The Medium and the Message: Interactive Television and Distance Education Programs for Adult Learners

Abstract

Distance education programs are expanding to meet the needs of a growing population of adult learners. The interactive television (ITV) classroom, a relatively recent technological innovation made possible with compressed digital video (CDV) transmission, has been found to be an effective teaching tool with mature students. A review of the literature suggests that ITV, although in its infancy, has the potential to overcome the pedagogical difficulties inherent in more traditional distance education technology based on audio alone. The results of a recent study conducted in graduate education courses by the authors at the University of New Hampshire indicate that adult students have generally positive attitudes toward their ITV classes. Essential to the success of distance education programs which use ITV is the training of both professors and students who will be involved in this emerging technology.

When the medium massages perceptions: Personal (vs. public) displays of information reduce crowding perceptions and outsider mistreatment of frontline staff.

“…Drawing from research on “media ecology” or “media environment,” pioneered by McLuhan’s influential idea of “The Medium is the Message” (McLuhan & Fiore, 1967), we posit that different media have distinct physical, psychological, and social features, and thus differ in their influence on people’s perceptions and behavior (Meyrowitz, 1994). Past research found that using one medium versus another can affect processes such as persuasiveness (e.g., Marshall & WoonBong, 2003; Worchel et al, 1975), affect (e.g., Simons et al, 1999), resistance to change (e.g., Goodman & Truss, 2004), and learning (e.g., Garland & Loranger, 1996). We theorize that offering information through personal media (e.g., leaflets, smartphones) has different effects from offering the same information through public media (e.g., posters, overheads).…”

Improving Computer Skills in Colleges of Education

“…Professors in these "smart" classrooms will also have projectors for "PowerPoint" presentations or for displaying computer images from their laptop computers [12]. Moreover, in the interactive television classrooms of distance education programs, the adoption of compressed digital video makes full interaction possible between faculty members and students at origination and remote sites, "With both the instructors' and the adult students' use of the podium video presenter, videotapes, slides, and the computer interface technology, more innovative and engaging teaching techniques can occur" [13].…”