International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (2000), 11, 144-162
The Role of Different Media in Designing Learning
Environments
Allan Collins Northwestern University, Boston College, 135 Cedar St., Lexington MA 02421
e-mail: a-collins@nwu.edu
Peter Neville Bricolage Interactive Design, 3925 West Braker Lane, Suite 310, Austin, Texas
78759, e-mail: pneville@bricolage.com
Katerine Bielaczyc Boston College, CSTEEP, School of Education, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
e-mail: kateb@bc.edu
Abstract. As a broader array of communication tools is developed, designers of learning
environments need a better understanding of what kinds of communication each medium is best
suited for. Each of the new media have different affordances and constraints. One of our
principles for the design of learning environments is “Render unto each medium what it does
best.” This paper is an attempt to state some of what we know about what different media are
good for.
INTRODUCTION
Stephen Jay Gould (1980) is noted in biology for the theory of "punctuated equilibrium." When
you look at the fossil record, it turns out there are long periods of stasis and the sudden
appearance of new species. The sudden appearance of new species in the punctuated
equilibrium view is brought about by rapid speciation in a new environment: a species migrates
to a new environment, a meteor crashes to earth, two continents collide, someone invents
penicillin, etc. After such events there are rapid changes in biological organisms until a new
equilibrium is reached. This view has replaced the earlier prevailing view of continuous
evolutionary change.
We would argue that the evolution of social systems follows a similar pattern. For
example, the modern corporation reached an equilibrium state with the development of General
Motors in the 1920s under Alfred P. Sloan. This model held sway in America until competition
from Japanese corporations and changes in technology forced major restructuring on to
American corporations in the 1980s (that is continuing to this day). Even General Motors has
been forced to restructure itself, though it was the last of the large American automobile
companies to do so. The buzzwords of total quality management, re-engineering, and the
virtual corporation are reflections of the many changes that are occurring in American
corporations, because of the changed environment they face.
Likewise the theory of "punctuated equilibrium" seems applicable to changes observed in
the educational system. A number of writers, such as Eisenstein (1979), Olson (1994), Ong
(1982), and Postman (1982) have tried to characterize the shift that occurred with the invention
of the printing press as Western society moved from traditional oral culture to literate culture
dominated by the printed word. For example, Ong (1982) argues that old people were revered
in oral cultures because they were the storehouses of memory, whereas written records came to
replace this role of old people in literate cultures. Concerning the other end of the age
spectrum, Postman (1982) posits that the growth of literacy contributed to the creation of
childhood. Many researchers point out that “study” becomes possible when there are written
records, and Eisenstein (1979) describes how written records enabled the development of an
“archival research tradition.” Further, universal education is viewed as a product of the printing
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press (Eisenstein, 1979), and is centered on the major products of literate thought, namely
reading, writing, mathematics, and science.
Our thesis is that we are starting into a cultural transition of similar magnitude with the
blossoming of new communication technologies: video, computers, the Internet, video
conferencing, cell phones, fax, etc. all of which are merging into one large network that can
reach anyone anywhere. More than just receivers of information, people are producers --gaining access to new technologies to communicate messages of their own. The term "new
media" is gradually being dissociated from "mass media” as we expand from simply "media by
the few for the many" to "media by the many for the many" (Tyner, 1994). People are gaining
new voices, new ways of communicating with the world, and redefining the “communities” to
which they belong (Rheingold, 1993). Turkle (1995) points out that it may not be a human that
one is chatting with online, even citing the possibility of “making a pass at a robot.”
Implications in fields such as science have been profound, as scientists virtually manipulate
one-of-a-kind equipment in order to remotely perform experiments, such as Internet-accessible
electron microscopes (National Research Council, 1993). The new media have also allowed
scientists to form collaborative teams that share virtual workspaces across vast distances,
including team members in space. We think these new media will have as profound effects as
printing, particularly on education, as we move into a digital culture. In fact, although the
transition from oral to literate culture took thousands of years, we expect that major advances in
the transition to a digital culture will be felt within the next hundred years.
When print culture became dominant, it did not replace oral culture, but formed a synthesis
with it. Still today we see many places where oral culture still predominates, even in the United
States (Heath, 1983). The new synthesis we envision in education will emerge around five
dominant media: face-to-face communication, text, video, computer software, and networks. As
systems evolve, these five media are becoming integrated into a single digital communication
system. We expect that different people will have different interests and abilities with respect to
these media, both for producing messages and receiving them. Literacy with these media can
be thought of as “digital literacy” (Gilster, 1997) or “cybercy.”
Each new medium in some sense subsumes earlier media. Sometimes the transformation is
great, as when text substitutes for face-to-face communication (e.g., letters) and sometimes the
transformation is small, as when software incorporates video in its programs. Something is lost,
but much is gained in the development of each new medium. In thinking about the design of
educational media, our assumption is that all of the different media will play a role in the
design of any learning environment. The ability of networks to integrate the capabilities of
other media makes it critical to consider what role each should play in the design of networkbased learning environments.
As designers of educational environments, it is important to consider this proliferation of
media critically. What determines whether to communicate one thing via e-mail, another by
multimedia presentation, another on paper, and another orally in person? How do we make the
most of the media available to us? Each of the new media have different affordances and
constraints (Norman, 1988). One of our principles for the design of learning environments
(Collins, 1994, 1996) is “Render unto each medium what it does best.” This paper is an attempt
to state some of what we know about what different media are good for. These are our first
steps toward a design theory for the new media.
Affordances must be seen as more than just the kinds of information a medium can
communicate well. Affordances also include the ways that the content is presented, and the
effect it has on the audience, and the room it allows for tailoring the impact of one's message.
One medium might lend itself to the implication of authority, while another might lend itself
more to a sense of personal contact and individual interest. One medium might only have a few
different ways of conveying information, while another allows a wide range of variations.
As an example, one of us took a trip recently to the Grand Canyon. The Park Ranger
gathered visitors together to explain the geographical formation of the canyon. As he spoke,
the Ranger spread his arms wide before us as a visual for a timeline: his left hand marked “the
beginning,” his right elbow marked the time of the dinosaurs, the tip of his right index
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fingernail marked the time of humans. While provocative, neither the Ranger’s careful
explanation, direct observation of the Canyon, nor following the expanse of his arms were able
to help us to fully visualize the processes that formed the Canyon over millions of years. A
video animation may have provided a visual representation condensing millions of years of
change into conceivable progressions. Or a simulation environment may have been used to
allow us to slow, zoom-in to, and replay change processes, and “test out” other possible
geographic events. What would this have been like, in this rustic and natural setting? How
would this compare to looking out over the Grand Canyon, in the presence of others who share
a similar awe, while observations are discussed? Or the way children imitate the Ranger and
spread wide their own arms? What is gained, and what is lost by the various media?
In the next section we describe some of the critical dimensions on which media vary.
Then we return to the different media and their genres, to analyze how they differ with respect
to those dimensions. Finally we compare the different media with respect to each of the
dimensions discussed.
DIMENSIONS OVER WHICH MEDIA VARY
Media vary over many dimensions, which we have divided into four groups, in order to provide
a more coherent framework for understanding media. The four types of characteristics we
discuss are: 1) transmission characteristics, 2) recording characteristics, 3) production
characteristics, and 4) social characteristics. We think these capture the critical features that
distinguish the effects that different media have for the purpose of educational design.
Transmission Characteristics
Transmission characteristics have to do with the relation between the sender and receiver(s)
and how the messages are transmitted. We have identified seven dimensions:
1. Bandwidth: Media vary in the richness of their messages. The wider the bandwidth,
the more that can be expressed. The degree to which a message can be compressed into
bits is a measure of its bandwidth.
2. Interaction: Messages can be one-way communications, or broadcasts, with no
interaction or they can be two-way (or multi-way) communications, permitting
interactions among participants to take place.
3. Number of Receivers: Both one-way and two-way media can allow single or multiple
receivers.
4. Negotiability of Meaning: The negotiation of meanings, the back-and-forth
determination of the content of a message, or the meaning of terms within a message,
can be a critical aspect of whether a message is truly communicated.
5. Control: Control refers to which participant(s) determines the topic and content of the
communication.
6. Synchronicity: Synchronicity refers to the degree to which sender and receiver must be
present at the same time.
7. Location: Location concerns whether a medium restricts senders and receivers to be in
the same place, or whether it is possible to participate in the communication while in
different places.
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Recording Characteristics
These characteristics relate to the records that are produced by most of the newer media. We
have identified six dimensions with respect to these records:
1. Permanence: Media vary in terms of their permanence, or their ability to be preserved
and used at a later time.
2. Reproduction: Reproduction concerns the ease with which copies can be made of an
artifact produced in a particular media.
3. Distribution: Latour (1986) emphasizes the importance of mobility of records, which
together with reproduction, makes wide distribution possible.
4. Modification: Records vary in the difficulty of modifying them after they have been
produced.
5. Navigability: Media differ in the ability of people to move around to get to particular
places in the record.
6. Surveyability: Closely related to navigability is the ability to survey the entire record
in order to pick out the parts that are of interest. Tables of contents, headings, and
indexes are designed to facilitate this capability.
Production Characteristics
We have identified three dimensions with respect to producing messages:
1. Ease of Production: Media vary widely in the skill and technique needed to produce
them.
2. Production Costs: Like ease of production, costs of production vary for different
media, though they are still rapidly falling for the newer media.
3. Specialization: Some media have spawned a variety of different production roles,
whereas others have not.
Social Characteristics
We have identified four different dimensions relating to the social aspects of different media.
1. Involvement/Emotional Distance: Media vary in the degree they foster involvement
among receivers as opposed to emotional distance.
2. Author Visibility: For some media the author(s) of the message are visible and for
other media there is little or no authorial presence.
3. Credibility: Media vary as to the degree receivers accept the messages as true or
authoritative.
4. Isolation/Sociability: Some media foster social interaction whereas others foster social
isolation.
Where different media fall on these dimensions determines the kinds of messages the media are
most effective in communicating. In more technical terms they determine the affordances and
constraints of the different media. In the next section we discuss in more detail how these
dimensions play out in the different media and genres. Then we compare the different media
with respect to each dimension.
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AFFORDANCES AND CONSTRAINTS OF DIFFERENT MEDIA
In this section we discuss each of the five media introduced in the first section, that we think
will have an important role in education. We will consider different genres of the media that
have different characteristics.
Face-to-face Communication
Face-to-face communication involves many kinds of interaction between speakers and listeners.
Speakers can tell stories, explain ideas, ask and answer questions, watch their listener’s body
language, etc. Listeners can interrupt speakers and take the floor with questions, emendations,
contradictions, and syntheses. Because of this high bandwidth interaction, face-to-face
communication is very good for conveying complex and ambiguous messages -- even messages
that the speaker is not aware of. Meaning negotiation is facilitated through interaction between
the speaker and listeners, such as questions, puzzled looks, arguments, etc.
There can be multiple listeners, as long as they are together synchronously and in the same
location. But compared to other media, there can only be a few people who hear a particular
idea through face-to-face communication. As the number of listeners increases, the speaker
tends to control the interaction by lecturing, and discussion becomes difficult. In small groups
one or two listeners can control the interaction by asking questions, but this tends to undermine
the structure of the speaker’s message. When listeners share a common background, this is fine.
But usually it is best to strike a balance between a speaker structuring the message and
interacting with listeners. When there are so many listeners that interaction is severely limited,
then all the advantage of face-to-face communication is lost, and video presentation becomes
more appropriate.
A major limitation of face-to-face communication is that it produces no permanent record,
so there is nothing to reproduce, distribute, modify, navigate, or survey, unless some kind of
recording is made of the interaction. This means that if something is forgotten, it cannot be
recovered. If a good idea is produced, it cannot easily be distributed or studied. Much that is
learned is simply lost.
Face-to-face communication is easy to produce, but since it involves humans (e.g.
teachers), it is very costly to produce, and becomes more so over time as compared with
technology-based communications, such as books or interactive videos. In another sense it is
inexpensive to produce, because ‘talk is cheap;’ it is just that expertise is expensive. We have
very little specialization with respect to speech, though clearly some people, such as Martin
Luther King, are masters of the medium. In general people do not have speech writers and
editors for their talk, though it may be growing with the new recording technologies.
Face-to-face communication is very involving, as long as there are not too many listeners,
which cuts down on the interaction. When the speaker is visible, as in face-to-face
communication, then the credibility of the medium depends entirely on the credibility of the
speaker. Face-to-face communication is the medium that does most to eliminate isolation, and
bring people into a community. Our analysis of face-to-face communication is summarized in
Table 1.
Some of the genres that are particularly relevant to education are lectures, discussions,
debates, tutoring, coaching, asking questions, and answering questions. Lectures can reach
many listeners, but they involve the least interaction and hence are least effective for conveying
complex or ambiguous messages. In discussions and debates control of the interaction passes
among the participants, and what is learned evolves from the interaction. Tutoring and coaching
are highly interactive, but usually the tutor or coach retains control of the interaction. By asking
questions, a speaker can find out what the listeners know and what they have understood, and
still retain control of the interaction. But when listeners ask a lot of questions, the speaker loses
control, which may lead away from the topics the speaker wants to cover.
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Table 1. Characteristics of Face-to-Face Communication
Transmission
Recording
Production
Social
high bandwidth
highly interactive
few listeners
meaning negotiated
variable control
synchronous
co-location
no permanence
no reproduction
no distribution
no modification
no navigation
no surveying
easy to produce
expensive
no specialization
involving
speaker visible
variable credibility
fosters sociability
Face-to-face communication is critical for conveying certain kinds of messages,
particularly those where interaction is necessary to ensure that listeners understand what is
being conveyed. This can be assessed by asking questions, watching listeners, or by evaluating
the listeners’ responses. Often the speaker may not quite know what they are trying to convey,
and the meaning is constructed through the interactions of speakers and listeners. This is
particularly common in tutoring and coaching. Hence, face-to-face interaction is effective for
conveying tacit knowledge and ambiguous messages, and constructing shared understandings.
Text and Pictures
Writing dramatically changed the nature of language interaction in a number of ways. Receivers
of text messages (i.e. readers) no longer needed to be in the same location at the same time as
the author; in fact, any number of readers might live in distant lands centuries later. Readers
cannot directly interact with the author to negotiate the meaning, but they can reread the
messages over and over till they think they understand. The messages are low bandwidth, which
tends to distance the reader from the contents of the message. The author completely controls
the contents of the text, but the reader controls the interpretation.
The great innovation of writing is the recording of language. This means that the discourse
can be permanent, easily reproduced with the invention of printing, and distributed all over the
world. Once printed, it is not easy to modify. Better than any other medium, text can by
surveyed by the reader, particularly with the help of a table of contents, index, and headings,
which were products of the invention of printing (Eisenstein, 1979). The reader can navigate
easily through text, locating those passages of most interest or relevance. Eisenstein (1979)
argues that the invention of headings changed the very way we organize the world.
Text is more difficult to produce than speech. The difficulty of producing it slows the
author down and tends to make the messages more thoughtful than speech, as Scardamalia and
Bereiter (1994) claim for Knowledge Forum, their online writing environment. The cost of
production is not nearly so great as for software or video, and while there is some
specialization, as between authors and editors, writing does not have such clearly defined roles
as video production.
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The author is for the most part invisible with text, which adds to the distancing effect.
However, very often in publishing there is an attempt to make the author more visible, in order
to draw readers back to that same author. The credibility of a text mainly derives from the
source, so that books and journals have an air of authority that leaflets and tabloids do not. But
the particular publisher (e.g. New York Times) or the particular author (e.g. Rush Limbaugh)
greatly affects the credibility of the text produced. Text is notorious for isolating readers from
other people, since it is very rare that reading is a social occupation (Postman, 1982). Our
analysis of text is summarized in Table 2.
These characteristics of text make it good for representing difficult ideas that need thought
and repeated inspection, such as equations, principles, diagrams, maps, theories, arguments, and
definitions. Ong (1982) claims that text supports the production of lists, and we would add that
this is true for other “epistemic forms” (Collins & Ferguson, 1993), such as tables, hierarchies,
stage models, axiom systems, constraint equations, etc.
Writing down ideas makes them easier to evaluate and challenge, and thus to be modified
and refined over time. This was critical to the development of science. Latour (1986) argues
that it was the invention of “immutable mobiles” that was critical to the development of
science, focusing on the permanence of the records and their distribution. Until an idea is
written down, it is slippery, and it cannot be studied (Ong, 1982).
There are two genres of writing that have particular affordances worth considering:
narratives and arguments. Narrative reflects the way that events unfold in the world. People
remember stories better than other text structures and in fact it is possible to embed arguments
in stories, as in fables and parables, in order to aid their memorability. We would argue that
narrative form tends to lower the critical stance of the reader, so that the ideas come in without
being questioned.
Argument has its origins in theories of persuasive rhetoric developed by the Greeks and
Romans, but it came to full flower in scientific writing. Postman (1982) argues that the
distancing effect of writing supports rational argumentation, and hence to more considered
decision making and ultimately to the development of non-intuitive theories and ideas about the
world.
Table 2. Characteristics of Text
low bandwidth
not interactive
many readers
meaning interpreted
author control
asynchronous
located anywhere
permanence
easy reproduction
good distribution
no modification
easy navigation
easy surveying
harder to produce
inexpensive
little specialization
distancing
author invisible
variable credibility
fosters isolation
Transmission
Recording
Production
Social
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Video and Film
Video first arrived at the beginning of the twentieth century in the form of film. Later near midcentury television was developed and in recent years we have had the development of
videotape, videodisks, interactive video (with the development of computers), and video
conferencing (with the development of networks). Until video can be easily transmitted over
digital networks, we will not see the full flowering of video as a medium. This section will
focus on film, television, videodisk and videotape, treating interactive video under computers,
and video conferencing under networks.
Video is a high bandwidth medium, where the number of viewers is essentially infinite. It
does not support interaction (except more recently through interactive video and video
conferencing), and hence does not allow for negotiation of meaning. Control is in the hands of
the producer of the video, and it, along with face-to-face communication, are perhaps the most
manipulative of the media. Video can be seen by people in any location at any time.
Film, videotape, and videodisk provide recordings of video. Videodisk is the most
permanent of the video media, and unless digitized, most of the films and tapes will be lost.
Videodisk also is easiest to navigate, since it is possible to jump around fairly easily to
different places in the video. Videotape is the easiest to reproduce, and hence has become
commonplace in homes, but it is more difficult to navigate in order to access places in the video
that are of interest. In general it is very difficult to survey the contents of a video, though
various researchers, such as Stigler and Hiebert (1997) have been developing methods for
indexing videos, so that specific sections can be located easily. This in some sense parallels the
development of techniques for surveying texts with a table of contents, index, and headings.
Video is becoming widely distributed through video stores and eventually over networks. It is
difficult to modify video, but a variety of video editing tools are becoming available on
computers.
It is only in recent years with the development of inexpensive video cameras, that video
has become at all easy to produce. As these video production cameras and tools become
widespread, we expect that video production will become as necessary a skill as writing, but
more difficult to execute well. The cost of video production is very high professionally, but is
falling as new tools become available. Video production is the most specialized type of media
production, with tasks in film making often being divided between camera operators, directors,
producers, editors, and managers of lighting and other effects.
Video is a very involving medium, so that it is very good for conveying emotion and
showing events as they unfold. The emotional content of video is usually heightened by the use
of music and sound. Because of its realism and high bandwidth, it is ascribed more credibility
than is warranted, given the selectivity of what is shown. But there is a sense that pictures do
not lie, as verbalized in the expression, “Seeing is believing.” The producer is usually invisible
with video, though there are recent attempts in the film and television to make the director
known to the audience, following the book publishing tradition. Video is not so isolating as
text, since there is a tradition of people watching movies and television together, but it does
take people out of the community and Putnam (1995) argues that television has led to a decline
in civic participation. Our analysis of video is summarized in Table 3.
Video is an excellent medium for showing events and processes as they unfold. It
preserves spatial relations and the look and feel of processes. The use of voice over with video
makes it possible to explain what is happening and why, at the same time it happens. This
ability is critical for remembering and making sense of complex processes and events in the
world. For example, a video can show a teacher interacting with students, while voice over by
the teacher explains the thinking behind the actions taken.
Three of the genres of video (live action, animation, and talking heads) have very different
affordances for education. Live action shows events and processes in their fullest form and
allows the viewer to see and recognize objects, people, and places as they participate in events.
Animation makes it possible to focus attention on critical elements, and even to make the
invisible visible by showing, for example, the center of mass of a moving object or blood
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flowing through the body. Talking heads allow us to see the authors of ideas and to use the cues
that face-to-face communication affords.
Table 3. Characteristics of Video
high bandwidth
not interactive
many viewers
meaning interpreted
producer control
asynchronous
located anywhere
permanence
easy reproduction
good distribution
little modification
moderate navigation
difficult surveying
difficult to produce
expensive
much specialization
involving
producer invisible
high credibility
some isolation
Transmission
Recording
Production
Social
Computer Software
Computer software, while incorporating video and text, focuses on the interactive element
missing from the earlier technologies. While computers are not as understanding as humans,
they do bring a range of capabilities to their interactions that humans lack (Collins, 1996)
including realistic scenarios, simulation, animation, immediate feedback, and traces for
reflection on processes. Thus they provide a new kind of interaction. The bandwidth is
variable, depending on how much text is used, but it is increasing as video is used more and
more. The number of receivers is potentially infinite, because software can be copied easily.
There is little or no negotiation of meaning possible with current software, but this may change
over time as more sophisticated software is developed. Just as with human interaction, control
can be kept by the software or turned over to the user, depending on the design of the author.
There are no constraints on location, and users interact with the author asynchronously, (but
with the software itself synchronously).
Software produces a new kind of permanent record, i.e., traces of human interaction, in
addition to the text, sound, and video embedded in the software. In general software is very
easy to reproduce, except to the degree measures are taken to prevent reproduction. Software is
widely distributed, and modification, though easy, is restricted by almost all developers. Most
software is designed to be easy to navigate, but it is quite difficult to survey.
Software is difficult to produce, comparable to video. But more and more powerful tools
for producing it are always being developed, and many people have learned how to write
software. Whether it will become an important skill for all people to learn is still open to
question, but there will always be a number of highly paid professional software developers.
There is some specialization occurring in the profession (e.g. programmers, system analysts,
etc.), but it is not as specialized as video production. It is costly to produce, but when many
copies of software are made the costs can be spread so that each copy is relatively inexpensive.
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Because software is a very interactive and controllable medium, it can be emotionally
involving, but most uses of software, such as tools and simulations are distancing. The
increased use of video will if anything enhance the involvement of users. Authors are currently
invisible to users, except for the rare pieces of software like Myst, where there is some authorial
presence in the design and marketing. People treat software as credible and authoritative,
though this may diminish as people spend more time in computer environments. Like text,
software use tends to be isolating, except for those rare programs that are meant to be used by
groups of people. Our analysis of software is summarized in Table 4.
Two major innovations of software that we see, particularly in the realm of science, are
data visualization and simulation. Software makes data visualization possible, because it
combines the ability to manipulate data with the use of video displays. This allows people to
see relationships that they might otherwise miss. Software makes simulation possible, because
it can run processes with different inputs. Simulation allows them to try out different
possibilities and see what happens. Scribner and Cole (1975) have described how unschooled
people are unwilling to do this kind of hypothetical reasoning. Data visualization and
simulation techniques greatly extend our ability to teach these skills. These two capabilities
greatly expand the range of messages we can communicate and are powerful extensions of the
way we understand the world.
There are two other major effects of software for education: 1) Users can construct objects
and processes (e.g. works of art, programs) and see their effects. This gives learners immediate
feedback on what they have done, and tools to make modifications easily to improve their work.
2) Software can provide traces of people’s performance on complex tasks. This allows them to
reflect on how they did a task and how it differed from the way others, particularly more expert
people, did the same task. Ultimately we may be able to record how our best thinkers (a modern
day Shakespeare or Newton) work through issues and problems (Collins & Brown, 1988).
Table 4. Characteristics of Software
Transmission
Recording
Production
Social
variable bandwidth
computer interaction
many users
meaning interpreted
variable control
asynchronous
located anywhere
permanence
easy reproduction
good distribution
easy modification
easy navigation
difficult surveying
difficult to produce
expensive
some specialization
variable involvement
author invisible
high credibility
fosters isolation
Networks
The most recent of the new media is the computer network, though the telephone network
served as a forerunner. Once video transmission becomes commonplace, computer networks
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will in fact synthesize the capabilities of the other media. They can provide face-to-face
interaction through video conferencing and all the text, videos, and software that the world
produces. Mastery of this medium then will involve mastery of all the other media.
This is the most interactive of the media, since it supports both interaction with people and
computers, with their very different properties. It is a very high bandwidth medium with the
potential for showing the people one is interacting with in one window and live action video in
another window. But the bandwidth for human interaction is not as high as in face-to-face
communication, so that many facial and auditory cues are lost. The number of potential
receivers is high, but for human interaction there are currently severe limitations on the number
of sites that can interconnect and the number of people who can be shown. Control and the
negotiability of meaning varies with whether the receiver is interacting with other humans or
with computers, video, and text. There are no constraints on location, and the medium can be
used both synchronously and asynchronously. Web pages, email, and chats are asynchronous
genres, whereas video conferences and online forums are synchronous genres.
Networks add another kind of record to those possible with computers. When people
interact over computer networks, it is possible to keep a permanent record of their interactions.
Like computers, all the records that are produced are easy to reproduce and modify. In fact,
computer networks make distribution remarkably easy, which will have the profound effect of
bringing all the world’s knowledge to one’s fingertips. The same kinds of problems of
navigating and surveying material occur with networks as with computers, but are exacerbated
by the abundance of materials. This has led to the development of search engines, but they may
be losing the battle against the proliferation of information on the web.
Some things are easy to produce for computer networks, such as email, video conferences,
chats, and even web pages. Other things are much more difficult, such as videos and software.
Similarly, the cost of production is equally variable. It seems as if eventually everyone will
produce things for the web, at the level of their ability and resources. Some web sites will be
produced by corporations, with all the specialization that occurs with text, video, and
computers. Other web sites will be produced by young children with enthusiasm and limited
resources.
The social characteristics also vary with the type of message. Credibility is most at stake
with the web, where there are a large number of sources whose credibility is uncertain (Gilster,
1997). Involvement is typically high in chats, MUDs, video conferences, and live action video,
whereas text and email are much more distancing. The author is visible with video
conferencing, and to some degree with personalized web pages, email, chats, and MUDs, but
usually not with videos and software. Networks foster a new kind of sociability (Turkle, 1995),
where people interact electronically rather than physically. But there is data (Kraut et al., 1998)
that suggests people who rely heavily on computer networks may have less social interaction in
the real world. Our analysis of networks is summarized in Table 5.
The two most profound effects of networks to date have been 1) to connect people all over
the world into communities of interest rather than communities of place, and 2) to support
ordinary people, including children, becoming producers of material, as well as consumers.
Whether they develop their own web pages, send email, or build imaginary places in a MUD, it
is clear that publication is being democratized by computer networks. Networks are changing
the relationships between producers and consumers toward the balance that existed with oral
communication, before the authority of text, film, and television took hold. But at the same time
networks will further destroy the bonds that used to hold local communities together. People
have become more able to construct their identities as part of distributed groups (e.g.,
multinational corporations, professional societies, etc.) and networks can only hasten the
demise of the local community, in favor of distributed communities based on shared interests.
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Table 5. Characteristics of Networks
variable bandwidth
2 kinds of interaction
many users
variable meaning
variable control
both possible
located anywhere
permanence
easy reproduction
easy distribution
easy modification
variable navigation
difficult surveying
variable ease
variable expense
some specialization
variable involvement
variable visibility
variable credibility
variable sociability
Transmission
Recording
Production
Social
A COMPARISON OF THE AFFORDANCES OF DIFFERENT MEDIA
In this section we will discuss the evolution of the media with respect to each of the dimensions
introduced above.
Transmission Characteristics
1. Bandwidth: Increases in bandwidth allow us to combine different representations
simultaneously. While face-to-face communication is high bandwidth and text low
bandwidth, they both only provide one representation of an idea or situation at a time.
Video makes it possible to combine different representations simultaneously with
captions, voice over, and split screens. So for example one can see a process unfold in
live action on one screen and animation on another screen, while voice over explains
what is happening. Computers have extended these capabilities with multiple windows.
Ultimately with networks people will work together, while viewing each other in one
window and manipulating objects and representations in other windows.
2. Interaction: Interaction was lost as we moved from face-to-face communication to
text and video. But it is being found again with software and networks. Software
introduced a new kind of interaction, responsive environments, which react to people’s
actions. This is most apparent in tool, game, and simulation environments. Networks
reestablish a kind of face-to-face interaction, but in a new context, where people can
manipulate software environments at the same time. The synergies of combining these
forms of interaction have barely been explored.
3. Number of Receivers: The big leap in reaching a larger audience came with text,
which could go out all over the earth and into the future. Video extended the reach
further, because it is much more accessible to people; i.e. many more watch television
or film than read books. Networks extend this reach even further by connecting many
people to different resources at the same time, almost instantaneously.
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4. Negotiability of Meaning: Text and video surrendered the ability to negotiate meaning
that is so characteristic of face-to-face communication. But it may be returning with
software and networks. Software is beginning to provide some ability to negotiate
meaning by building user models. Networks go further by offering opportunities to
interact with producers of texts, videos, and software. These can occur in online
forums, email exchanges, or video conferences. Hence meaning negotiation is returning
in multiple guises.
5. Control: While face-to-face communication allowed the listener to take control of the
conversation, both text and video entailed sacrificing control to the producer. The
receiver cannot change the topic or influence the message in any way. This has changed
with software and networks. In simulations and games, users can control what they try
to do, with tools they can control what they create, and with the web they control where
they go. With MUDs, online forums, and video conferencing, control of interactions
has evolved new forms not possible with face-to-face communication, such as people
taking on new roles and identities (Turkle, 1995).
6. Synchronicity: Text, video, and software freed people from the synchronicity
constraint imposed on face-to-face communication. Now with networks, it has become
possible to mix synchronous and asynchronous communications. Synchronicity makes
it possible to interact in real time with producers, and asynchronicity allows for
extensive production time and an opportunity to revise work. Because networks support
both, it becomes possible to interact with the authors of works about what they have
produced earlier, which may lead to further revisions of their work.
7. Location: Like synchronicity, the newer media free communication from the constraint
of co-location. This makes communication more difficult in that most deictic reference
(e.g. use of words like ‘here’ and ‘soon’) is lost. But the gain in potential audience in
giving up the co-location constraint has been vast.
Recording Characteristics
1. Permanence: Many of the major effects deriving from the invention of writing were
based on the permanence of the records, which were studied by people years later and
provided documentation for what happened in the past. As Eisenstein (1989) argues,
the study of printed texts led to the Protestant Reformation and the development of
science.. We are beginning to see a similar development in the use of video for
studying complex processes, such as teaching (Ball & Lampert, 1999; Frederiksen,
1992; Stigler & Hiebert, 1997) . Similarly, computer traces of human interactions can
provide a new basis for study of human processing (Collins & Brown, 1988).
2. Reproduction: Printing made it possible to produce many copies of a text easily and
hence reach a much wider audience. This was crucial to the development of universal
literacy. The digitizing of information makes reproduction much easier and practically
cost free. So it seems likely that we will see a large increase in the audience that can be
reached by digitized media.
3. Distribution: One of the largest effects of networks is the ability to distribute all of the
world’s knowledge that has been digitized. The reach of media took a giant leap from
face-to-face communication to text, video, and software, which are available in stores
and libraries. The leap that occurs with networks will be of similar magnitude.
4. Modification: It is not possible to erase what was said, nor even change a printed text
very easily. The advent of digital materials makes it easy to copy and paste them
together. This is how lawyers create new documents for a client. But at the same time it
makes it easy for students to pass off modified materials as their own with a minimum
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The role of different media in designing learning environments
of work. Still this is the way new products will be created in the future, and we all need
to learn how to reuse past works to create new syntheses.
5. Navigability: Text developed resources for navigating through documents, such as a
table of contents, an index, and headings. These were lost with video, but with
videodisks we are beginning to develop tools for navigating through video. Software
has usually been designed for easy navigation, and the web provides new ways to
navigate using page layouts and links. That is why browsing has become so common on
the web. While people have always browsed through books, they have never browsed
through video and software. But browsing is back with the web.
6. Surveyability: Closely related to navigability is the ability to survey the entire record
in order to pick out the parts that are of interest. With texts it is often possible to locate
what you want easily. We do not have good indexing schemes for video or interactive
media, so that they are more difficult to survey. But much effort is going into making
video more surveyable (Stigler & Hiebert, 1997).The web provides search engines for
surveying the web, but the proliferation of information is making it more difficult to
find what you want.
Production Characteristics
1. Ease of Production: Face-to-face communication is the easiest to produce, since
humans were designed to talk. Writing is more difficult to produce than speech, but
advanced societies have attained high levels of writing literacy through education. We
may well be going down that same path with video and software, since many activities
in the future will require the production of video and software as part of their
documentation. More and more children are producing their own web pages, which is
democratizing the whole idea of publication. To be literate in the next century, one will
need to produce work in all these media.
2. Production Costs: Like ease of production, costs of production are high for video and
software and somewhat lower for printed texts. But the ease of producing texts on
computer networks, may make them inexpensive to produce and distribute, as we see
with web pages. With the proliferation of video cameras, personal computers, and
editing tools it is becoming much less expensive to produce video and software. As
video and software production becomes universal, they will become much less
expensive.
3. Specialization: Video production is so complicated it has spawned a variety of roles,
such as camera operator, director, producer, script writer, and video editor. Other media
have not spawned so many roles, though writers do rely on editors. Software
production, while complicated has not produced such clearly defined roles, though they
may develop over time. The history of work has been toward more and more
specialization (Drucker, 1995). At the same time, we see more and more children
producing their own videos, software products, and web pages. Probably both trends
will continue with high-end products produced by teams of specialists and low-end
products produced by common people.
Social Characteristics
1. Involvement/Emotional Distance: Face-to-face communication is emotionally
involving, when it is interactive. Text led to a distancing of people from emotional
involvement with events. It promotes objectivity and rationality. Video has tended
reestablish emotional involvement, as can be seen by the coverage of news on
television. Most uses of software have the same kind of distancing effect as text. But
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networks support both the emotional involvement of live action video and video
conferencing, and the emotional distancing of text and software programs. So a new
balance will be struck.
2. Author Visibility: Face-to face communication makes the speaker visible to the
listeners, whereas the author is invisible with text, video, and software. Book
publishing and film have attempted to make authors and directors more visible in order
to sell books and movies. But other media such as software and television have for the
most part attempted to hide the authors. Authors are becoming more visible with the
onset of networks. Pictures and biographical descriptions often accompany web pages,
and sometimes you can interact with authors via email, online forums, and eventually
video conferences. We may even begin to see authors portrayed in videos, much like
music videos. High-end products may resist this trend, since they will be produced by
teams, but there will be more space to portray the teams if they so choose.
3. Credibility: Media vary as to the degree receivers accept the messages as true or
authoritative. With face-to-face communication, credibility depends on the speaker.
With respect to text, credibility depends both on the author and the source (e.g., the
London Times). Because “seeing is believing,” video has perhaps more credibility than
it deserves. Credibility is being undermined in the digital media by easy modifiability
and a proliferation of views. This means that credibility will more and more be
associated with particular authors and sources, and how much trust they have earned.
4. Isolation/Sociability: As Postman (1982) points out, text tends to isolate readers from
other people, especially as compared with the sociability of face-to-face
communication. Many people worry that the proliferation of media such as video and
computers has tended to isolate people more and more. But networks, like phones
before them, are making new kinds of connections possible. Email makes it easier to
maintain friendships with people who move away and to reduce the isolation of people
confined to their homes or hospitals. Furthermore, people are constructing new kinds of
communities using MUDs and online forums and video conferencing. So networks may
help to reconnect the people isolated by text, video, and computers, but the study by
Kraut et al. (1998) casts doubt on this possibility.
Table 6 summarizes our comparisons of the five media.
Table 6. Comparison of Different Media
Face to face
Transmissionhigh bandwidth
highly interactive
few listeners
meaning negotiated
variable control
synchronous
co-location
Recording no permanence
no reproduction
no distribution
no modification
no navigation
no surveying
Production easy to produce
expensive
no specialization
involving
Social
speaker visible
variable credibility
fosters sociability
Text
low bandwidth
not interactive
many readers
meaning interpreted
author control
asynchronous
located anywhere
Permanence
easy reproduction
good distribution
no modification
easy navigation
easy surveying
harder to produce
inexpensive
little specialization
Distancing
author invisible
variable credibility
fosters isolation
Video
high bandwidth
not interactive
many viewers
meaning interpreted
producer control
asynchronous
located anywhere
permanence
easy reproduction
good distribution
little modification
moderate navigation
difficult surveying
difficult to produce
expensive
much specialization
involving
producer invisible
high credibility
some isolation
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Software
variable bandwidth
computer interaction
many users
meaning interpreted
variable control
asynchronous
located anywhere
permanence
easy reproduction
good distribution
easy modification
easy navigation
difficult surveying
difficult to produce
expensive
some specialization
variable involvement
author invisible
high credibility
fosters isolation
Networks
variable bandwidth
2 kinds of interaction
many users
variable meaning
variable control
both possible
located anywhere
permanence
easy reproduction
easy distribution
easy modification
variable navigation
difficult surveying
variable ease
variable expense
some specialization
variable involvement
variable visibility
variable credibility
variable sociability
The role of different media in designing learning environments
CONCLUSION
Throughout this paper we have tried to highlight the affordances and constraints of the different
media that are coming together in digital networks. So why is it important to understand the
affordances and constraints of different media in designing learning environments? We think
there are three central reasons.
Shift in the Focus of Schooling
Learning research in the second part of the century has supported a shift from a transmission
model of education, to a model based on "social-constructivism." The constructivist view is that
people learn best, not by assimilating what they are told, but rather by a process of knowledgeconstruction. Further, in order for individuals to learn how to construct knowledge, it is
necessary that the process be modeled and supported in the surrounding environment. Powerful
tools can provide support to enable learners to scaffold their own understanding of complex
domains and issues. They can give learners the ability to engage in meaningful tasks that
authentically reflect the kinds of tasks they will face in the world. The problem is not simply
that a simulation might be better to communicate, but that having a still picture provides no way
for the student himself or herself to construct knowledge. So, designers need to be aware of
what the affordances are, so they know what is enabling learners themselves to construct their
own knowledge.
As people take more control of their learning, they will choose environments that are most
conducive for their own learning. In particular they will choose environments that actively
engage them in interesting activities. We would suggest that environments where they are part
of a learning community (Bielaczyc & Collins, 1999; Collins & Bielaczyc, 1997) and can
interact with people who have interests in common with their own, will be particularly
appealing. Perhaps equally attractive will be environments that actively engage them in solving
complex and meaningful problems. In any case, people will have much more control over their
own learning, and will demand relevant and meaningful tasks, that utilize the most effective
means of communication and learning.
Needs for Digital Literacy
One of the effects of the onset of the information age is to radically change what people need to
learn in order to succeed in the new society. Lemke (1998) discussed the need for students to
develop “media-literacies,” which will empower them with new ways to communicate with the
world. Work is becoming more distributed and groups must be able to coordinate their work
across cultural and national boundaries. At the same time, it is becoming more important for
scientists and businessmen to master multiple media in conducting their daily work. It is
becoming critical for analysts to use data visualization and manipulation techniques to make
sense of the proliferation of information. It is becoming essential for advertisers to use
multimedia displays and computational tools in order to win over customers. Because
technology can carry out the routine tasks in the world, there is less and less demand for people
to do routine tasks (e.g., bank tellers, typists, clerical workers, production line workers) and
more and more demand for people to do work that requires thinking and problem solving (e.g.,
analysts, information brokers, technology support). Even jobs that were once considered fairly
routine (e.g., secretaries, farmers) have come to require complex information processing.
Digital literacy and media sophistication is becoming necessary to succeed in every aspect
of life. So it is critical that education focus much of its effort in teaching the new digital
literacies as well as the old literacies of reading, writing, and arithmetic. As new technologies
in society create demands for educating students in new skills, new media support the teaching
of these skills better than more traditional instructional methods. So as the demands on
education change, understanding how to use new media to teach new skills is critical.
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Constraints on choosing the most effective medium
In designing educational environments, there is a tendency to revert to familiar forms for
teaching and learning. Given the entrenchment of well-worn educational methods, it is no
surprise that the majority of educational software titles emulate the worksheets and didactic
style that have come to be equated with education. The design community's familiarity with
these methods and the limited understanding of new media's capabilities constrain the approach
of much current work.
Producing multimedia is an expensive and time-consuming undertaking, and without
clearly articulated arguments for selecting one medium over the other, there is a strong
tendency to select media based on design efficiency. For example, still pictures might be used
where animation would better communicate for understanding. Across-the-board templates
regarding where animation, a talking head, a still photo, a map, or text are placed, are often
created for all the content in a program, rather than according to the specific information
presented in a particular unit or section. As new technologies facilitate production of animation
and other new media types, and as the affordances of these media become clearer, we may be
able to customize designs to fit the content within budget and schedule constraints.
The debate of learning versus playing is an old one, and making learning engaging should
be an objective in designing learning environments. However, we currently understand the
affordances of media for gaming much better than we do for education, and this makes it very
attractive to harness the motivational impact of games for education software. The key is not to
stop this practice, but to be able to distinguish affordances for engaging players versus
affordances for engaging learners, and that the former does not remove the need for the latter.
Further, software media are too often selected according to what showcases technological
wizardry or contains the most movement and graphic definition. Again, aesthetic appeal is an
important consideration; however we must be careful in including the full range of design
considerations.
Of course, educational design depends on a great number of issues and constraints, beyond
what a given medium does best. Cost, time to produce, time the learner will spend in the
educational environment (e.g. museum, classroom) are all critical design considerations.
Further, as described by Schofield (1995), once a given design moves out of the design
environment and into the context of use, the context of use often raises issues and applications
that are difficult for designers to have anticipated. However, considerations of the affordances
of media play an important role in design, and the present paper provides a step toward a more
formal framework, shown in Table 6.
With the proliferation of media, we are faced with a bewildering array of choices in the
construction of learning environments, and many more opportunities to make inappropriate
choices. Recognizing the influences mentioned above, and tempering them with increasing
knowledge of the dimensions of new media for learning, should help us become better able to
select the right tools for the job.
Acknowledgments
We thank Beverly Hunter, Michael Reynolds, and the four reviewers for their comments on a
previous draft of this paper.
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