The fourth revolution 13 6 Faculty members have been disenchanted by persistent findings in many studies3 that the learning effectiveness of instruction provided by technology is not significantly different from that of "good professors and teachers using conventional modes of instruction." As Anthony Oettinger (1972, forthcoming) points out, these findings tend to "fly in the face of common sense," and ". . . confirm limitations of formal research on schooling rather than deny the impact of technology on learning" (ibid., p. 5). Such findings overlook advantages of technological applications that may not be measured in current research. In interpretations of the findings, sufficient care is not always taken to make clear that while "no difference" does not necessarily mean "better," it also does not necessarily mean "worse." The studies that produced these findings have been of great value and have properly restrained unbridled enthusiasm, but they should not prevent educators and manufacturers from efforts to design and use effective learning materials. Although we believe colleges and universities should assume greater initiative in the development and use of instructional technology generally, we do not entirely regret that they are moving cautiously. Overdevelopment of technology for relatively limited objectives could complicate the ultimate integration of technology into well-developed teaching and learning systems. Moreover, considerable amounts of the "new" technology turn out, on investigation, to be reinventions of simpler technologies already in use. Finally, the mere possession of learning media cannot guarantee an educational advantage for an institution. To be effective, technology must be used by inspired and skillful teachers and staff members who will not abandon it when they and their students lose enthusiasm for the novelty of the media adopted. Instructional media must also be stored, maintained, and eventually replaced when they wear out or become obsolete. Institutions that plan to 3 The most comprehensive review of such studies that relate to instructional use of television has been done by Chu and Schramm (1967). The two authors reviewed, up to 1966, 207 published studies in which television teaching was compared with conventional teaching. Of the 421 separate comparisons made in these studies, 308 showed no significant differences, 63 showed television instruction to be superior, and 50 found conventional instruction better (ibid., p. 100). They also found, however, that instructional television can more easily be used effectively for primary and secondary school students than for college students. Findings in a similar vein have been reported for instructional use of computers, films, and programmed instruction (e.g., Levien, 1972, in press). The fourth revolution 14 utilize more instructional technology should, therefore, be prepared to incur the expenses required by such activities. But the overriding reason for caution is that it is in the nature of revolutions that their impact is greater than the changes immediately perceived. The social and political consequences of completion of the transcontinental railroad is one example. The way books and television are now taken for granted in most homes and influence our lives in many subtle ways is another example closer to the point. The expanding technology in higher education, in the same way, is certain to have implications for colleges and universities that transcend its immediate role in the classrooms. 3. A Brief Review of THE PRINTED WORD FILM Many examples of educational technology are so familiar that they are taken for granted. Books, after all, are technological aids to learning. Another is the blackboard, which is virtually the universal symbol of the classroom. The charts, maps, models, and specimens displayed in classroom demonstrations today are but improved and modernized versions of materials customarily found in the "cabinets" of science professors of the mid-nineteenth century. The stereograph was familiar in the classroom by 1885; its directline descendant, the lantern slide, was widely used in the early 1900s. Motion pictures were introduced into the classroom in 1910 and radio in the 1920s (Saettler, 1968). Familiar technologies are sometimes combined with others or used in new ways for maximum impact, and the book is a dramatic example. Microfilm and microfiche can shrink large volumes into relatively small packages or even to a 4- by 6-inch card. Mechanical readers enlarge the reduced copies to readable size again. Still another family of technology oriented to books includes the reading pacers and other devices designed to teach people to read faster. Dry-copying processes eliminate copious notetaking from printed materials and facilitate the sharing of excerpts. Printed matter can be electronically reproduced, virtually on command, for reception miles away from a transmitter. All this technology exists now, and some of it is no longer regarded with much amazement by the average college student. Although motion pictures have been available to educators for more than 60 years, they have been used somewhat sporadically for instruction. Seeking out and then acquiring suitable films for use has often been an annoying chore. Good films often have been 15 81-165 O 72-6 The fourth revolution MULTIMEDIA CLASSROOMS relatively expensive and, in order to use them, faculty members have frequently had to move their students to a theater or some other properly equipped hall. Sometimes, they also have had to hire the services of a projectionist. Some of these drawbacks have been eliminated with the expanding use of 8-mm film, which is inexpensive, easy to store, and often packaged in cassettes that can be loaded into small projectors and operated by an individual student at his or her own convenience. It is becoming a preferred medium for presenting visual materials emphasizing movement in very brief segments as short as two or four minutes. In its 8-mm brief presentation form, it is a familiar component of some of the self-instruction laboratories that are described subsequently in this section. There is nothing very new about the idea of including short motion pictures, slides, live demonstrations, musical segments, or portions of taped interviews in a lecture presentation. But, until recently, the major accommodation of technology in the presentation of such material has been to include a projection booth in the back of major lecture rooms. Some colleges and universities now provide more sophisticated arrangements. For example, in 1965, a new instructional building called the Forum was completed at Pennsylvania State University. It consists of four lecture halls, each accommodating 396 students. A central core contains equipment for projecting slides, 16-mm films and television on screens in each of the halls. Each screen can accommodate two images side by side or one central image. Facilities also exist for audiotape recording and playback. A small television camera in each auditorium can be used to magnify small objects and demonstrations for projection on the large screen. All the projection equipment in the central core may be operated by the instructor from his lectern or may be controlled by a technician in the central core (Thorton & Brown, 1968). In certain classrooms of other institutions, students may take advantage of an electronic response system that enables them to transmit their answers to multiple-choice questions inserted at frequent intervals within the lecture content. Their feedback is immediately available to the instructor and shows him when it is time to move on to a new topic, or to review material that has not yet been adequately comprehended. It also gives students "testas-you-go" measurement of their own progress in relation to the pace of the class as a whole. A brief review of instructional technology 17 SELF INSTRUCTION UNITS Language Laboratories Audiolistening Individual Learning Laboratories Multimedia classrooms are found on several American campuses today, particularly in buildings erected within the past 25 years. Some of the same media employed in multimedia classrooms, where large numbers of students are taught simultaneously-and somewhat passively-are employed in self-instruction units. A specialized variant of the self-instruction unit is the language laboratory. Typically, such a facility consists of booths for 24 to 60 students. Each booth is equipped with a tape recorder capable of duplicating, playback, listen-record, and audiolingual testing. The teacher operates a console which can record student responses, monitor student responses, test, correct student responses, and give instructions either to individual students or to all students simultaneously (Allen & Coombs, 1970). The basic component of most of the newly introduced "mechanized" individualized learning centers is the tape recorder. It has the virtues of easy operation and maintenance and an adaptability to a wide range of instructional uses. It has been used most intensively in language instruction, speech, drama, and education, where students need opportunities to hear their own voices. Like the language laboratory, the audiolistening unit usually takes the form of a carrel. Tape-playback equipment is basic, but other media, such as short 8-mm film and slides, can be introduced relatively easily. A considerably more advanced version of the independent learning unit is the individual learning laboratory. Originally it was designed to help freshmen in a botany course at Purdue to master basic information essential to an understanding of the course. Eventually, tape-recorded sessions replaced the lectures. Learning units were carefully planned by the professor involved, coordinating what the student heard on tape with what he read in his textbook. By a process of evolution, these laboratories now provide an instructional experience that combines listening to explanations and instructions on tape; reading assignments in textbooks; use of films, slides, and other visuals; as well as student-conducted experiments guided by instruction sheets and tapes. In courses where they are used (and they seem to be used most widely in biological sciences at the present time), they normally replace two lectures delivered under traditional weekly instruction plans. We |