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MediaThere is more to the media of teaching than meets the eye (or ear...). For present purposes let us look at two issues: preferred "modalities" of perception, and the social message of the medium.Preferred Forms of PerceptionThere is a lot of rubbish out there about "learning styles", which I don't believe. Learning is a very complex phenomenon; perceptual preferences are just one part of it, but a quite important part. Some people seem to prefer to take in information visually, and some aurally. More specifically, some people (like me) like diagrammatic representations of material, and some find it difficult to make sense of them. To personalise even further, I like my own diagrams, but often find other people's incomprehensible.
The argument, stemming from the work of Bandler and Grinder in the late '70s (search for it if you are that interested: I find it too difficult to winnow the wheat from the chaff, but at least look at this site) is that we have preferred or privileged perceptual channels; some people are more visual, some more aural, some more kinaesthetic. The latter involves movement, and according to one "learning styles" site, is dominant for 40+% of the population. Of course it is, given their test items. OK; while this seems to make good sense, and is unlikely to do much harm, I don't know of any rigorous research to suggest that it is actually matters much. As a quick test, just think about reading the newspaper and listening to the news on the radio at the same time: which commands your attention? I block out the sound and concentrate on the text, unless I make a conscious effort to do otherwise, so I have some preference for the visual channel. (It is not as easy to demonstrate the "practical/kinaesthetic" channel.) You can see where this argument is going. Proponents emphasise the need to provide something for everyone in your teaching.
What you say by how you say itMarshall McLuhan famously declared that "the medium is the message". In teaching, at least, the medium is certainly a message: the use of any adjunct to the voice sends a message to the students which will be received and understood at least out of consciousness, and perhaps explicitly.
Media in Practice"Media" is a term interpreted broadly, because not everything fits into neat categories!
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My position on learning styles and "I told you so" research. |
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Original material © James Atherton: last up-dated 5 March 2007