the right technology

This evening I completed chapter four – Technologies and Media – in Distance Education: A Systems View by Moore and Kearsley (2005).

It is sometimes difficult for me to keep in mind that the technology is not as important as the design. Great technology coupled with poor design will yield little better than mediocre results. Also, “technology” in relation to distance education can refer to a variety of mediums ranging from print to internet delivery. No one technology is best in every situation. Rather, designers must select the best technology for a given learning objective and learner. Older technologies are not necessarily bad; newer technologies are not necessarily good.

According to Moore and Kearsley, print is still the most pervasive technology used in distance education (p. 73). This surprised me at first until I thought about the fact that many of the leading distance education universities in terms of enrollment are not in countries that enjoy high percentages of access to the internet. Instead they are in countries like Turkey, China, Indonesia, and South Africa. In these areas print is the main delivery medium for distance education courses.

As mentioned above, the key is selecting the right technology for the application. There are many learning objectives where print is perfectly acceptable, and quite possibly even preferable. There are other objectives for which a good graphic, picture, or video clip is best. For other objectives perhaps an audio clip or interactive audio discussion might be the best approach to get the message across. Designers should not let themselves get tied into any one technology. They will be best served if they use a mix of technologies to portray the learning objectives for which they are designing.

Moore, M. G. & Kearsley, G. (2005). Distance education: a systems view (2nd Ed.). Belmont, CA: Thompson Wadsworth.