Tetrad of Media Effects

While taking one of my first courses in education and pedagogy, I was given a list of objections to current technology. It included statements such as "It is too much of a distraction" or "It will numb their minds and they won't be able to think". To us, these statements were directed at the ubiquitous nature of television. After all, it was 1982. How shocked we were when told the list referred to the advent of the telephone. Granted, this sort of bait and switch is an old trick played by teachers on students since the beginning of time - and it worked.

After completing some assigned readings, I decided to try and find a copy of the above mentioned list. I failed. Google let me down. Google sent me on a wild goose chase through even more articles and Wikipedia posts. While in this maze of 'cool stuff', I found this image:






Some know this from the works of Marshall McLuhan. As an educator and philosopher in the mid-twentieth century, he coined phrases such as "the media is the message". Well, I didn't find the list I was looking for, but this image is more than an adequate replacement.

In education, technology acts as the medium in the above graphic. This week we read about constuctivism and connectivism. Constructivism builds, or enhances knowledge based on information we retrieve. This concept is simple and straight forward. Connectivism requires a network of information woven together to form a strong web (if you will) of information. Our connections and interactions with others creates a level of understanding considered somewhat greater than pure construction of knowledge. If social networking is the medium in the equation, what happens next?

I have more to say about this, however, I am currently a chaperone for 26 senior AP students staying in the heart of midtown Manhattan, and it is almost time for dinner. Thank goodness for technology, we text everything, including pictures of where the students are, and when. Tomorrow, I will be using Facetime to check on my students in Houston. I wish you could have seen their faces when I told them the substitute would facilitate for us. Priceless.