Advantages and Limitations of Traditional Media Notes from: Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning

“ Learners’ capacities are not inherent; capacities are defined by the interplay between learners’ abilities and the tools they use.”

The tools we use…

Traditional Fixed Media Speech Text Images

Speech

Text

Images

Speech Advantages Natural sounding Expressive Vary: pace, volume, pitch to emphasize points Physical cues: facial expression, gestures, posture Respond to audience Limitations Listener’s must remember Easy to overload on info Can’t pause it live

Advantages

Natural sounding

Expressive

Vary: pace, volume, pitch to emphasize points

Physical cues: facial expression, gestures, posture

Respond to audience

Limitations

Listener’s must remember

Easy to overload on info

Can’t pause it live

Text Advantages Reduces memory demands Revisit any time Distributed to mass audience Limitations Lacks expressiveness Must understand different formats: novel, newspaper, poems, reference Conventions can be tough to understand

Advantages

Reduces memory demands

Revisit any time

Distributed to mass audience

Limitations

Lacks expressiveness

Must understand different formats: novel, newspaper, poems, reference

Conventions can be tough to understand

Images Advantages Communicate everything at once Easily present emotion, feeling, mood, relationships, comparisons No decoding Limitations Not ideal for: philosophical, abstract Cannot communicate anything below the surface

Advantages

Communicate everything at once

Easily present emotion, feeling, mood, relationships, comparisons

No decoding

Limitations

Not ideal for: philosophical, abstract

Cannot communicate anything below the surface

No media is perfect for every student so we should always have several media options.

Flexible Digital Media “ Digital media becomes flexible in the way the content is stored and transmitted.” “ What was once permanent can be altered, removed at will, or restored-multiple times.”

“ Digital media becomes flexible in the way the content is stored and transmitted.”

“ What was once permanent can be altered, removed at will, or restored-multiple times.”

Flexible Digital Media Digital Media is Versatile Transformable Can be marked Can be networked

Digital Media is

Versatile

Transformable

Can be marked

Can be networked