[quoting Hall, 25 Jul 96] I certainly agree that content is the important issue, however, I also think it's important to note that certain trucks deliver food much better than others. So, my thinking is that the medium is not unimportant, rather it is not the end in itself, but a vehicle for delivering what is important--the content.
Yes, but your feelings on this matter are just not borne out by the research. Now maybe the research has been asking the wrong questions--which is another bowl of congee entirely. More recent studies in constructivist learning, where students use media as a cognitive tool rather than are instructed by it, are producing some interesting results.
I, for one, will be happy to see the end of articles extolling the virtues of Artificial Intelligence systems in education. And as for instructional design... (Shut yo' mouf, Ian!)
By the way, I think this is a fascinating, and very important/fundamental, discussion.
But my point was that this is an old discussion. Since Clark's infamous trucks and groceries analogy of 1982, there has been so much gnashing of educational technological teeth that the psychodentists have had to be called in. Two (1994) issues of Educational Technology Research & Development were devoted to the debate and I think the consensus of opinion was that we all agree with Clark, now let's go and do something useful.