from any educational experience , but we don ' t know how teachers can effectively motivate students to attend to educational television . We know that feedback concerning the message received ( or not received ) from television is important , but we lack clear directions as to when and how teachers should provide that feedback . And even when recommendations for using television in the classroom do exist ( Stone , 1997 ), there is little evidence that these guidelines are integral parts of the curriculum in most teacher preparation programs ( Waxman & Bright , 1993 ).
Dorr ( 1992 ) indicates that most children in the USA view less than 30 minutes of television a week in school whereas their home televisions are on nearly seven hours per day ! Why isn ’ t television used more widely in education ? The teacher plays the major role in deciding what happens in the classroom , and as long as teachers experience difficulty in previewing videos , obtaining equipment , incorporating programs into the curriculum , and linking television programming to assessment activities , television viewing will continue to be relatively rare in classrooms . It also seems likely that the widespread public belief that television has detrimental effects on development , learning , and behavior will continue to limit television integration within most classrooms beyond that of a relatively modest supplementary role .
Learning “ from ” Computers
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Behavioral and Cognitive Foundations
The personal computer is the most common interactive technology used as a “ tutor ” today . Interactive instruction via personal computer is known by many names and acronyms such as computer-based instruction ( CBI ) ( Alessi & Trollip , 1991 ), integrated learning systems ( ILS ) ( Bailey , 1993 ), and intelligent tutoring systems ( ITS ) ( Polson & Richardson , 1988 ). The personal computer as a tutor or surrogate instructor has been the subject for much research and evaluation since its development in the late 1970s ( Coley , Cradler , & Engel , 1997 ; Hannafin , Hannafin , Hooper , Rieber , & Kini , 1996 ). Critics of computers as tutors have been around since their inception ( Oettinger , 1969 ), and there are vocal opponents of computers in classrooms today ( Baines , 1997 ; Oppenheimer , 1997 ).
One irony underlying research on learning from computers is that while everyone recognizes the amazing improvements in the features and capabilities of personal computers that have occurred in the past 20 years , few people outside the research community acknowledge that the nature of computer-based learning has also undergone enormous change ( Baker-Albaugh , 1993 ; Coley et al ., 1997 ). The earliest forms of computer-based instruction were heavily influenced by the behavioral psychology of B . F . Skinner ( 1968 ). These programs were essentially automated forms of programmed instruction . They presented information to the student in small segments , required the student to make overt responses to the information as stimulus , and provided feedback to the student along with
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