Media Attributes and Examples with Its Strengths and Limitations

Books
Handouts
Manuals
Magazines
Brochures
Newsletters
Catalogs

• Relatively inexpensive to produce and duplicate
• Can be produced quickly
• Permanent record of instruction
• Largely time-independent
• Support individual student use
• Require no equipment for use
• Eminently portable
• Highly accessible
• Provide easy random access by page numbers and indexing
• Can be annotated by learners to reflect their personal elaborations and emphases
• Can add graphics to enrich contents

• Requires the reading ability of the learner
• Changing content can be difficult because of its unchangeable characteristics
• When a very large, worldwide distribution is needed, distribution costs increase
• Quality printing can be expensive
• No interactions are built-in

Overall Characteristics

• Ideal for extending voice and music
• Costs are relatively inexpensive (compared to video)
• Good for the less literate (or aural learners)
• Good for stimulating listener's imagination
• Good for evoking emotional responses

• More linear structure
• No visual element can be added
• Requires playback device
  

Telephone
Voicemail

• Low cost (can be expensive based on distance)
• Easy to use
• Has feedback feature

• Length may be limited
• May involve toll charges
  

Audiotape
Digital audio
Compact disks

• Inexpensive (costs are not related to distance)
• Easily accessible
• Easily duplicated

• Require specific device
• Hard to modify the recordings once produced and distributed
  

Audio conference
(Teleconferencing)

• Easy to set up
• Has feedback feature
• Remove distance constraint

• Requires specific device
• Challenging to schedule a time when everyone can participate

Posters
Film strips

• Easy and inexpensive to make and update
• Lower cost of producing multiple copies
• Portable and transportable

• Unsuitable for large groups
• Anxiety might increase if an instructor has poor handwriting or poor spelling
• The sequence of visuals is fixed

Film slides

• Don't need to re-shoot every film slide in order to make a change for one film.
• Teacher can decide which slides are to be shown
• Professional in appearance
• Slides stand up to wear and tear better than film strips
• Good for large groups

• Shown in the dark
• Not good for simultaneous discussion and interaction
• More difficult to update than other visual aids
• Requires special equipment

Overhead Transparencies

• Easy to create, update, and transport
• Provides an informal atmosphere
• Open for interaction with groups
• Good for large groups

• Impermanent; they yellow with age
• Requires less common equipment

Photographic slides

• Provide color images that are realistic, intense, and bright
• Can use superimposed attention-directing devices
• Can show close-up, enlarged details of an image with unmatched clarity
• Convenient, portable, and effective image medium
• Economical to shoot (compared with motion media)
• Good for large or small groups

• No motion (still images)
• Easy to scratch and bend
• Not easy to duplicate in quantity
• Requires projection equipment

Computer Projections
(i.e., PowerPoint)

• Easy to update
• Professional in appearance
• Easy to integrate with classroom discussion
• Possibility for animation
• Good for large or small group
  

• Requires special equipment/facilities
• Requires initial training to create
• Requires significant time to create
• Requires basic graphics/ composition skills

Digital Photography

• Can be downloaded directly to your computer and seen immediately
• Ready for use on the computer immediately
• Cheap (for lower quality)

• Can be expensive (for higher quality)
• Not tangible to hold in your hand
• Requires a device to output or show its images

Samples, Examples, and Mock-Ups

• Authentic
• Three dimensional
• Sometimes inexpensive and readily available
• Experience may be tactile/auditory as well as visual

• Sometimes difficult or impossible to acquire
• Often difficult to handle or distribute
• Requires storage space
• Requires time to create

Overall characteristics

• Capable for display of images, motion and color, along with sound
• Zoom in for enlarged close-ups or zoom out for a telephoto view
• Good when your message content is best communicated via sight, sound, and motion
• Helps learners visualize a process
• Produces a change in affect (feelings)
• Provides more motivation
• Professional in appearance

• More expensive than other visual aids
• Requires special equipment
• Not good for discussion and interaction
• Production equipment is needed
• Talent and technical knowledge are needed or require experts' help
  

DVDs
Videotape Desktop video

• Can compress time (i.e., time lapse) or expand time (i.e., slow motion) to attract learners' attention
• Good for large or small groups
  

• Expensive to produce
• Requires time to produce
• Requires playback equipment
  

Satellite delivery
Broadcast

• Real time
• Good for large and dispersed audience
  

• Has time constraint
• Cost of transmission
• Limited bandwidth
  

Video Conferencing

• Allow "real time" visual contact between students and the instructor or among students at different sites.
• Enables connection with experts in other geographical locations
• Can provide access for at-risk or special needs students
• Provides additional access for students at remote sites.
  

TYPES

• Small room videoconferencing
  This system is designed primarily for small groups (1-12 participants) at all sites seated around a conference table.
• Classroom videoconferencing
  This type of system usually uses high quality AV components, codecs, and an interface that allows all participants to be seen on the monitors.
• Desktop videoconferencing
  This system utilizes a personal computer and videoconferencing software. These systems are less expensive, but offer limited resolution. They are most effective for individual and small group use.
  

• Initial cost of the equipment and leasing the lines to transmit conferences may be prohibitive.
• Companies which produce codecs have each developed unique methods of compression which are incompatible, although protocols have been established to allow communication among brand names. However, this "universal standard" compromises resolution and quality to a certain degree.
• Unless a strong effort is made by the instructor, students not located with the instructor may remain uninvolved.
• If visuals, like handwritten or copied materials, are not properly prepared, students may have a difficult time reading them.
• If the "pipe" that carries the transmission among sites is not large enough, the students may observe "ghost images" when rapid movement occurs in real time.
• If the system is not properly configured, class members may observe an audio "echo" effect. The result is audio interference that detracts from the learning environment.
  

Overall characteristics

• Delivers dynamic graphics
• Can foster a high level of interactivity
• The ability of adaptation
• Can control other media such as video-tape/disk players, slide projectors, and so on, and use these media and devices in an interactive way
• Allows exact duplication of instruction at remote sites
• Primary strength lies in its ability to display images, in motion and color, along with sound
• Good when individualized instruction and learning are desired

• Can be impersonal
• Can require expensive equipment
• Might require some players

CD-ROM

• Portable
• Easy to handle
• Can have interactive function
• Good for individualized learning
  

• Hard to make a change once produced and distributed

Computer

• Holds a great deal of information in its memory
• Manipulates information rapidly
• Can adjust the type of feedback to the response of the learner
• Can retain and analyze records of the progress of the learner and use this information to adapt future instruction sequences to the needs of the learner
• Can maintain a high level of control over what the learner is allowed to attend to at one time, or it can put this control in the hands of the learner.
• When coupled with a CD-ROM drive, some limitations are overcome, such as lengthy segments of high-quality audio

• The computer alone cannot efficiently present lengthy segments of high-quality audio, particularly voice
• The computer alone, as of this writing, cannot efficiently present full-screen, smooth motion graphics of the same quality as a videotape

World Wide Web

• Ubiquitous multimedia container
• Time and location independent (with internet access)
• Can access a seemingly limitless amount and range of information over networks, including local area networks, such as an organization's library and shared databases, and wider networks, including the internet and World Wide Web
• Good for inquiry learning

• Requires development time and cost
• Requires certain level of hardware, software, and browser
• Transmission restrictions (bandwidth)

Expert(s)
Instructor(s)
Teacher(s)

• Highly interactive (depending on the mood or wishes of the person)
• Highly adaptable and flexible (depending on the skills and attitude of the person)
• Possesses and reflects empathy
• Simultaneously processes multiple sensory inputs from various sources and selects those that are most critical to the current situation

• Can be expensive
• Same content cannot be delivered every time
• Highly dependent on the person's ability to instruct
• Unreliable for doing the same thing over and over in exactly the same way.