Lesson 7 - Choosing Media

One of the critical issues that will influence the selection of media by teachers and instructors is:

• The way the institution structures teaching activities.
• The instructional and technology services already in place.
• The support for media and technology use that their institution provides.

If an institution is organised around a set number of classroom periods every day, and the use of physical classrooms, the teachers are likely to focus mainly on classroom delivery.

The reverse is equally true. If the school or university does not support a particular technology, teachers and instructors quite understandably won’t use it. Even if the technology is in place, such as a learning management system or a video production facility, if instructors are not trained or oriented to its use and potential, then it will either be under used or not used at all. Furthermore, if ‘core’ technologies’ such as learning management systems or lecture capture facilities are not properly managed or if the services are understaffed, teachers and instructors lose patience and confidence in the technology.

Because of the inertia in institutions, there is often a bias towards those technologies that can be introduced with the minimum of organisational change, although these may not be the technologies that would have maximum impact on learning. These organisational challenges are extremely difficult and are often major reasons for the slow implementation of new technologies for teaching in education (see Marshall, 2009) for a method for assessing the readiness of institutions for online learning).

Most institutions that have successfully introduced media and technology for teaching on a large scale have recognized the need for adequate professional support for faculty, by providing instructional designers, media designers and IT support staff to support teaching and learning. Some institutions also provide funding for innovative teaching projects.