Comparative analysis on the roles of message, medium and communicative method in empowering learning

The preceding papers, presented in the SITES M2 Symposium at the 2002 AERA national conference, provide a unique, invaluable resource for education research. Each case study documents how the integration of learning technologies into instruction enabled a combination of deep content, sophisticated pedagogy, and interactive media that achieved impressive student outcomes. Together, the nearly two hundred cases form a rich repository for comparative analysis that can elucidate the relative roles of message, medium and communicative method in empowering learning. Collectively, these case studies can also inform an understanding of how conditions necessary for the successful integration of learning technologies vary — and are uniform — across subject areas, grade levels, teaching philosophies, cultures and other contextual factors in classroom settings. Sophisticated computers and telecommunications have unique capabilities for enhancing learning (Dede, 2000). These include: • centring the curriculum on ‘authentic’ problems parallel to those adults face in real-world settings (Vanderbilt, 1997) • involving students in virtual communities-of-practice, using advanced tools similar to those in today’s high-tech workplaces (Linn, 1997) • facilitating guided, reflective inquiry through extended projects that inculcate sophisticated concepts and skills and generate complex products (Schank et al., 1994). • using modeling and visualisation as powerful means of bridging between experience and abstraction (Gordin & Pea, 1995) • enhancing students’ collaborative construction of meaning via different perspectives on shared experiences (Chan et al., 1997) • including pupils as partners in developing learning experiences and generating knowledge (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991) • fostering success for all students through special measures to aid the disabled and the disenfranchised (Behrmann, 1998) However, realising these capabilities requires a complex implementation process that includes sustained, large-scale, simultaneous innovations in curriculum; pedagogy; assessment; professional development; administration; organisational structures; strategies for equity; and partnerships for learning among schools, businesses, homes, and community settings (Dede, 1998). The SITES M2 case studies document rich variations among all these themes, illustrating the ways that content, instructional process, and interactive media