Media and Instruction (c)1997



SUBJECT:    Assignment #1, Response Paper #1
AUTHOR:     Leanne C. Boyd
Course:     MCTE 625 - Survey of Courseware,
            Assignment #1, Response Paper #1
Textbook:   Instructional Media and
            Technologies for Learning
            Heinich, Molenda, Russell, Smaldino (1996)
Chapter 1:  Media and Instruction
Professor:  Dr. George Fornshell
Student:    Leanne C. Boyd
Usercode:   boydl
Due date:   September 28, 1997


       Response to Chapter 1, Media and Instruction


     When starting any new program of study, the most 

enlightening moment occurs when the mode of study magically 

defines itself as having a clear-cut position in your own 

life's pathway. Since my approach to the MCTE program is 

from the development side of computer technology, rather 

than the educator's, this introductory chapter helped me 

define two main points of consideration. It confirmed much 

of my academic training in Technical Communication and 

technical media. It also opened many new doors to 

understanding the theories and approaches to learning, and 

to the technologies involved in developing content, media, 

and methods. In my own case, the most pertinent information 

concerned the rapidly evolving delivery of LEARNING. This 

book is to be applauded for the stance the authors have 

taken in showing the distinction between instruction and 

learning. It was important for me to read that when it 

comes to instructional technologies, there has to be a 

great focus on the inherent PROCESS. This shows us that 

this is not a static, set-in-stone ideology. It also is not 

one huge, deity-like structure, but an ever-evolving 

plurality of technological tools.


     One of the chapter's most important lessons was to show 

that learning IS a process. It can be done without 

instruction. The learning process rather than the teaching 

process should be the focus. The authors wisely state that 

educators and designers of technologies for learning should 

always keep in mind that different learning situations 

require different learning tools. One of the delightful 

findings in reading Chapter 1 (and in reviewing the book as 

a whole) was that many of the technologies recommended for 

the student have also been recommended for the teacher or 

the developer! According to Tay Vaughn (1994), software 

such as Inspiration, MacProject, Microsoft Project, Lotus 

1-2-3, or Excel can be useful for the multimedia and/or 

educational developer for arranging ideas and the many 

tasks of a multimedia project. It would appear that the 

very "mindtools" that allow a student to learn to think 

creatively are also the tools used by the developers to 

create the media of learning! This, in my estimation, has 

to be the height of cooperative learning, where the student 

learns from the teacher, who learns from the developer, who 

is also a student and researcher. If the goal of 

instruction is not to just teach information but to create 

an environment whereby students learn to interpret 

information for their own understanding (constructivism), 

then a cooperative effort is continually enhanced as the 

student-teacher-developer expands into higher levels of 

learning.


     I have been involved in activities dealing with 

the broad header of "instructional design" for four years. 

Most of this training and hands-on experience has been 

directed toward the delivery of learning via the Internet. 

This chapter revealed many things to me about the actual 

approach that I have used in my work, as well as many of 

the ways that I was taught in my youth. These learning 

techniques were apparently very much Constructivist in 

structure. Most of my learning has been accomplished by 

active problem solving rather than by a passive transfer of 

information. Very little of my learning came from rote 

memorization, although I have my 5th-grade teacher, Mrs. 

Muth, to thank for teaching me the value of developing a 

healthy ability to memorize long lists of spelling words! I 

agree with the authors that there is a valuable place for 

each method of instruction within education. Even drill-

and-practice methods are irreplaceable for learning many 

fundamental skills.


     As I read this chapter, I realized that my generation 

is not only the one that was first introduced -- on a large 

scale -- to technological methods for teaching, but that we 

are also the generation who have begun to revise, improve 

and design the new technologies for learning. The authors 

advise us that cooperative learning is closely related to 

self-instruction. This, in turn, is tightly tied to the new 

media, the hypermedia. In a world where every aspect of 

life is affected by the speed of the new technologies, one 

extremely beneficial side-effect is that it allows teachers 

more one-on-one, individualized time with students, 

and less time spent on rote materials. In an ironic "bit-

of-the-hair-of-the-dog-that-bit-you" way, the technology 

that has altered the concept of time is also the means for 

recovering some chunks of that time! What better gift could 

be given than the gift of time, itself?


     It is my definite belief that methods of instruction 

(and therefore the act of learning) are changing so rapidly 

that we can almost say that education, as we know it, is 

going away. The introduction of the computer led a straight 

course to the introduction of the Internet. For the past 

few years, the human race has been introduced to what many 

have called the greatest tool of all mankind. It has been 

exciting to be a part of the growing number of 

technologists, educators, researchers, and students who 

have defined and developed this, the greatest of mindtools.


     School districts on a worldwide basis struggle with the 

problems of budget cuts and downsizing. A growing number of 

those involved in every aspect of education are now seeing 

that this cutting edge, global accumulation of information 

and methods for delivery will perhaps be the salvation of 

any form of an education system. Every day brings new 

content, new software, new interactive methods to the 

online environment. It well could be that a professor of 

mine, Clark Germann of Metropolitan State College of Denver 

(L. Boyd, personal interview, July, 1996), was right when 

he said that the day quickly approaches when the only 

software one will ever have to learn is: Netscape. (Insert 

Internet Explorer, you MS die-hards!)


     Chapter 1 dealt very effectively with the subject of 

applying research to practice. To really solidify what I 

said earlier concerning the new media becoming the standard 

for the educational system, what comes to mind is the 

immediacy of the these new methods. At the very moment that 

I was researching for this paper, information became "same-

day" available in an article about medical advancements. 

For one small child in California and for many heart 

patients worldwide, the leading-edge news of September 23, 

1997, had to have produced heartfelt gratitude:

     "During exploratory surgery at the University of 

     California-San Francisco on Tuesday, Robyn became one 

     the first patients in the world to have digital images 

     of her heart posted on a computer network that makes 

     them accessible to authorized physicians, medical 

     students and researchers all over the planet (Legón, 

     1997)."


The importance of the availability of information is just 

one of the issues of this exciting method of delivery. The 

authors of Instructional Media and Technologies for 

Learning have well represented not only the differing 

facets of these topics, but also their underlying 

enthusiasm for the future of education as a whole.


     As I studied the readings, it occurred to me that I 

have been perhaps destined to become a part of the new 

technologies in learning. In 1970, when my father, H. Glenn 

Carson, retired from 30 years of teaching in Boulder, 

Colorado, he said that eventually children would be taught 

primarily from their own homes with a medium something akin 

to the . . . television! (L. Boyd, personal interview, 

June, 1970) I've always thought Dad was a prophet.


REFERENCES:

     Vaughn, Tay (1994). Multimedia: Making it work (2nd 

ed.). Berkeley, CA: Osborne McGraw-Hill.

     Legón, Jeordan (1997). High-tech help within: Digital 

technology provides images of girl's heart. [On-line]. 

Available: http://www.sjmercury.com/scitech/heart092497.htm.