Costing Educational Technologies
In reflecting on this topic, I believe that the media are more powerful, and can be cost effective if they are integrated. Further, I believe that the technologies alone will never be effective. Teacher and instructors will always exist, and will need to be the driving force behind the effective use of these technologies. I agree that someone telling you that they have changed to another medium has no predictability about the performance of the media. I believe that the media should be selected based on the personal needs of the users, and because those needs are different, the media may be different. I believe that this is based on the various learning and teaching styles of the users, and an integration of various media would be more effective because there are various teaching and learning styles. While our focus is on costing in this course, I believe that the appropriate selection of media is important to the costs because it would be more expensive to have to make changes from not selecting the appropriate media the first time than it would be if the user selects the correct media the first time, and just upgrade according to the changes that are taking place in the structure and the make-up of the learning environment.
I believe that interactivity is important in the distance education environment, and I believe that it has a strong impact on the effectiveness of teaching and learning because the interactivity that takes place through the use of the media tools contribute to learning because knowledge and information is shared among both the teachers and the students. For instance, there have been quite a few times that I have learned something from the interaction with my peers and Professor Thomas in this course. This learning is developed on the fact that I am able to pull from the various perspectives on an issue. For example, in module 7, I responded to one of my classmates by discussing how much I love web 2.0 technologies because of the interactivity that they allow. However, Professor Thomas gave me a response that allowed me to see how these interactive tools can affect the teachers because the increased use of these tools interferes with teacher-time. When I read that, I said, “Wow!” I was only thinking about the benefit that the tools give me as a learner, and not necessarily how it may affect the teachers.
To ensure that the appropriate media is used for the purpose, it is very important to research on the functions and the capabilities of the media. There are many benefits to doing thorough research prior to employing these tools, in addition to the reasons that are cost-related. The goal of any distance education program is to provide a quality education at a reasonable cost. To do that, the institution has to develop budgets, and then abide by those budgets. If a thorough research is conducted, not only is it beneficial to research the functionalities and capabilities of one tool, but on many tools, as well as how some of these media function together. The integration of more than one media may contribute to the ability to provide a quality education while being cost efficient.
