17.3: Appendix 4: Feedback on Activity 7.5 Broadcast or communicative

From the list below:

• a learning management system
• a blog
• online collaborative learning
• Twitter
• virtual worlds (e.g. Second Life)
• a podcast
• an open textbook

1. Determine which is a medium and which a technology, or which could be both, and under what conditions.

learning management system	either: technology as software, medium when used for course delivery
blog	medium (WordPress or other blog software is the technology)
online collaborative learning	medium
Twitter	either, but mainly a medium
Virtual worlds	medium
podcast	medium
open textbook	medium

2. Decide where, from your experience, each medium or technology should be placed on Figure 6.4.3. Write down why.

3. Which were easy to categorize and which difficult?

Difficult:

• online collaborative learning, because it is highly communicative but the teacher has a good deal of control over the medium
• Twitter, because it is definitely under the control of the learner, but it is also as much a broadcast as a communicative medium.

With both these, I gave more importance to the broadcast/communicative dimension compared with the control dimension.

4. How useful?

Understanding where different media are likely to fit on the broadcast/communicative dimension will help in choosing media, depending on my epistemological position. If I want a high level of student activity and interaction I would tend toward more communicative media. If I am more concerned with information transmission and comprehension, I would tend to use more broadcast media. However, in most cases I would want a mix of both. Knowing where each medium ‘fits’ on this dimension is one component I could use in my decision-making.

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