The two quotes above were written by highly respected scholars from two of the most esteemed research universities in the USA. Professor Patricia Marks Greenfield is in the Psychology Department at the University of California Los Angeles( UCLA), and Professor Richard E. Clark teaches Instructional Technology at the University of Southern California( USC). How can two such noted researchers, physically just a few miles distance from each other, be worlds apart in terms of their estimation of the importance of media in education? This report is an attempt to sort out the differences in these perspectives and present a synthesis of research findings that may help to resolve this and other controversies about media and technology in education.
Organization of the Report
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This report is organized into four sections. Section One is an Introduction to the major issues underlying the growing interest in media and technology in schools around the world. Section Two addresses the impact of media and technology in schools when they are used in didactic or tutorial modes( the learning“ from” approach). Section Three presents the evidence for the impact of media and technology in schools when they are used as cognitive tools or constructivist learning environments( the learning“ with” approach). Section Four presents a critical analysis of what we know about the impact of media and technology in schools as well as a set of recommendations for an improved research agenda regarding these issues.
Summary
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This first section has presented important distinctions between media and technology with the former defined as a means or symbol system for human communication and the latter as a vehicle or tool for the transmission or manipulation of media. This section has also described several major reasons for the widespread attention focused on media and technology in education today. These reasons include: 1) the importance of unresolved issues about educational media and technology to virtually all members of society, 2) the enormous financial investments being made in media and technology in education around the world, and 3) the often vehement disagreements that exist about the value and impact of media and technology in education that exist in both the popular press and the educational research literature.
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