Can You Imagine A World Without Multi Media?
The study of media in education implicitly assumes that each medium entails some particular attributes that matter in learning depending on the symbol system it involves. Media are our cultural device for selecting, gathering, storing, and passing knowledge on in representational forms. Representation, as differentiated from direct experience, is always coded within a symbol system. If one attempted to remove picture from film, cartography from maps, or language from texts, what would be left? Media without symbol systems are as inconceivable as mathematics without numbers. If symbol systems are central to media of communication and to thinking, then the interactions and interdependence between the two systems cannot be disregarded. For an example, it is possible that symbolically different presentations of information differ as to the mental skills of processing that they require. It is also likely that the major symbol systems of the media cultivate mental skills differentially and that one learns to use media’s symbolic forms for purposes of internal representation.
It is difficult to ignore the possible role media’s symbol systems play in the cultivation of mental skill not just as a carriers of information about skills or as carriers of skill-models, but rather as the mental skills to be. Our era, the twenty first century, can be characterized as the age of media and technology. As a channel for information and entertainment mass media surrounds us day and night. Read the rest of this entry »
What makes the difference between a dancer who has the audience going wild with enthusiasm over her show versus one who is barely able to hold their interest? Of course, there are many factors that can influence this, such as dance skill, but one that many dancers don’t think about is the one that comes within them: what their motive is for the performance and what they’re really trying to accomplish when they step out on stage.