Consider the difference in me writing this post out on a sheet of paper versus me writing this post out on this blog. The former I hand it in to the professor, the latter I click "PUBLISH POST." Either way, a man by the name of Richard Clark had a question: "Does the form of media in which something is learned make any difference on learning?"
At last he concluded, after much research, there was No Significant Difference. Yes, those are capital letters. This research is quite old and has reach such fame (infamy?) that it has even been shortened to an acronym: NSD.
But all I wonder is: Difference on what?
Clark posits that it doesn't matter how a subject is delivered, but what is ultimately delivered - much like a delivery truck delivering goods to the market. Learning is learning, he seems to say, and the media in which is delivered has absolutely no impact on that learning.
I was curious to see if Clark would change his position, which he did. But it wasn't that he de-validated all of his work and stated the opposite, but rather that he took his same work and moved to a different spot to view it from. He mainly questions the "unique influence of media" on learning.
So then one might ask: what is learning? Clark seems to have a very defined idea that learning is a cognitive product - something to be achieved at the end of a cognitive process. But if learning is truly a cognitive product, then we could just confine learning to taking tests... which doesn't quite work because one needs to learn something to be able to take the test!
So how does this research impact the classroom? After all, Clark suggest that utilizing various media only signify a difference in cost and convenience. School administrators might cite the "No Significant Difference" (or shall I say quite smartly, the NSD) study to justify a cut in technology funding in schools - fail to update what is currently in use and also to resist investing in technology for the future.
In conclusion, would I have learned more by writing this post out on a sheet of paper and handing it in to my professor? Or have I learned more by typing it out on blogger.com and clicking "PUBLISH POST"?
I honestly have no idea.
While human beings have been learning just fine without computers for millennia, I must admit that a blog post is much more fun than handing in a piece of paper.
At last he concluded, after much research, there was No Significant Difference. Yes, those are capital letters. This research is quite old and has reach such fame (infamy?) that it has even been shortened to an acronym: NSD.
But all I wonder is: Difference on what?
Clark posits that it doesn't matter how a subject is delivered, but what is ultimately delivered - much like a delivery truck delivering goods to the market. Learning is learning, he seems to say, and the media in which is delivered has absolutely no impact on that learning.
I was curious to see if Clark would change his position, which he did. But it wasn't that he de-validated all of his work and stated the opposite, but rather that he took his same work and moved to a different spot to view it from. He mainly questions the "unique influence of media" on learning.
So then one might ask: what is learning? Clark seems to have a very defined idea that learning is a cognitive product - something to be achieved at the end of a cognitive process. But if learning is truly a cognitive product, then we could just confine learning to taking tests... which doesn't quite work because one needs to learn something to be able to take the test!
So how does this research impact the classroom? After all, Clark suggest that utilizing various media only signify a difference in cost and convenience. School administrators might cite the "No Significant Difference" (or shall I say quite smartly, the NSD) study to justify a cut in technology funding in schools - fail to update what is currently in use and also to resist investing in technology for the future.
In conclusion, would I have learned more by writing this post out on a sheet of paper and handing it in to my professor? Or have I learned more by typing it out on blogger.com and clicking "PUBLISH POST"?
I honestly have no idea.
While human beings have been learning just fine without computers for millennia, I must admit that a blog post is much more fun than handing in a piece of paper.
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