MEDIA AWARENES

 Introduction:

            Communication is a key thread in fabric of life. It shapes us mentally, socially, emotionally and spiritually.

            Communication forms and sustains society and at the same time develops and maintains our individuality. It is the nervous system of the social and political body.

            As communication is central of any society, the tools of communication are essential to its educational and socioeconomic development.

Social Change by communication:

            Man is a social being and cannot live without communicating. He communicates to express his feeling, needs, ideas and opinions about himself, environment and other people around him. Various means are used by man to communicate.

            The history of man and the history of communication seem to be synonymous. One cannot be separated from the other. The history of man is thus an account of extension of his powers. Particularly, the invention of alphabets, printing from marble types, invention of radio and television are landmark not only in the history of mankind but also in the development in mass communication media.

Types of Media:

            Mass media of communication are the results of the modern age of science and technology. There are two types of media:

a)         Printing Media:

            Books, journals and newspapers constitute the whole gamut of printing materials. Printed material in fact became the most popular means of education. Textbooks, handbooks, guidebooks and journals are used as very useful teaching / learning materials. Inspite of electronic advancements, printed material are felt indispensable.

            Printed materials made education available to a vast population. In place of “class education” it became “mass education”.

b)         Electronic Media:

            Television is now the magic carpet being used as a means of exploring the mysteries of the universe and a magic box for providing education and entertainment simultaneously. It is now a window to the world and a very potential and pragmatic medium of education catching the attention of all high and low, rural and urban, students and teachers.

            Films are a very effective mass media of communication and provide education as well as entertainment. India entered into the era of film production in 1912 with “Pundalik” a silent film produced by R.G.Torney.

Educational films are a very interesting medium of education. On a wide canvas we can see the real world or imaginary world with keen interest and rapt attention. Educational films produced with specific academic theme and suitable method as well as techniques, are helpful in imparting instruction and happiness. They provide reality and imagination, variety and novelty, motion and animation by making instruction interesting. Students learn from educational films without tears, without boredom and without any strain. They enjoy and get themselves enlightened. Children are quite sensitive and creative. They are to be “warmed up” or motivated to get information, develop positive interest and attitudes so that their education becomes effective.

There are three types of skills use in learning process:-

1.         Reading Skills.

            Educational technologies that support the development of student’s reading skills includes audio books, electronic books and online texts, electronic talking books and programmed reading instructions.

            Audio books:

            Audio books, sometimes known as books on tape, are professionally recorded, unabridged versions of fiction or nonfiction books. They are available on regular audiocassettes or four-track cassettes that require a special cassette player. Audio books promote student’s interest in reading and improve their comprehension of texts, notes Beers. They also have been used successfully by students who cannot read traditional printed books because of visual or physical handicaps. When used with conjunction with written texts, audio books help improve children’s reading skills.

            E-books and online Texts:

            Electronics books, also known as e-books, are electronic texts that are presented visually. Weather available on CD-ROM, the Internet, or special disks, electronic books always provide the text in a visual component.

            Online texts are those that are available on the World Wide Web. With access to an internet-connected computer, students can find a wide variety of free online reading materials, including books, plays, short stories, magazines and reference materials.

           

Electronic Talking books:

            The term electronic talking books have been coined by some researchers to refer to electronic texts that also provide embedded speech.

            Electronic talking books increase motivation to read as well as promote basic word recognition. According to some research, the use of talking books has shown positive results as an aid to help children improve their comprehension of texts. In addition, children’s decoding skills have been shown to improve with the use of talking books. For slightly older readers, talking books feature glossary entries, explanatory notes and simplified rewordings that provide additional background information needed to understand new concepts in texts.

            Software Programmes:

            Various types of software programs, computer-assisted instruction, and integrated learning system offer programmed reading instruction for student. The computer program helped the children learn to discriminate and sequence the sound in words, which improved their word-reading ability.

2.         Writing Skills:

            Educational technologies that support the development of student’s writing skills include word processing, desktop publishing, multimedia composing, online publishing and internet communication.

            Word Processing:

            Word processing is the pioneer application of educational technology used in writing instruction. Although it requires the mastery of basic keyboarding skills, word processing allows many students to write and edit their work more easily. In addition, word processing tools such as spelling checkers are useful aids that improve the quality of student writing. Research indicates that students who are comfortable with word processing write longer papers, spend more time writing and revising, and show improved mechanics and word choice. Nevertheless, research also indicates that using a word processor does not by itself improve student writing. Rather, the teacher has a critical role in guiding the writing process, providing feedback and encouraging revision.

            The arguments for promoting word processing in K-12 education are several. First, some educators acknowledge that because of the prevalence of word processing in the workplace, students should be taught at least the rudiments of word processing, much the same way that students have learned typing skills and their related content-based counterparts such as organizing a term paper, composing a letter, or drafting documents for research in various subject areas.

3.         Research and Collaboration Skills:

            Technologies that support student’s research and collaboration skills include Internet search engines, online tools for evaluating web-based information and Web sites that offer collaborative activities.

            Search Engines:

            The Internet has gained momentum as the infrastructure on which international knowledge is created and shared. Use of Internet search engines can promote students’ research and investigation skills and enable them to locate online information on any possible topic. Students can also access online journals, magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias and informative Web sites. Unfortunately, some information on the Web is neither accurate nor reputable. Students need to learn how to evaluate this information.

            Online Tools:

            The need to evaluate online information sources is gaining importance as a basic literacy skill. Online tools for evaluating online information provide strategies for determining the accuracy, quality, and timeliness of online information.

            Web Sites:

            Educational technology has expanded the instructional potential of collaboration. In the recent past, student collaboration in literacy activities might have meant one classroom joining with another classroom across the hall to engage in joint reading, writing, listening, speaking or research projects. Today, educators can access and share a global curriculum-development lab with other educators. They can engage their class with another in literacy-based projects without geographic boundaries.

The Concept of Multimedia:

            Multimedia combinations are generally referred to as multimedia system. Multimedia means ‘many media’. The term ‘multimedia instructional system’ refers to the uses of appropriate and carefully selected varieties of learning experiences which are presented to the learner through selected teaching strategies which reinforce and strengthen one another so that the learner will achieve pre-determined and desired behavioral objectives. Dipika.B.Shah (1988) defines multimedia as ‘more than one medium’ used in a single communication either sequentially or simultaneously. Experts are of the opinion that different media serve different educational functions, so that various media should not be used in isolation, instead they should be integrated.

Characteristics of Multimedia:

a)         Multimedia storage and retrieval systems contain more information than any human training agent can possibility embrace, and have many terminals through which students have access to the information.

b)         The development of multimedia instructional and support systems have provided the tools for creating learning center in which a very large number of models of learning can be actualized over a great range of content with considerable variation in complexity.

c)         By employing media technology as support systems, we can offer to the students a large number of ways to learn a large number of things.

d)         What multimedia systems promise is a form which permits the delivery of a range of instructional and informational supports?

e)         Multimedia systems are not restricted to a single type of learning or instructional mode; they represent a support for a range of them.

f)          The capability of multimedia systems is markedly greater than that of ordinary classroom practice, in creating a variety of learning models.

g)         This multimedia device is striking because it provides the opportunity to learn exceedingly complex skills which are related to sets of diverse and precise theoretical knowledge bases.

h)         The development of multimedia educational systems permit many models of education that otherwise are inconceivable as long as we think of the classroom and the teacher as the primary mediator of instruction.