Ross Institute - Advanced Study and Innovation in Education



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Media, Communication and Technology Education

Significance. In the early to mid-80's, when personal computers were first introduced to businesses, the impact they would have was unclear. During the course of the last two decades, it is evident that no business can survive without strategically applying technology to its processes. Education, at the beginning of this millennium, is very much in the same place as businesses were in the 80's. There is broad recognition that technology must be part of education if for no other reason than students engaging in society must be media and technology savvy to compete in the labor market.

There is no doubt that literacy in the 21st century will be media literacy. The basic skills of reading and writing are no longer sufficient to work and thrive as a citizen of the global community. Further, the pace of information exchange provides tremendous resources to learners as well as a series of challenges of how to thoughtfully integrate new information. The new technologies also modernize the teacher-student relationship. No longer can teachers simply lecture and feed a body of discrete information to their students. The task of teachers today requires them to teach their students how to "learn how to learn" and to seek information integrating new knowledge into preexisting ways of knowing. Increasingly the learning process must be a collaborative one between students and teachers mimicking the realities of the new workplace where people work in teams.

Education in the area of media, communication and technology must do far more than train students to use media as a tool. Students will need to be able to effectively communicate in the medium that is most current and prevalent. They will need to recognize how media Show More

	Research Questions

	How can training in the uses of media be better integrated with teaching modules that introduce students to the ways that media technologies inherently 'frame' perception and cognition? What application does technology have in the actual business of learning? How can technology be more fully leveraged to engage students better? How can students with special needs be provided learning supports through the use of technologies? How can students be challenged beyond their classroom curriculum through the new communication technologies? Where does/could technology excel in enhancing the learning process and where is it weak? In what instances can sophisticated media and technology applications be used to replace (or mostly replace) human teachers, and what is the impact of doing so? Does this approach change the role of the student in a learning situation? How can students use media to better understand the challenges of cross-cultural and intercultural communication? Can teachers be better trained to understand the value (and limitations) of using various media technologies and artifacts as teaching tools? How can media be harnessed to extend capacities for teacher professional development through web streaming, teaching videos and the like?

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