Discussion 3

Initially, I strongly disagreed with the Clark article. This was based purely on the title, because I do believe that "media" can influence learning. As I got deeper into the article, the argument became clearer to me, and I began to agree with Clark. The argument he was making about how it's not necessarily the media being used, but the the learning material contained within the media being used that matters. I think this gets lost sometimes when administrators and other "powers that be" become infatuated with technology. As educators, we are paid to teach, not to just use technology. We have to find a way to enhance our instruction with technology and make sure we're not just using technology "for technology's sake". I also agree that this article may have been slightly outdated because of Clark's use of the word media instead of technology, because that is what most of us are used to hearing.

I also think that the stats produced in the Lowther article could have been slightly skewed. As an English teacher, I would expect my students to score better on writing tests if they had been using a laptop all year that provided both spell checking and grammar checking. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if they scored better on multiple-choice tests because they have had increased access to information via the laptops they've been utilizing all year. I am a big fan of students using laptops, however, after seeing this in action at Auburn Junior High last semester.