--- Forwarded Message from "Johan Viljoen" <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 17:26:50 +0200
>From: "Johan Viljoen" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #5296.1 Technology and Enhanced Student Learning

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Some people might be aware of the classic debate started in 1984 between Richard E. Clark and Robert Kozma. Clark maintained that technology is merely the vehicle for learning materials, and has just as little influence on the learning as a delivery truck has on the groceries it carries.

Kozma replied that the question should be rephrased. One shouldn't ask what effect technology has on learning but rather how technology can be used to enhance learning.

This debate has been bubbling in various degrees of agitation ever since.

Tom Russell (University of North Carolina at Raleigh) published a meta-study earlier this year called "The No Significant Difference Phenomenon", in which he quotes more than 400 studies since the 1920's (if I remember correctly) which indicate that technology has no significant influence on learning outcomes.

Russell's study has not been accepted without criticism. But neither has Kozma's views.

So, you are sitting in a patch of thorns here! Provosts and other administrators often see only the dollars and cents, but forget the hidden benefits and long-term advantages.

I believe that one should consider the affordances of any new technology and decide whether it will allow one to foster learning faster, more effectively, and more interestingly than before. This decision might be based on a gut feeling, but so are many top management decisions anyway!

I like new technologies, so I cynically exploit them while they are there - "pushing the envelope" I believe is the vogue phrase.

If anyone is interested in the Clark/Kozma issue and similar other issues please e-mail me off the list, and I might be able to provide some useful info.

Regards
Johan Viljoen

Department of Language Dynamics
Technikon Pretoria
Tel. +27 (0)12 318-5166
Fax +27 (0)12  318-5881