Instructional media and their affordances: some cases in the history of educational technology
By nlmv
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Medium: conversation/oral text
Affordances: use of questions based on facts known by learners as a means of reaching new conclusions. Book -
Inquiry is still embalmed in the basis of knowledge development. This approach is widely used in academic and nonacademic settings around the world.
More about Socrates -
Comenius presented a critical view of society’s organization. He believed education should be for all. “Comenius proposed a system open to all that led from kindergarten through the university ─ an idea some three centuries ahead of its time.” (Saettler, P., 1990, p.30) Medium: Still pictures: Orbus Pictus (The World in Pictures) Affordances: Use of pictures (visual sense) to foster learning that represent practical applications and value for the learner.
(Saettler, P., 1990, p.30) -
The use of realia (objects) and pictures to support leaning is still extensively used in several learning environments. By targeting the senses, this approach can make the subject more concrete and meaningful to learners as they relate the object or picture to their reality. Orbis Pictus
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Media: Written/ oral texts: Learners participate in the process of creating and selecting the medium they are to use (e.g. reports from community leaders, reports on community problems). The media selection is based on their relevance to the learner.
Affordances: Based on Freire’s approach: media (e.g., text) created with/by learners promote a sense of ownership and engage learners in thinking critically about their society, making learning meaningful and more likely to generate social changes. -
Media: Multimedia constructed by learners
(Learning with multimedia) Affordances: Use of multimedia as a cognitive tool. Jonassen believed that learners were more likely to learn by constructing the multimedia instructional material rather than studying multimedia created by others (Dijkstra S., Jonassen, D. & Sembill, D. , 2001) Multimedia Learning -
Use of media created by learners could enhance their critical view of society and create social changes. His approach was used in many literacy programs, such as MOVA (Literacy program for youths and adults). Mova Literacy Program More about Paulo Freire Video: Paulo Freire
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Learners have more control over their learning process, they can organize and represent their knowledge in authentic and meaningful ways without relying on teachers’ interpretations.
“When using computers as cognitive tools, learners reflect on what they know and use those reflections to construct knowledge bases.” (Dijkstra S., Jonassen, D. & Sembill, D. , 2001, p.50) David Jonassen/MU
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