This question was asked on one of the LinkedIn groups (AECT: Association for Educational Communications and Technology) I belong to. It got me thinking….

I decided to move my part of the conversation here because the notion interests me.

Here’s some of what I said:

For me, there’s also a distinction to be made between media and applications (and then also specific instances of particular kinds of applications).

When I am designing instruction, I start with my main objectives and then think about what I could use that would help me do that. Sometimes (often, actually) I have multiple objectives, like: writing a report; practicing collaborative editing, AND learning to use a ‘modern’ tool.

The first consideration will almost always be practical: if you don’t have the equipment, access, funding, and administrative permission (support is often too much to hope for) to use some media, then there’s rarely any point in pursuing that avenue further at this time. Sometimes it will be possible to secure the necessary prerequisites, in which case it’ll be important to have a reasoned argument for why this approach should be supported.

…

To me it all boils down to ROI (return on investment) – and I DON’T mean in a corporate sense. Investment in this case includes time spent – by the administrators, the teachers, the students, EVERYONE. It includes the amount of time needed by teachers to understand it as well as use it. Money is only one part of the picture. Deciding based on expected ROI also includes examining benefit that can be expected from doing it this way instead of some other way.

This assessment is difficult to do because it can not be made objective – so there will always be a grey area between the yes and no (which is often where the debates break out).

There are a whole lot of questions that should be asked which can ultimately help make a decision about what to use. In the end, that is the way to evaluate or assess media. Sometimes it can be done at a fairly high level of abstraction: should we allow wireless internet access in our school? Other times it must be done on a case by case basis: it would be foolish to forbid the use of digital games, but at the same time only some games will be suitable, and then only in some circumstances.

For example, I once spent 3 full days creating an animated example in PowerPoint that took 5 minutes to go through in class. I had 100 students in the class.
Is it worth spending 24 hours making an example that takes 5 minutes to demonstrate? Maybe. Did it help more students understand the concept than other, ‘cheaper’ approaches? It probably did (I didn’t do the studies to verify). Is it re-usable? You bet. Will it become stale? Not this one, as it dealt with a fairly fundamental concept. Was it a good use of my time? Not entirely – I could have designed it and then hired someone to make it, but that was not an option for me in this case.

Perhaps it would be useful to compile a list of questions that need to be asked. For each situation, the questions should be ranked and arranged specifically for that situation. The answer to a particular question could end up being a deal-breaker in one situation, and irrelevant in another so there has to be some flexibility.

What I would find useful is a tool that would allow us to build a database of questions that we could select and rank. The user fills out a small questionnaire, which then automatically formulates an customized assessment form we could use. If you want to get fancy, you can specify minimum requirements.

What do you think such a tool should look like?

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