industrial revolution . The same technology that is transforming work offers new learning systems to solve the problems it creates . In the wake of the HL revolution , the technology called “ school ” and the social institution commonly thought of as “ education ” will be as obsolete and ultimately extinct as the dinosaurs . ( p . 50 )
However , despite such rhetoric and other , more conservative , optimism expressed in the popular press and government documents , there are also many skeptics and a few outspoken critics of media and technology in education . A recent cover story of The Atlantic Monthly entitled “ The Computer Delusion ” illustrates a critical view of technology in education , beginning with this opening sentence :
There is no good evidence that most uses of computers significantly improve teaching and learning , yet school districts are cutting programs – music , art , physical education – that enrich children ’ s lives to make room for this dubious nostrum , and the Clinton Administration has embraced the goal of “ computers in every classroom ” with credulous and costly enthusiasm . ( Oppenheimer , 1997 , p . 45 ).
The controversy in the popular press is echoed in the educational research literature . Research examining the effectiveness of media and technology in schools can be traced back almost eighty years ( Cuban , 1986 ), and yet many questions about the value and impact of these approaches remain unanswered . Indeed , the seemingly contradictory findings often reported in the educational research literature fan the flames of the ongoing controversy about media and technology in education . Consider the following two quotes :
Bringing the electronic media into the schools could capitalize on the strong motivation qualities that these media have for children . Many children who are turned off by school are not turned off by one or another of the electronic media ; quite the opposite . An educational system that capitalized on this motivation would have a chance of much greater success ...... Each medium has its own profile of cognitive advantages and disadvantages , and each medium can be used to enhance the impact of others . ( Greenfield , 1984 , p . 178 )
All in all , media ’ s symbolic forms and computers ’ afforded activities often have skill-cultivating effects . However , to claim that these effects are specific to any one medium or media attribute is difficult ...... There is growing consensus that past media comparison , media attribute , and motivation studies indicate that media do not influence whether someone learns from instruction . Learning seems to result from factors such as task differences , instructional methods , and learner traits ( including attitudes ) but not the choice of media for instruction . ( Clark , 1992 , p . 812 )
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