Lesson 7 - Choosing Media

Thus it can be seen that media and technology is somewhat slippery when it comes to categorizing them in terms of interaction, because instructors and learners often have a choice in how the medium will actually be used, and that will affect how learner interaction and feedback takes place within a single medium. Thus once again the quality of the design of the interactive experiences is as important as the medium of choice for enabling the activity, although an inappropriate choice of technology can reduce the level of activity and/or the quality of the interactions. In reality, teachers and learners are likely to use a combination of media and technologies to ensure high-quality interactivity. However, using a number of different media is likely to increase cost and the workload for both instructors and learners.

Once again, there is no evaluative judgment on my part in terms of which media or characteristics provide the ‘best’ interactivity. The choice of the medium should depend on the kind of activities that are judged important by a teacher or instructor within the overall context of the teaching. The purpose of this analysis is to sensitize you to the differences between educational media in generating or facilitating different types of interactivity so that you can make informed decisions. In this case, though, there are no clear media or technology ‘winners’ in terms of interactivity. Design decisions are likely to be more important than a technology choice. Nevertheless, technology can enable students separated from their instructors still to get quality activities and feedback, and when appropriately used, the technology used to support activities can result in more time on task for students.

At this point, you should be considering the following questions:

1. In terms of the skills, I am trying to develop, what kinds of interaction will be most useful? What media or technology could I use to facilitate that kind of interaction?
2. In terms of the effective use of my time, what kinds of interaction will produce a good balance between on the one hand student comprehension and student skills development, and on the other the amount of time I will be interacting personally or online with students?