased. When reality is

mediated in print, photography, television and film what we see is a synthetic reality

highly sensitive to manipulation. Banduras Social Learning Theory claims that

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shocking experiences may later mix with actual occurrences in memory and render

them indistinguishable from one another. Media fare may then play a substantial role

in developing mental maps that blend media and reality together as a single mental

experience, which in turn directs our interpretation of the present, further revises

memory and affects the direction of our thoughts and actions (Barry, 1997). If ourperception is an internal, creative, problem-solving process, we may never really

know what is out there. Our judgment is only efficient, never sufficient for

survival. Even on the most basic level our vulnerability to illusion should give us

pause - especially since in understanding our environment today we have come to rely

heavily on media as an extension of our senses. The story of the couple that saw the

volcano start to erupt is a good example; they saw the smoke with their own eyes,

found the smell of the sulphur, heard the noise from the mountain, but to be

absolutely sure they turned the radio on.

b) Television

Developments in computer technology and telecommunication are of much interest

today but the power oftelevision as a media is presumably the single most important

development of the past thirty years.

In the 1950s and 60s there was a rapid growth in the development of television.

Previously books and other printed media had been the source of information

(Meyrowitz, 1996, p.74):

While books are based on abstract symbols and a linear and sequential

structure that encourages logical thinking, television is image- and sound-

based, concrete, visceral, sensual, holistic, emotional, nonlinear, simultaneous,

and constantly in flux

With the beginning of television as a media many educators, academics and cultural

critics saw this as an end to literacy and saw our society transformed by the sort of

technology represented by the box in the living room (Meyrowitz, 1996). According

to Herbert Marshall McLuhan a Canadian 20th- century communication theorist the

modes of thinking, behaviour, and social organization generated from literacy and

printing are not natural or everlasting and that five hundred years of increasing

influence is coming to an end. Linear progress is a myth (McLuhan, 1996). He says

(McLuhan, 1996, p. 8):

Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by whichmen communicate than by the content of the communication. The alphabet, for

instance, is a technology that is absorbed by a very young child in a completely

unconscio

Technology and the Future of LearningIII

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