Educational Technology

Educational Technology and Learning

One of the best–known proponents of this perspective, Richard E. Clark, argues that media can never influence learning, because media are “mere vehicles that deliver instruction but do not influence student achievement any more than the truck that delivers our groceries causes changes in our nutrition.” Substantial empirical evidence supports this perspective. A meta–analysis conducted in 2004 synthesized 232 studies published between 1985 and 2002 studying the effectiveness of distance education technologies. Analysis found that research methodology accounted for the most variation in outcomes, followed by pedagogical approach, and then media. In general, the study found that distance education (delivered primarily through computer–based means) and classroom instruction are equally efficacious. Further, extreme variability in results from individual distance education studies led to the conclusion that the structure and relevance of the instruction to the medium has substantially more power than the medium itself.

Not all scholars agree with this view. William Winn, another widely recognized leader in the field, characterized the development of educational technology as progressing through four “ages.” The first age was that of instructional design, in which researchers and educators found that instruction [Page 314]could be planned and evaluated independently from human interactions with students. This allowed students to learn material in a more efficient way in terms of both their cognitive effort and freedom to learn from material at their own pace without needing to be physically present in a classroom environment. The second age, message design, focused on the ability to use different media through which designed instruction could be delivered. The age of simulation emerged as computers and other media developed sufficiently to simulate real–world experiences that students could control as an aspect of the learning process, even if the activity would be too dangerous or otherwise impossible to perform in the real world (e.g., the visualization and manipulating of subatomic particles or the flow dynamics under pressure of deep sea research). The current age of learning environments extends the developments of the age of simulation by facilitating multiparticipant communication and social interactions around a learning activity. Although Winn acknowledged that pedagogical prerequisites must be met for learning environments to be effective, he maintained that delivery media could play a significant role in influencing learning independent of pedagogical design. He argued that the lack of empirical evidence to support this position was due to the use of research methods that were inadequate for understanding the nuanced learning that occurs in complex social learning environments.

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