Thinking Beyond Media
I lean towards Clark’s view that media will never influence learning. Instructional method is a necessary condition, whereas medium is a sufficient condition. Learning takes place through cognitive processes. Piaget’s theory on metacognition, deals with the active monitoring and regulation of cognitive processes. This is first and foremost, a crucial factor that influences learning. Teachers play the role of facilitators to transmit, scaffold, the education process, and media is one of the tools whereby more effective learning can take place. It is not the computer but the cognitive processes combined with effective teaching methods that facilitate learning to take place. Clark asserts that it is the ‘method which is the active ingredient’ that ‘may or may not be delivered by the medium’ to influence learning. Thus, it is important to separate the learning process, ie method, from the medium.
Method, as depicted by Clark, is the provision of cognitive processes or strategies that are necessary for learning to take place, but which students cannot or will not provide for themselves. The medium itself is only an inert tool if we do not construct our own ideas to process information provided from media’s complex systems. Despite technology’s rapid advancement and breakthrough to our classrooms, students today are able to utilize technological gadgets to aid their learning processes. Students assimilate and acommodate new knowledge via these tools, but how they are able to use them effectively and creatively is largely reliant on their ability to construct their own knowledge from existing media resources, and be able to apply that reserve of knowledge in their problem solving process. The Government’s drive for ‘thinking schools’ and the urge to encourage students to ‘think out of the box’ addresses the imperative need for students to think, and not use these media resources without effectively engaging them efficiently.
I believe that yes, we should definitely engage and interact with new media and new technology, explore new inventions and maximise their capabilities to aid us in problem solving. However, it is imperative to remember that these are learning tools to facilitate our learning process, and that it is the thinking behind these channels of technology that should not be overlooked.
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