Review of: Westera, Wim. "The Eventful Genesis of Educational Media." Education and Information Technologies 17.3 (2012): 345-60. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 27 June 2012.
Sometimes it helps to step back to look at something with a meta-view and then to return to the micro-level to really know what to think about it. I feel that much of the focus of this class, at least for me, has been on the micro-level. I am constantly thinking about, “What decisions do I make as I choose different technologies to use with my students?” At the micro-level it is easy to loose sight of the bigger picture, to forget that the technological choices we make have been faced by generations of instructors before us. The short journal article, “The Eventful Genesis of Educational Media” is a nice little summary of all the major changes of the past century, starting with Edison’s invention of educational films, up to the advent of the Internet. Even though the article has an overall tone that is rather negative towards using technology innovation in teaching, the negativity is not towards the innovation itself: it is more towards the unrealistic attitude that this new (methods, product, technology) will make education more successful and revolutionize how people learn. The writer chronicles how with each new product both the market and the public were hopeful for massive changes, yet at the same time educators were often hesitant to quickly adapt these innovations, and over time the early buzz faded and education plodded along. These innovations included movies, audio tapes, learning machines, VCRs, and eventually micro-computers. Up to this point, market forces were pressing for the educational system to turn out workers that would run the factories and delivery system of the Industrial Revolution.However, with the changes in the demand for knowledge workers, the rumbling of massive change had started.
Sometimes it helps to step back to look at something with a meta-view and then to return to the micro-level to really know what to think about it. I feel that much of the focus of this class, at least for me, has been on the micro-level. I am constantly thinking about, “What decisions do I make as I choose different technologies to use with my students?” At the micro-level it is easy to loose sight of the bigger picture, to forget that the technological choices we make have been faced by generations of instructors before us. The short journal article, “The Eventful Genesis of Educational Media” is a nice little summary of all the major changes of the past century, starting with Edison’s invention of educational films, up to the advent of the Internet. Even though the article has an overall tone that is rather negative towards using technology innovation in teaching, the negativity is not towards the innovation itself: it is more towards the unrealistic attitude that this new (methods, product, technology) will make education more successful and revolutionize how people learn. The writer chronicles how with each new product both the market and the public were hopeful for massive changes, yet at the same time educators were often hesitant to quickly adapt these innovations, and over time the early buzz faded and education plodded along. These innovations included movies, audio tapes, learning machines, VCRs, and eventually micro-computers. Up to this point, market forces were pressing for the educational system to turn out workers that would run the factories and delivery system of the Industrial Revolution.However, with the changes in the demand for knowledge workers, the rumbling of massive change had started.
Then, like a tidal wave coming in, suddenly technology has invaded almost every aspect of education. Even the most Luddite of educators has to acknowledge the pace of innovation and scope of technological change that we are facing today is unprecedented. This article cites a survey of Stanford University professors in the 1980s, only a few were using the Internet at all for instruction, even though they were using technology to write papers and make presentations. Now, Stanford University is a pioneer in providing Massive Online Open Courses, with hundreds of thousand of students from around the world participating. According to Wim Westera, market forces, along with “educational practice, educational research, and educational technologies” work together to bring about change in educational practices.
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