Sometimes I get scared. The things that frighten me are many and some of them are actually terrifying. On my list are sharks like the Carcharodon Megalodon and its smaller version the great white, as well as more mundane fears like falling off of a ladder or being sideswiped while riding my motorcycle. While I know that the likelihood of being attacked by an ancient and extinct cartilaginous creature of the seas is zero and the likelihood of being attacked by the smaller version is also zero in the mountains in which I live, I still have this part of me that is terrified anytime that I am in more than two feet of water I can’t see through. The likelihood of me meeting my other fears head on is not much greater on a day-to-day basis, but my fears are an ingrained part of my identity. I can imagine the fear felt by characters in Jurassic Park or the awesome might that the concept of a balrog has.
One thing that you will not find me afraid of though is a glowing white dot chasing people through the screens of the 1960s.
This isn’t really a post about that…but it is. Why is it that I can sit in wonder and look at the balrog or the rancor without losing my sense of rapture in the media but when I look at the white dot of terror I can’t help but laugh at the futile attempts of the couples on screen to avoid becoming a part of that burn on the negative? Why is my expectation of the media I interact with so much greater that I can’t view the 2D version of Avatar in the same way as the 3D version but I can watch a 2D version of other movies without losing a part of the experience? I think it comes back to that word: experience. I have built up in my mind an expectation for what the media I interact with should be based on my past experiences, and I have had a lot of experience throughout my life with media. In fact, my entire life has been in some ways defined by the media I have consumed from Sesame Street to Aliens to The Five People [I will] Meet in Heaven. From birth to high school to college to career to seasoned life to death, I have seen and experienced lives vicariously that have determined in small and significant ways the life I actually live. But I will never be afraid of a white dot…unless that dot is the beginning of an outbreak; my experience with media has surpassed the fear of the negative dot running amok.
That has implications though. When we think about media, and the ways to include it into courses we develop, instructors need to move beyond the media negative classroom and into a classroom experience that provides the same kinds of stimulation that people desire and expect in a digital age. The media has to be more than simply included though; it needs to be good. It needs to be included with purpose, design, and style in mind if it is going to become a valued and valuable resource in the online classroom. Media has the ability to bring to life concepts and ideas, to give voice to the faceless experts whose words in books inspire professors who inspire students, to provide accessibility of ideas to students who struggle with traditional learning mediums, and to add depth to a learning experience in the way that multiple cameras can add depth and breadth to a cinematic experience.
There is more to incorporating media in the classroom if the experience is going to be a change. It has to be more than a simple box thrown on the screen and played through. It has to be supplemented with sound and controls and user interactivity. All of this is flash though. It reminds me of Professor Gilderoy Lockhart from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. If all I have is the style without substance, the media does more harm than good. Nor do I simply want Snape though, whose knowledge of content was extensive but who scared me through his inability to engage his students and his dry focus on the content only. Students need something in between these if they are really going to get the most out of media embedded in the classroom.
The same is true for technology and different tools that can be used to extend learning. The tools must be selected for the right reasons and those reasons must be aligned directly with the learning objectives of the course. This adds interactivity to the classroom but also adds complexity for both the learner and the instructor. Each has to become skilled with the use of tools and the application of tools to learning tasks. Often times this is more of a challenge for the instructor, especially when the instructor allows the students choice, which can be a good practice. Each tool and media experience an instructor can incorporate with purpose and with quality is a window or a door or a knothole that students can use to gain entry into the content the instructor wishes to impart.
That accessibility is arguably more important than ever, given the enormous advantage technology has provided in equalizing the opportunity for students to gain access to instruction. More students and more types of students are taking more classes on more platforms from more locations than ever before. Students are no longer forced to attend a geographically convenient school nor are they confined by the barriers of language, gender, race, or time. The students are used to being given tools and media in a variety of formats and have come to expect that the learning environment will be as stimulating, if not more stimulating, than the interactive, media-rich world they live in day in and day out.
Or at least, they should have that expectation.
As an instructor it is difficult to live up to that standard for long and many times I am not able to pull it off…but give me the budget to avenge and I bet you I could make my classroom pretty darn impressive every day. Alas, I don’t have a budget of $220 million or even the modest budget of a movie whose negative space sphere scared the dickens out of the couples at the drive in. Instead, I make it through with tools like Camtasia, Prezi, Mindomo, Diigo, SharePoint, and my Office suite. These tools are great for what they do; they provide me with a way to begin conversations with my students about the role of interactivity and media in classroom instruction and allow me a way to bring learning to life in the real world.
Jaws helped cement my fears of the bigger fish in the sea and Aliens helped me remember my fears of the dark. Though the effects weren’t great by today’s standards they came from a time in my past where a plastic trashbag really could make a monster come to life. The groundbreaking effects of Star Wars have been eclipsed, but the media helped create a religion. Pong was lightyears ahead of its time, but it can’t hold a candle to Call of Duty or Spore.
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You see, we have hit a point with media and interactivity that it is difficult to go backwards from. While we can appreciate the lectures of great professors, in an online classroom we expect the wealth of experience and depth of perception that media and interactive tools allow. And while, on a philosophical level the concept of a giant void that can erase your existence in an existentially, dreadfully visceral way is mind-blowingly intense, it is not the burned spot on a negative that makes us afraid of the world, or makes us change our religion, or makes us picture ourselves on a world where giant blue natives soar with the Mak Tao, it is the inspired, designed, developed, and produced media and tools that envelop us with ideas that we embrace. What is the power of media and tools in a classroom? If constructed and implemented in just the right way, it is the difference between:
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