Thinking about Media and Learning with the Lenses of Richard Clark | W2 Q1 | Forum

As Richard Clark:

By considering the literature and research on media and learning, I would like to raise the important question that “Will media or media attributes influence learning?”

While unpacking this question, I will draw attention to some relevant points by expressing my arguments:

a) The large number of research on media and learning, and causal evidence shows that media has no significant and essential influence on learning in any conditions. Media is only a facilitating vehicle that could be use during teaching, but it would not influence the achievement.

b) However, even though media does not influence the learning directly, it does affect the speed or the cost of the learning with the use of appropriate and effective instructional methods which is the main support for the cognitive process.

c) Any kind of necessary and adequate teaching method can be delivered to students via media with similar learning results. In other words, the main influence on learning can be provided with implementing adequate teaching methods.

My thoughts on Clark’s argument:

Honestly, I found Clark’s approach to media and learning kind of one-sided. The main reason for me to feel like this his definition or approach to learning itself. In his articles, he basically defines learning with the cognitive progression. Considering cognitive processes as the mere unit of analysis on learning is somehow problematic for me. However, I also acknowledge that these articles were written more than 30 years ago and the sources and definition of the media and media attributes were slightly different back then. Now, I am curious that how would Richard Clark approach to the concept of learning and how would he interpret the influence of media on learning especially on these pandemic settings and online learning era. However, one point that I find convincing from his arguments: without using good teaching practices and relevant content to teach, media resources wouldn’t influence learning as we expected (as his analogy if vehicle and distribution).