EDUCATIONAL MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY: MODULE 1.

Module 1

•          Description of key terms: media, technology, educational technology, types of educational media & educational technology.

•          Historical development and educational technology in classroom today.

Medium (pl. Media) - means through which information is shared among people participating in any form of interaction. It can be verbal, non-verbal, written and/or online conversations. Examples of media are such as language, newspaper, radio, television, magazine, internet, drums, horns, bells, computers, filers, just to mention a few.

Educational media- any means used to share information between teacher and a learner. Types may be audio, visual and audio visual.

Other commonly used terms to educational media include the following:

Audio/visual (A/V)-materials that can produce sound/picture when projected on a screen (audible and visible)
Learning aids- resources designed to assist individual learners or trainees in learning and understanding process. Eg. Operating manuals. Here the Lerner is guided to follow precise directions for performing a given educational task

Training (instructional) materials-set of materials designed to direct the learner how to proceed with a unit or course of study. They relate directly to instructional materials such s handouts, fliers, video clips, etc

Learning resources- anything around that can facilitate effective learning. Eg. Books, specimens, handout, electronic materials, etc

Technology- The application of scientific knowledge to achieve practical purposes

Technology can also be defined as both a process and a product:-

•          As a process, it refers to creative application of knowledge for purposeful activities.

•          As a product, it refers to application of equipments which facilitate the application of this knowledge.

From this perspective, technology can be perceived as a multipurpose phenomenon, having several fields with which it is identified:

•          Instructional technology-systematic way of designing, carrying out and evaluating the process of teaching based on human and communication. It employs the combination of human and non human resources to bring about more effective instructions for efficient and effective learning.

•          Industrial technology- scientific knowledge used in industrial processes to improve industrial production.

•          Information technology- process of gathering, storing, processing and disseminating of information of whatever quality.

•          Educational technology-general set of instruments and methods or techniques through which solution to educational problems can be found.

From definitions of various scholars and institutions of educational technology, there are three aspects embraced in the concept of educational technology:-

•          Use of equipments or devices in support of teaching and learning.

•          Creation of efficiency and effectiveness as a result of supported learning and improved educational system.

•          The application of knowledge and skills through various techniques.

From educational technology, we have two terms which are:-

•          Technology of education-refers to design and evaluation of systems of teaching and learning or the psychology of learning and communication theories. It is the systematic application of scientific principles on the process of teaching and learning. They involve:-

•          Identification of objectives or (what the students should learn)

•          The design of appropriate learning experience or ( how the students will learn)

•          Evaluation of effectiveness in practice (how well the students will learn)

•          The improvement of the design of the next lesson

•          Technology in education- refers to the integration (ushirikiano) of technology on the process of teaching and learning to achieve the instructional objective. Therefore, it refers to more complex range of audio visual equipment/materials increasingly integrated into the classroom teaching and learning situations.

Categorization of educational technologies

•          Tutorial technologies

•          Designed to teach in lecture like or workbook like where the system controls the materials printed to the students.

•          It is very much applicable to distance education

•          Such materials include Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI), instructional television program, cassette or computer training programmes, some video disks

•          Students have no chance to control the system

•          Exploratory technologies

•          These are technologies where by students are free to roam around the information displayed or presented in medium such as CD-ROM, encyclopedia or virtual libraries.

•          Exploratory applications promote discovery or guided discovery that help students acquire information, knowledge or learn facts, concepts and procedures.

•          Unlike tutorial technologies that act on students, these allow students to control learning

•          A good example is when a science student spends hours in laboratory using laboratory equipments finding out solutions to scientific problem.

•          Application technologies

•          These are technologies that provide tools to facilitate educational process.

•          For example, in the computer context, these include, these include internet surfing , word processors software, database management programs, spreadsheet soft ware that are used in writing tasks, analysis of data, graphing software, desktop publishing, video recording and editing equipments

•          Communication technologies

•          These are technologies that allow the learner and facilitator to send and receive instructions or messages and information to and from one another through networks or other technologies

•          For example, communicating with your fellow student/learner or lecturer through email or fax or internet.

Types of educational media

There are two major categories of media

•          Traditional media

•          Modern media

Traditional media

These are all ancient mean locally produced and used by our fore fathers to communicate information in the process of teaching and learning in classroom. Examples are such as drums, language, signs, songs, dances, pictures, paints, models and simple machines. They are in fact the base for recent development to modern media.

Modern media

These are more recent media that appear to be new or modern in a society. They are either locally made or imported. They may include electronic technology or equipment such as computer, photocopy, video camera, television receiver and video deck, etc

It is argued that modern media are only a convenience of traditional media. Telephones for example are a convenience of traditional drums sounded to communicate information

Other scholar such as Schramm (1966) categorizes media into two categories:-

•          Big media

•          Little media

According to him, big media refer to complex media which are expensive and difficult to operate. On the other hand, little media refers to simple to operate and inexpensive media. Examples are books, fliers, handouts, models, specimens, etc.

                                       

Others categorize media into printed and non-printed. Non-printed are further divided into projected and non-projected

Historical development of educational media and technology

Historically, the development of educational media and technology traces back to early 1900’s

Reasons to use educational media

The rapid expansion of education worldwide, more content diversity, more students in the classroom necessitated the need for teaching/learning arrangements and materials to meet these diversified needs.

Thus, according to Koda 1990, educational media and technology can be divided into four phases:-

•          The introduction of technology of education in teaching and learning process. That’s teaching through gymnastics, drama, role play, etc introduced by Plato in Athens

•          Introduction of hardware in education (1920-1955). According to skinner (1968), during this period, educationists began to design and use hardware in classroom. Eg. Machine designed by Sydney press in 1926 was used in classroom in 1954 at the University of Pittsburgh. This was due to large number of students in classroom.

•          Introduction of software.  This phase was marked by the by the introduction of software to support the use of hardware in period between 1955-1967

•          Introduction of modern media. The pressure for the need for the expansion of education brought about this phase worldwide

In Tanzania context

In Tanzania, the use of education media can be traced back to the colonial era when the British government established teacher education.

-in teachers’ colleges, students were taught how to improvise teaching and learning aids for effective teaching and learning process.

The role of education media and technology in education

•          One of the main roles of education technology is that of responding to challenges facing education such as the use of equity and quality of education

•          To face the inadequacy of resources especially in less developed countries

•          To increase the ability to use all our five senses in education process.