UNDERSTANDING THE FOUND

ATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL ME
DIA & MEDIA RICHNESS
Efange, Simon M. (M.Ed.)
 What is Educational Media?
Educational media refers to channels of communication that carry mes
sages with an instructional purpose. They are usually utilized for the sol
e purpose of learning and teaching (Webcrawler, 2013).

Educational media are the channels of transmitting information to

learners’ and are also those gadgets, and machines that are needed in
transmitting information to learners’
COMMUNICATION CHA
NNELS
 Characteristics of Educational Media
There are six basic characteristics;
 Face-to-face teaching.
 Text.
 Graphics (still).
 Audio (including speech)
 Video.
 Computing (including animation, simulations and virtual reality)
 The Types of Educational Media
No Media Categories Examples in Learning
I Audio Audio tapes, radio, CD, telephone
Textbooks, modules, brochures, leaflets,
II Print
pictures
Audio tapes that include written
III Audio-print
materials
Proyeksi visual Overhead transparency (OHT), Film
IV
silent frames (slides)
 Let’s understand the foundations of
Educational Media
1. Technologies are merely tools that can be used in a variety of ways.
2. We have to recognize that education media should be used in combina
tion.
3. Media differ in terms of their formats, symbols systems, and cultural v
alues.
4. There are many dimensions along which some technologies are simila
r and others are different. 
5. Over time, media have tended to become more communicative, async
hronous, and ‘rich’, thus offering teachers and learners more powerful
tools for teaching and learning.
6. The Internet is an extremely powerful medium because through a co
mbination of tools and media it can encompass all the characteristics an
d dimensions of educational media.

ACTIVITY
Analyzing your current use of technology

1. Take one of the courses you are teaching at the moment. How
could you make your teaching more communicative, asynchronous,
and rich in media. What media or technologies would help you do
this?

2. Write down what you would see as (a) the advantages (b) the
disadvantages of changing your teaching in this way.
 MEDIA RICHNESS
Media richness is a framework used to describe a communication mediu
m's ability to reproduce the information sent over it.
MEDIA RICHNESS
 However, although the richness of video can be increased or decreas
ed by the way it is used, video is always going to be richer in media ter
ms than radio or textbooks.

 Radio is never going to be a rich medium in terms of its symbols syst

ems, and even talking head video is richer symbolically than radio. 
The educational value of media richness
Question: How rich should media be for teaching and learning?
From a teaching perspective, rich media have advantages over a single
medium of communication, because rich media enable the teacher to do
more.
Question: In teaching, will you choose a simple or rich media?
Podcast or a video?
Cost
Distractions
May be inappropriate 
 Activity
How rich is your medium?
• 1. Do you agree that: ‘it is a useful guideline always to look for the sim
plest medium first‘.
• 2. How important do you think the richness of medium is when makin
g decisions about the use of media and technology?
• 3. Do you agree with the placement of different media on this continu
um in Figure 6.6.2. If not, why not?
 References
1. Bates, A.W. (2019). Teaching in a Digital Age – Second Editi
on. Vancouver, B.C.: Tony Bates Associates Ltd.
2. Webcrawler, C. (2013). Definition of Educational Media. Cali
fornia: Retrieved from http://www.ask.com/question/meaning-of
educational-media
3. What is educational media? Retrieved from
https://www.reference.com/world-view/educational-media-c0d8
b39422120f19