With respect to education, media are the symbol systems that teachers and students use to represent knowledge; technologies are the tools that allow them to share their knowledge representations with others. Unfortunately, it is common for practitioners and experts alike to confound the meanings of media and technology in education, and they are often used synonymously. The following quote from the Fifth Edition of the Encyclopedia of Educational Research( Mitzel, 1982) illustrates the problem:
First, although most educators are comfortable enough to use the term“ media” and expect others to understand its meaning, it lacks a commonly accepted definition. Instead, there is a general, somewhat vague understanding that it refers to various audio and / or visual communication technologies which have come to be used by educators. Books and other print materials are, of course, media too, yet it is usually understood from the context – including the present context – that they are not part of the topic under discussion.( Seibert & Ullmer, 1982, pp. 1190-1191)
The confounding of media( a symbol system) with technology( a delivery system for media) is unlikely to go away in popular discourse about education any time soon, but the distinction between media and technology must be clarified as unambiguously as possible if their impact is to be understood. The following quote from the Sixth Edition of the Encyclopedia of Educational Research( Alkin, 1992) clarifies this distinction:
Computer-based technologies cannot be regarded as“ media,” because the variety of programs, tools, and devices that can be used with them is neither limited to a particular symbol system, nor to a particular class of activities...... In this light,“ the computer” is in fact a“ multifaceted invention” of many uses, a symbolic tool for making, exploring, and thinking in various domains. It is used to represent and manipulate symbol systems – language, mathematics, music – and to create symbolic products – poems, mathematical proofs, compositions.( Salomon, 1992, p. 892)
Salomon’ s( 1992) important distinctions between media as symbol systems and technologies as tools or vehicles for sharing media will be used throughout this report. However, many, if not most, of the research and evaluation studies that are cited in this report are not informed by this distinction, an inconsistency that is frustrating, but inevitable. Even people who prepare dictionaries are uncomfortable with the term“ media.” For example, the American Heritage College Dictionary contains this note:
The etymologically plural form media is often used as a singular to refer to a particular means of communication, as in This is the most exciting new media since television. This usage is widely
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