Comparing media

First draft

9. Comparing educational media by David Hawkridge, Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University of the United Kingdom

Executive Summary [To follow later.] Table of contents Introduction Merits of text, audio, video and connectivity Comparative costs Effectiveness of educational software Conclusion References Web pages Introduction Teachers, educational administrators and policy-makers make media choices. At the simplest level, they decide whether to spend scarce money on textbooks. At the most sophisticated, they choose between putting resources into Web-based online teaching or into CD-ROMs. Media choices are made every day, in Johannesburg classrooms and within vast systems like the Open University or the Kenyan Ministry of Education. Ideally, teachers want all media choices to be based on who and what they are teaching. In reality, they choose what is best for the class rather than individual learners, and what fits into the time and space they have for teaching. Administrators and policymakers consider which media are accessible to learners, how much money is available and how much training the teachers need to use the media. They also consider supply: can good quality equipment and content be purchased and maintained? The availability of media varies widely, making choices very complicated. By 1980, all industrial countries had introduced print, radio, film and broadcast television into their education. Many soon added audio and video cassettes, telephone teaching, computerbased learning, cable and satellite television, computer-based audiographics, viewdata, teletext, videodiscs, interactive video, video conferencing, electronic mail, computer conferencing, multimedia CD-ROMs and remote interactive databases (Bates, 1995). And now the Web. In Sub-Saharan countries, with the exception of South Africa, media choices for formal education are much more limited. Print is the commonest medium: radio comes next, with coverage of about 60 per cent of the population of Africa (Jensen, 2000). Television and computers are far behind, even in cities. The Internet for education is a dream,

except in universities and a few schools. Afele (2000) calls for a ‘point of presence’ (POP) in every village or community, but he calls in vain for the time being. Merits of text, audio, video and connectivity What are the relative merits of text, audio (including radio), video (including television and film) and connectivity (using the Internet) in terms of improving learning outcomes? Comparing these media in terms of precisely measured learning outcomes is an impossible task, because of the difficulties of running valid controlled experiments. Many years ago, Schramm and others (1967), the leading US researcher in this field, reported to UNESCO on the new educational media. A few years later, for the US Agency for International Development (Schramm, 1973) he analysed thousands of published research studies comparing educational media. He demonstrated that children and adults could learn from any medium then in use. He found very few studies indeed that had detected significant differences in achievement as measured by tests after learning through two different media. Even those were flawed, Schramm said, because they failed to take into account questions such as whether the test was fair for both media, and whether the teacher was equally skilled in using both. Behavioural psychologists like Briggs (1970), who prescribed formulas for choosing media, overlooked the practicalities of constructing lessons and teaching in classrooms or at a distance (Hawkridge, 1973). Reiser and Gagne (1983) analysed 10 models of media selection, but none provided a basis for strategic choices. Bates (1995) suggested access, costs, teaching approach, interactivity, organisational issues, novelty and speed as factors to take into account in selecting technologies. Teachers should be trained to use various media, in the best combination for a given lesson, but what is that combination? Schramm, and many others since, have studied what different media are good for, in the hope that teachers (and, in the background, administrators and policy-makers) could make better-informed media choices. Although precise learning outcomes cannot be measured or guaranteed, the impact of different media is known. Text Text is used for teaching as print and, these days, on electronic screens. Print is relatively cheap to reproduce and distribute; books are familiar to us all, and easy to carry. Learners can re-read a textbook as often as necessary. They can search it, with an index, and copy from it if they need to. They can annotate every page if that is desirable. By adding pictures or diagrams to text a teacher can help learners to understand something hard to explain in words. Often the graphics add background information. Sometimes they merely break up the blocks of print. But print is a one-way communication channel, often regarded as authoritative and to be memorised in Sub-Saharan countries. Nobody can talk back to it though it can stir up a debate. Classroom textbooks are almost always linear – learners read them in the order in which they were written. Their authors tell a story or present an argument from beginning to end. This linearity dominates how learners learn from print. Only in magazines and newspapers are they likely to read ‘chunked’ print, in a layout that puts several stories or topics on one page.

Text on-screen may one day become as familiar to many Sub-Saharan learners as print. They will read e-mails, Web pages and multimedia hypertexts. On-screen text can be read and re-read almost as easily as print, but unlike print, it can usually be changed, moved, deleted, annotated, minutely searched, compiled and stored for future use. Learners can learn to re-organise words, sentences, paragraphs and graphics onscreen, and this changes their approach to learning with text. They interact with it. E-mail text has immediacy and conveys a sense of presence that learners value, particularly when studying far from their teachers. E-mail is easy to respond to, unlike a printed text. It enables teachers – and learners – to exchange views. E-mail messages are more terse than speech, but easy to retrieve and invite a speedy response. Like a printed text, a single e-mail message is linear, but the many messages that make up a computer-mediated conference can be read in any order. Web pages and multimedia (CD-ROM) hypertexts, too, are designed to be read in any order the learner may choose. There’s no right order, nor a best one. Navigation can be difficult, though moving to another page takes only a click or two. Teachers who teach traditionally, with a fixed sequence of topics, can have problems adjusting to this apparent lack of order. Audio (including radio) Spoken face-to-face, words are matched with the ‘non-verbals’, the face and body language that helps listeners to understand them all the more clearly. And they are set in a context of time, place and audience. Spoken over the telephone, words still carry the immediacy of face-to-face conversation, without the non-verbals and within a much more limited context. Whether face-to-face or by telephone, conversations are enhanced if the speaker and listener know each other personally, because they can ‘fill in the gaps’. Because a conversation occurs in real time (both people are involved at the same time), listeners can immediately query what speakers say. Chat sessions on the Internet, although on-screen and not spoken, try to emulate conversations. Radio has near-universal coverage in Africa and for learners is more accessible even than audiocassettes. Words broadcast by radio to a mass audience lack the nonverbals, of course. The speaker may have to state the context very clearly (as do reporters phoning-in to the radio studio from scenes of disaster). The learners are unknown to the speaker expect in a very general way: he or she can make no firm assumptions about their knowledge. The speaker is in control of the channel, but not of the audience. Spoken words recorded on tape or CD-ROM for teaching and learning are different from spoken words over the telephone or radio, which pass in a moment. Recorded speech is often scripted first and then read, thus being more like the printed word than impromptu speech. It tends to be formal, dense in structure and ideas. It lacks the redundancy and repetition of speech. Readers, no matter how professional, may not convey the emphases intended by the author. Understanding a recording is easier because it can be replayed, although listeners cannot easily find their place on tape (CD-ROMs are easily searchable). Making notes from radio is much more difficult than from a recording. Much audio and radio depends on a narrative, an unfolding story that holds the listeners. Long sentences and too much detail, sadly common enough in educational audio and radio, make listeners lose interest. Interest increases with audiovision and radiovision,

which can powerfully combine speech (and other sounds) with printed text and pictures, for educational purposes. Learners can look, scan, point and manipulate, while the speaker directs their attention, reassures and motivates. The expressive power of the human voice can make it seem like having a tutor in the room. Language learning using text and tapes is a familiar example. Learners can then work at their own pace, but guided by a teacher whose voice ‘holds together’ the whole programme and who suggests note-taking and forms of practice. For learners with impaired sight, computer-generated speech from a screen reader is invaluable, despite lacking the non-verbals and the correct inflections. Those with physical problems in handling audiocassettes can benefit from speech recorded on CDROM, or from the radio. Deaf learners can ‘listen’ to audio recordings via computers that convert audio into on-screen text. As yet, learners with disabilities in Sub-Saharan countries have not experienced these advantages. Video, television and film Although not many Sub-Saharan learners have access to them, video, television and film combining moving images and a soundtrack, are ideal for conveying performances, places, events, processes, people and animations. They can be used to teach skills and change attitudes. They can paint in the context, thus illuminating the emergence of ideas. Learners can grasp from these media concepts that defy explanation through any other medium. Yet they must absorb information faster than with other media and the content may call for concentration, understanding and retention. They can explore distant and dangerous places. They can learn to make judgements about, and gain insights into, human situations that cannot be portrayed in words alone. They can view and mull over more than one interpretation of the same scene. They can arrive at generalisations based on examples from several cultures. Video, television and film probably offer the best means of bridging the so-called gap between reality and representation, between what is and what is perceived. However, in education they always used in combination with other media, such as printed notes, whether in classrooms or distance learning. Outside Sub-Saharan Africa, video is used far more than television in education mainly because video can be easily adapted to school and college routines. Video has replaced film in education, too, because videocassettes are much more easily stored, handled and played than film. Video is easier to take notes from, too, because it can be replayed. Producers of educational videos know that whereas television broadcasts are ephemeral, videocassettes can be designed for repeated viewing. The content can be segmented, breaking away from the need for a narrative throughout, and demanding more participation from the viewer. The segments can serve radically different purposes, ranging from drama scenes to reference collections of moving images. If video is stored on CD-ROM rather than tape, it is easily searchable too. Connectivity Connectivity in education usually means linking learners to the Internet, which can enable learners and teachers to share on-screen text and graphics, and, increasingly, audio and video. E-mail depends on connectivity, as do e-mail lists set up by interest

groups, asynchronous computer conferences and remote whiteboards. Because the Internet is global, there are few geographical limits as long as telephone connections are available and can be paid for. Videoconferencing involves the linking of cameras and microphones in several places, usually by broadband lines, so that there can be live exchange of images and speech, offering a sense of presence and immediacy. However, as in audioconferencing (just by telephone link-up), participants seldom have equal opportunities to contribute: learners do not usually control the cameras or microphones, and despite careful planning by the teacher they easily feel unseen and unheard. Comparative costs Cost efficiency studies compare the costs, assuming that the outputs are of the same quality. Cost effectiveness studies compare the costs and measure outputs. For example, Eicher and others (1982), in a report to UNESCO, found on the basis of cost efficiency studies that distance learning was probably cheaper than face-to-face, oncampus learning because there was partial substitution of educational media instead of teachers. Bates (1995) and Rumble (1998) noted the wide range of costs reported for any one medium, and the uncertainties and ambiguities in many of the costings. Rumble (1998) drew many heavily qualified generalisations from the research literature. What are the comparative costs of educational media? Eicher and others (1982) demonstrated how difficult it is to compare them in a single country where few studies exist. Clearly, generalisations about costs in industrial countries have little relevance to costs in present-day Sub-Saharan Africa, where resources are scarce. Publishing secondary school textbooks in, say, Uganda, may be relatively costly where print runs are fairly small, where paper, ink and printing presses must be imported, and where distribution costs are high. Radio for adult education may be much cheaper to the Tanzanian Ministry of Education than books or audiocassettes if the learners already have radios and if the radio stations provide slots at a subsidised rate. In Ghana, universities cannot afford sufficient chalk, chemicals, books and journals, let alone video or computers. Rumble (1997, 1998), writing on costing educational media used in open and distance learning, criticises the quality of policy advice given to politicians and educational planners on three grounds: 1 2 3

the accounting systems are inadequate for costing the products the cost models focus on a few output-related variables, ignoring many cost drivers that actually determine the costs of both products and overheads cost comparisons are seldom valid or even the right ones to attempt.

With the Web only a few years old, very little research as been done yet on the costs of connectivity in education. Connectivity depends on payments for installation, line rental and calls. None of these is cheap, in local terms, anywhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, and often only the wealthy can afford them. Almost all African countries now have direct Internet access, but very few schools are connected at present, mostly in the cities, even where local rates applying nationally, as in Zimbabwe. All of Africa has about as

many Internet sites as Latvia, but the picture will change if plans in Nigeria are realised soon (Jensen, 2000). So far, the media have almost always been seen as an add-on cost for education. Computers never replace teachers, they complement them. The Web never replaces textbooks, although it can enhance them. Governments and international organisations in Sub-Saharan Africa still think in terms of training teachers and building classrooms, rather than linking learners. What educational software is effective beyond basic (ie office) applications? Four popular rationales for introducing ICT into education are: 1 Social: all learners should be aware and unafraid of ICT because ICT now pervades industrial societies and is becoming vital to other societies too. 2 Vocational: many learners should be able to operate ICT, and possibly even program it, because these skills will be useful in their jobs. 3 Pedagogical: all learners should be able to benefit from ICT in mastering the curriculum. 4 Catalytic: teaching, managerial and administrative efficiency should be improved through ICT (Hawkridge, Jaworski and McMahon, 1990). All four can be served through introducing basic office software into schools, colleges and universities. Learners can use word-processing, Web browsers and e-mail packages, for example, for such purposes as to become aware and unafraid of ICT, to learn vocationally-useful skills, and to access knowledge and improve their creative writing skills. Clearly, teachers, managers and administrators can benefit from using the same software in the course of their jobs, which change because of ICT. In industrial countries, however, the third rationale is also being served through learners having access to educational software specifically designed for teaching one or other aspect of the curriculum. Such software usually, but not always, is prepared to match selected objectives within a single discipline, say physics. It is published on floppy disk or in multimedia format on CD-ROM, quite often to accompany a textbook. Although the best of this educational software is thoroughly tested so that the bugs are ironed out, very rarely is it tested for its effectiveness, in the sense of learners being able to achieve higher grades in public examinations after using it. Instead, its quality is judged (with some difficulty) by individual teachers, or, in a few countries, by central bureaus for ICT in education. Publishers of the software, even in the US and Europe, seldom have a mass market for it. As computer technology advances, many programs become obsolete within a few years, yet new programs appear, some even on the shelves of supermarkets, aimed at young children’s parents. Afele (2000) suggests that ‘all pupils would be able to access high quality curricula…and customised learning’ in the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, but there is almost no indigenous educational software development or publishing, therefore programs must be imported if required. Educational institutions in these countries are seldom happy with the imports, for pedagogical and cultural reasons. In countries that were once British and French colonies, there may be some match still between their curricula and the software (if it comes from Britain or France, rather than the US). Yet teachers are

not trained to use it in class, the hardware may be incompatible and/or obsolete, and networks for spares, repairs and maintenance hardly exist. Expensive private schools and colleges, with overseas links, usually fare best, widening the gap between their students and the rest. No evaluative data exist to show that the expenditure is worthwhile and the software effective, whether in private or public institutions. In these circumstances, possibly the exchange of knowledge made possible by the Internet will be more important to Sub-Saharan Africa than developing indigenous educational software. The many languages of Africa do stand in the way, and Jensen (2000) says that, globally speaking, Sub-Saharan Africa has the least developed telecommunication infrastructure. (Exceptionally, in Botswana and Rwanda 100 per cent of the telephone lines are digital, though not used much for education. Similarly, Senegal will soon link 2000 communities by fibre optic cable.) Industrial countries have a great deal to do to help. Conclusion [To follow later.] About the writer David Hawkridge is Emeritus Professor of Applied Educational Sciences in the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University of the United Kingdom, in Milton Keynes. He has experience of teacher education in Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He teaches and writes about educational technology and distance learning. References Bates, A.W. (Tony) (1995) Technology, Open Learning and Distance Education. London: Routledge. Briggs, Leslie J. (1970) Handbook of Procedures for the Design of Instruction. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: American Institutes for Research in the Behavioral Sciences. Eicher, J.-C., Hawkridge, D., McAnany, E., Mariet, F. and Orivel, F. (1982) The Economics of New Educational Media: Vol. 3: Cost and effectiveness. Paris: UNESCO Press. Hawkridge, David (1973) Media taxonomies and media selection. In Budgett, R. and Leedham, J. (eds.) Aspects of Educational Technology VII. London: Pitman. Hawkridge, David, Jaworski, John and McMahon, Harry (1990) Computers in Third World Schools: Examples, experience and issues. London: Macmillan. Hawkridge, David and Robinson, John (1982). Organizing Educational Broadcasting. London & Paris: Croom Helm and Unesco. Reiser, Robert and Gagne, Robert (1983) Selecting Media for Instruction. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications. Rumble, Greville (1997). The Costs and Economics of Open and Distance Learning. London: Kogan Page.

Rumble, Greville (1998) The Costs and Economics of Open and Distance Learning: Methodological and policy issues. PhD dissertation, Volume 1 of 3, The Open University. Schramm, W., Coombs, P.H., Kahnert, F. and Lyle, J. (1967) The New Media: Memo to educational planners. Paris: UNESCO. Schramm, W. (1973) Big Media, Little Media. A report to the (US) Agency for International Development. Beverly Hills, California: Sage. Web pages Afele, John Senyo C. (2000) Towards an African Knowledge Bank. Error! Bookmark not defined. Jensen, Mike (2000) The Status of African Information Structure.