1.

Communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data,

or promotional messages are disseminated. Media includes
every broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV,
radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet. Media is the plural of medium
and can take a plural or singular verb, depending on the sense intended.
2.Data storage material divided into three broad categories according to
the recording method: (1) Magnetic, such as diskettes, disks, tapes, (2) Optical, such
as microfiche, and (3) Magneto-Optical, such as CDs and DVDs.

What is Using Media to Enhance

Teaching and Learning?
Media can be a component of active learning strategies such as group
discussions or case studies. Media could be a film clip, a song you hear on the
radio, podcast of a lecture or newspaper article. Students can also create their
own media. For example, student video projects can be a powerful learning
experience.

Media can be used in direct instruction, active learning teaching strategies and
student projects.

Existing media resources can be used within lectures to stimulate

interest in and develop knowledge of the material being taught. This
traditional approach is teacher-centric, and information is pushed to the
learner. Media allows the instructor to facilitate the transfer of expert
knowledge to novice learners. Given the tremendous rate of technological
 change, instructors face an ongoing challenge in choosing the most
effective media platform to reach their students. Instructors can also create
their own media to effectively and efficiently convey knowledge.

Existing media resources can also be used to engage students and

facilitate active learningstrategies which promote deeper learning. For
example, media provides a useful platform for teaching with
cases, cooperative learning, problem solving, and for giving moreinteractive
lecture demonstrations.

Student-created media involves a high degree of engagement;

promotes individual learning, social interaction and immersion; and is highly
customizable and collaborative (Yowell and Rhoten, 2009). Student-created
media provide an alternative or a complement to traditional undergraduate
student research. By doing a digital storytelling project, personal reflection
and communication by students can be promoted.

How to Teach with Media to Enhance

Teaching and Learning

Media like all other teaching techniques should be used judiciously in
the learning process. Media can be used to motivate discussions or lock
in concepts. However, there are a number of important considerations
for faculty before they integrate media or ask their students to use or
develop media in their courses. This section explores tips for effectively
using media, notes a number of common mistakes to be avoided and
describes how to involve students in creating media on their own. The
dramatic growth of social media creates new opportunities for engaging
students. These include social networking sites such as Facebook,
MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter along with blogs and wikis.

Media complements instructor-led learning by encouraging students to listen

to music, read print materials, or watching a documentary or movie clip. The
primary advantage of this approach is that the instructor takes on the role of a
facilitator who helps students interpret what they are listening to, reading or
seeing. Media can also be student-generated. This approach utilizes asks the
student to step into the role of the teacher and create content that will engage
learners and help them to master concepts. Lastly, social media can also be
used to enhance teaching and learning and it includes varied online technology
tools that allow people to communicate easily via the internet to share
information and resources.

Instructor-led Learning:
Using media requires that the instructor step outside of the traditional lecture
method and facilitate learning by encouraging students to learn through the
media. This approach works best when students are primed. If students are not
adequately informed about what they are expected them to learn, they will
struggle to make the connection between the learning objectives and the media
that they are exposed to.

When to introduce media?

Before learning the concept. Showing media before the discussion
gives students an image to which they can compare the topics under
discussion. This approach allows quick reference to easily recalled
examples. Schwartz and Bransford (1998) show that demonstrations
focused on contrasting cases help students achieve expert-like
differentiation. In addition, Schwartz and Martin (2004) found that carefully-
prepared demonstrations "help students generate the types of knowledge
that are likely to help them learn" from subsequent lectures.
 After a brief introduction but before learning the concept. This
method provides students with a brief capsule of what the media is about
and what to look for helping to focus attention while watching the media.

After learning the concept. Showing media after describing a theory

or concept allows the instructor to use the scenes as acase study. This
approach helps students develop their analytical skills in applying what they
are learning.

Before and after. Repeating the media is especially helpful when

trying to develop student understanding of complex topics. Utilize the
media before the discussion to give students an anchor. Guide students
through a description or discussion of the topics. Rerun the media as a case
study and ask students to analyze what they see using the theories and
concepts just discussed. Also punctuate the rerun with an active discussion
by asking students to call out the concepts they see in the scenes. This
method helps to reinforce what they have just learned.

Tips if you are new to this method:

Start small. Find one movie, song, or news source and incorporate it
into your class. Expand once you are comfortable.

Provide a clear link between what you want your students to

learn and the media. Care must be taken provide the proper learning
context.

It takes time to integrate media effectively into a course. This is

not edutainment, it is the conscious use of media to enable students to
learn more.

Use the subtitles feature for visual media. This is especially useful
in focusing student attention on the words being said.

Be prepared. Technology does not work 100% of the time so have a

back up plan. If the media equipment does not work, go to plan B and
continue on with your class without missing a beat.

Evaluate student understanding. Students respond to incentives. If

you require them to write a reaction paper, take a quiz, or place questions
on your exams that relate to the media content they will pay more attention
and learn more in the process.
 Stay legal. View the copyright information on the cautions page.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What differentiates this teaching method?

Show more

How does the use of media help with recall and understanding?

Show more

What is the preferred class size?

Show more

Student-generated Learning:
Involving students in creating media
encourages collaboration, accountability, creativity, and mastery of ideas
and concepts. Importantly, one does not need a large budget, fancy studio, or
advanced degree to create original media that is informative, entertaining and
educational. An article by Joshua Kim notes that video projects are inexpensive to
create and that this approach also encourages non-linear learning.

Instructors do not need to be media savvy. Our students have grown up in the
digital age and they are comfortable with technology.

Instructors should help students focus on creating content that is meaningful for
the intended audience. Here is a college financial aid contestand a NAFSA video
contest featuring college student entries describing their experiences studying
abroad. Each of these contests showcase the ability of students to create high-
quality videos with targeted messages.

Why Use Media to Enhance

Teaching and Learning
Media can be used in almost any discipline to enhance learning, both in class,
and also for out-of-class assignments. Short film and television clips, written
articles, and blog postings can be viewed to reinforce concepts and spark
discussion. Songs and music videos, especially when the lyrics are made
available, can be used to the same effect.

Research suggests that people learn abstract, new, and novel concepts more
easily when they are presented in both verbal and visual form (Salomon, 1979).
Other empirical research shows that visual media make concepts more
accessible to a person than text media and help with later recall (Cowen, 1984).
In Willingham's (2009) research he asks a simple question to make his point,
"Why do students remember everything that's on television and forget what we
lecture?" because visual media helps students retain concepts and
ideas.Bransford, Browning, and Cocking (1999, p 194) also note the crucial role
that technology plays for creating learning environments that extend the
possibilities of one-way communication media, such as movies, documentaries,
television shows and music into new areas that require interactive learning like
visualizations and student-created content.

The Advantages of Using Media:

Many media sources (feature films, music videos, visualizations, news
stories) have very high production quality capable ofshowcasing complex
ideas in a short period of time. This helps develop quantitative reasoning.
Learn more about this technique using the Teaching Quantitative Reasoning
with the News module.

Media offers both cognitive and affective experiences. It can provoke

discussion, an assessment of one's values, and an assessment of
self if the scenes have strong emotional content.

The use of media sources help connect learners with events that
are culturally relevant. As a result, a positive consequence of utilizing
media is that instructors must keep their materials and examples up-to-
date.
 News stories can be used to connect theories taught in the
classroom with real world events and policies.

The Advantages of Media for Students:

Popular media (films, music, YouTube) are a familiar medium to students
that helps gain attention and maintain student interest in the theories
and concepts under discussion. Students can see the theories and concepts
in action. In more than a figurative sense, theories and concepts leap from
the screen.

Students can hone their analytical skills by analyzing media using

the theories and concepts they are studying.

The use of media in the classroom enables students to see

concepts and new examples when they are watching television, listening
to music, or are at the movies with friends.

Students can experience worlds beyond their own, especially if the

media is sharply different from their local environment.

In addition to numerous advantages, there are also a number of cautions that

faculty should keep in mind in utilizing media. Using media requires a complete
understanding of copyright law, an appreciation of the workload involved, and
some skill in recognizing content that will enhance learning, instead of becoming
a distraction.
For that in using the medium of teaching teachers should have sufficient knowledge and
understanding about the medium of teaching, such as what is conveyed by Hamalik (1994), that
the teaching of teachers in using the media must understand about: (1) media as a
communication tool to further streamline the process of learning teaching, (2) the functions of the
media in order to achieve educational goals, (3) the nitty gritty of the process of learning, (4) the
relationship between teaching methods with educational media, (5) the value or benefits of media
education in teaching, (6) selection and use of media education, (7) different types of educational
media tools and techniques, (8) media education in each subject, and (9) business innovation in
education.
Reality-phenomena mentioned above, encourage researchers to conduct an action research
(action research) in teaching and learning activities by using the medium of teaching at the junior
high school students of class VII. Some reasons for the importance of teaching media used in
teaching and learning activities in this action research, are: (1) with the medium of teaching
students to learn will be more concrete and not verbal, (2) students have more motivation in
learning, because the medium of teaching, learning activities will more attractive, (3) is more
varied learning activities, (4) students can conduct learning activities themselves faced with
teaching media, and (5) with the medium of teaching and learning activities of students would be
more ideas students bring to everyday life.