Why use other media?
Different kinds of information are better suited to some media than others. “The medium is the message”; obviously the spoken word can convey information for language learners that text cannot. This does not make it better as the reverse is also true. Simply consider your choices and select what best suits your objectives.
I can likely understand how to use a mechanical device better by illustration or video that I can by text. I can learn pronunciation in a different way by audio than by text. I can sometimes feel more a part of a community that I can see and hear than I simply read about. This is not to say that text is anything but essential; but rather that other approaches should also be evaluated. But there are other, less apparent reasons, why other media might be considered in HE.
Student numbers are rising and it is difficult to meet that need. Lecturers face overcrowded theatres where they cannot answer individual questions; practical demonstrations are given to hundreds of students at once; language lecturers cannot listen to individuals; and so on. It is hoped that digital media can aid in meeting this challenge.
Listening (and speaking) exercises can be placed online for language students to practice against. Lectures can be recorded in advance and made required viewing for anyone wishing to attend the face-to-face sessions which are now delivered as seminars. Practical demonstrations can be recorded and made available to anyone wishing to quickly review how to use a microscope or a lathe. Feedback can be recorded and sent a student as an audio file often faster than it can be typed out and delivered.
Of course a lot of this content has been been produced before. With the ubiquity of free, often excellent, content online via YouTube, Wikipedia, Voice of the Shuttle and others; educators are moved toward re-evaluating their role. An educator can no longer consider themselves a store of materials and knowledge. To deliver a course to a student cannot be simply to distribute materials; it is the use of those materials, the context around them and the narrative through which they are released that becomes important. Many of the tools we include here allow you to repurpose existing content with embedded players and rss feeds; to try and act as a gatekeeper between your students and the web.
It should also be considered that students are well-used to this range of content before entering Higher Education. Our learners are changing and, no matter how we may feel about that, we will need to adapt also. A lecturer here in QMUL stated that “I was surprised to see some distance-learning students who were quite active in using the course web page. In the discussion forum, one distance-learning student, not TAs or lecturers, answered many questions from other distance learning students, and another distance-learning student volunteered to video-record lectures and made them available on the web page”. The culture of sharing and collaboration that new ‘Web 2.0′ tools rest upon is starting to filer into the classroom.