[quoting Sims, 31 Jul 96] ITForum is quite diverse these last few days. But, I had thought the difference issue had long passed--why should any technological resource be better than another?
I agree, but of course want to add the "it depends" angle. Briefly, comparing media is a silly business whether we're talking about instructional media or art media. But jumping into comparisons and trying to find what is the next thing to replace the old medium seems to be an almost natural progression. My "modernist" art students argue heatedly that the "postmodern" computer will never replace painting, just as artists predicted that the new modernist medium of film (camera) would never replace painting.
Replace? Did anyone say that any media should be replaced by new media? Rod has hit it on the head: "We are mainly increasing our instructional resources."
The "it depends" comes in when we shift toward a more constructivist flavor in the learning context. There, media is so tied in to the whole context that we don't so much choose media apriori as we let the needs of the context suggest which media are useful, accessible, and relevant to the learners and facilitators.