TEACHER > Media Selection > 13 things to consider when selecting media

1. Think pedagogy first, technology second.
2. Identify the characteristics of the learners.
3. Analyze your lessons to determine your needs.
4. Consider all your technology options.
5. Think about student's level of competency with regard to technology use.
6. Select media based on practical factors.
7. Consider time available.
8. Plan for alternate media where possible.
9. Provide a clear, well-organized structure and good directions.
10. Prepare yourself to teach with the desired media.
11. Count the direct and indirect costs to the student.
12. Arrange for copyright clearance if you use materials not your own.
13. Be sure to license any software you distribute.

1. Think pedagogy first, technology second.

Don't put the priority on technology. Always think first in terms of what is the intended learning outcome, in other words, what you want students to achieve or to do at the end of your lesson or activity (refer to your learning objectives), then select media that will support this. Think about what will best teach this topic.

Also consider the tools that the student must work with and the prior experiences of the students. Do not spend the entire class time on teaching how to use a very sophisticated media unless that is your learning objective.

Be careful that you aren't using media for media's sake. It is easy to slip into this. What are students accomplishing in the activity? Is the activity itself even needed? Can students get the same result through a re-designed activity that relies on a lower level of technology? Are you using technology just to get the students attention and motivate them? Is there another way that you can do this?

2. Identify the characteristics of the learners

Identify the characteristics of the learners in terms of their ability to read, to understand abstract symbols, and so on. Also, consider the learners' familiarity with the operation of the media.

3. Analyze your course to determine your needs.

Determine the instructional type of your learning activities. Will your activity be instructor-led, self-paced, or group learning?

Different learning tasks may require different media. For instance, when you want your students to be able to build their own concept maps, your class might be divided into four parts; introduction to concept mapping, demonstration of building a concept map with software (i.e., Inspiration), the student activity of building a concept map using the software, and assessment of the product.

For the demonstration part, you might want to use a smart board in order for all students to be able to see your demonstration. For the students' activities, you need to make sure that each computer that will be used has the software installed.

4. Consider all your technology options.

Don't automatically assume that you always need higher-level technologies for students to achieve your learning objectives. Often, the objectives can be achieved with other types of media.

For instance, you can also demonstrate how to build a concept map in a whiteboard when you do not have access to a smart board. Also, students can build their own concept map on paper.

5. Think about student's level of competency with regard to technology use.

Don't assume that students possess a certain level of competency in using technology, especially when you want them to manipulate media. Always consider students' prior knowledge and skills for the media use, and plan ahead how you will help them use technology for learning activities. Technology should not be an obstacle for learning.

If you plan to use a certain media in your teaching, don't assume that students will have access to the technologies you want to use; often they do not. For example, will they have access to a computer? What optional media selection will you have for those without access to the technology you've planned for?

6. Select media based on practical factors.

Select media based on practical factors; cost, equipment availability, user expertise, and other general considerations. Certain types of media might not be a practical choice even though you are sure that your students will benefit from it. This may be for many reasons including budget, media availability, and so on. For example, it is not practical to wait a fourth of the available class time for stunning video clips to download from the web. The simpler and easier media that you can use and still meet your instructional objectives, the better.

If you want to develop the media as your instructional activity, consider development timelines and budgets.

7. Consider time available.

When you plan for media selection, consider the overall time needed such as preparation time of the media and the time needed for students to master the media, especially if students will use the media for learning. Also, consider given all the other tasks the student must carry out (textbook reading, studying lesson pages, doing homework, etc.), how much additional time are you asking them to spend in activities using technologies? You might want to supply some "givens" to get students on to the real learning you are interested in more quickly.

8. Plan for alternate media where possible.

Prepare for the potential that the technology you have chosen might fail. Also make a plan for an alternate way for students to submit lessons or complete assignments if the technology is not operational.

9. Provide a clear, well-organized structure and good directions.

This is critical, especially for self-instruction activities. If the students cannot get immediate help from an instructor, the lessons should be designed well and provide good directions.

10. Prepare yourself to teach with this media.

There are two parts to this: the first part is becoming comfortable with using the media yourself, and the second is to plan how you will teach with it.

How familiar are you with what you want to use? Will you require training? If so, how will you get it? Plan to practice prior to instruction.

11. Count the direct and indirect costs to the student.

If you will ask your students to use a particular technology, count the direct and indirect costs to the student. For example, when developing a custom program, is there commercially available software that would reduce/eliminate the need to custom build so much? Development costs are passed on to the student, at least in part. The learning gains for the student should be justifiable for the additional cost incurred.

There are also direct costs to the student for software purchases and Internet access, for example. Be careful not to drive up the cost of the learning activity by requiring too much technology.

12. Arrange for copyright clearance if you use materials not your own.

Any media which you have obtained from others (images and text from the Web or a software program are just two examples) may well be copyrighted, and using them without permission could be an infringement subject to legal action.

13. Be sure to license any software you distribute.

Some software (Netscape Navigator and SoftArc's FirstClass are two examples) requires no licensing and may be freely distributed. Most other software (Apple's QuickTime, Macromedia runtime files created in Authorware, Attain or Director, as examples) do require a standard license agreement in order to be legally distributed.

Reference

http://web.pdx.edu/~mmlynch/MediaSelection3.doc
<From The World Campus at Penn State, 'Faculty Development 101 Course, Lesson 6, 'Choosing a Technology Mix' for distance education>

Updated: April 18, 2004 Copyright © 2003 University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Information Science & Learning Technologies. All rights are reserved.