McCormack, 'Technology Watch Column', MC Journal 0302
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/mcj/mcj-0302-mccormack-technology


Technology Watch Column

In the Rush to Use New Information Technologies: Don't Forget the
User.

by Terrence McCormack
MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship, v3#2,
Fall 1995:62-65.


With the emergence of computer driven electronic
presentation software, CD-ROM's, and graphically driven
resources on the World Wide Web, it has become fashionable for
increasing numbers of librarians, faculty and instructors to make
extensive use of newer technologies.  The infusion of
the electronic library and classroom into academia has fostered a
reshaping of instruction and information dissemination.
Unfortunately, this trend is becoming more than an instructional
paradigm, in some cases it is in vogue, and if you're not doing
it, there's something desperately wrong with your teaching
methods and maybe your media department.   This new  party line
is promulgated at the expense of "older technologies"  that may
in fact still satisfy an instructional need more effectively than
digital methods.

This is not to say the implementation of new instructional
and informational technologies is misguided, or that media
specialists should join the ranks of the Neo-Luddites and resist
efforts to integrate newer technologies into their learning
environments.  To the contrary, newer electronic technologies
offer a variety of benefits never realized
with traditional audiovisuals.  The popularity of multimedia
electronic presentation rooms provide faculty with an arsenal of
tools that include: electronic control podiums offering access
to microcomputers with CD-ROMs, VCRs, video disk players, opaque
visualizers and three gun video projectors. Such utilization of

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instructional facilities have not only helped enhance
instruction but, also made possible broad based user access
through such services as distance learning.  Through the
merger and choreograph of a variety of technologies distant
classrooms are now connected for two way multimedia
communication. This ongoing intersection of analog  and
computerized technologies will continue to unify and stretch
instructional and information technologies to new boundaries.

However, the most well intentioned technological efforts
sometimes don't include the needs of the learner and information
user.  As the information providers find new ways to produce,
compress, crunch and send information, there may be a few that
forget the impact of specific technologies on both the
information content and the user.  Computer and
network technologies are, in some cases, examples of technologies
evolving beyond the process of transferring information, to
a self perpetuating monster, devouring resources and
personnel time to serve system needs.

To deal effectively with emerging technologies, media and
information specialists must tame the tech-monster by
remembering some basic principles of instructional design:
a.)Identify the user's information needs;  b.)Set the
instructional or information goals, and objectives; c.)select a
technology to best disseminate the information; Consider here
that the technology, media, or format must also be accessible to
the user and meet their information requirements in their
environment or learning context.

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Children's picture books are designed and focused at a
particular audience that adapts well to that format.  David
Macaulay, author of The Way Things Work, points out that picture
books work well because of the form or format which helps hold
and structure the information to the needs of the intended
audience.  According to Macaulay transforming formats  or "form"
such as a picture book to a CD-ROM does not necessarily enhance
or improve information delivery to the user or child.  However,
it does add layers of cumbersome technology that the user must
contend with, as well as the economic factor.

A Powerpoint presentation on a computer projected through
an overhead and LCD panel does not always deliver the best visual
presentation.  Sometimes the low-tech display of color
transparencies, created by hand or on a laser printed from
Powerpoint, may deliver superior resolution and richer color
under adverse lighting conditions.  Two way video and audio
telecommunication through microcomputers offer great
interactivity, however, it also offers postage size eight to ten
frame video, with poor resolution that drags behind the audio.  A
cheap solution is a two way telephone speaker system for audio;
or in the case of video distribution to remote sites, a camcorder
and the U.S. Mail.  Both are inexpensive alternatives to
investing massive amounts of money into your educational
infrastructure. Don't forget to put the CD-ROM multimedia craze
in perspective.  CD-ROM encyclopedia and reference tools are
great fun for users, they have sound, graphics and video clips to
keep our minds stimulated.  What producers don't tell consumers,

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however, is the amount of CD disc space that is consumed to bring
you the multimedia hype at the expense of textual content.  As
Macaulay states,  CD-ROM, authors and producers are "just running
scared" thinking that they are not staying ahead unless they
produce a product in an electronic format, instead of determining
what their real information goals are.

There is nothing complicated about using new technologies
and determining which is the best for teaching or information
dissemination.  In many cases the technology needed to convey
information will often match the form or characteristics  of the
information, as well as the user's needs.  For example the
Internet is an electronic form of information and training is
best demonstrated through some type of electronic display system.
Art slides work well for art students because film does a very
good job of replicating the characteristics of detail and color.

Remember that good media and information specialist know how
to identify their goals, they know that techno-glitz only serves
as a distraction from those goals. They know that if a technology
is mismatched with an information need, then that technology
becomes a communication barrier. They also know that existing
technologies only become obsolete when they have ceased to serve
an information need.  New technologies are only practical when
they have the potential to become cost effective , provide
superior performance over exciting systems, and can be integrated
into environmental designs.  Media specialists know that
computers are here forever, and there is no turning back,
however, they still turn to technologies that are cheap to
operate, like blackboards.


Terrence McCormack is Head of the M. Robert Koren Center for
Clinical and Legal Education, Law Library, SUNY Buffalo.

This article is copyright (C) by Terrence McCormack. All rights
reserved. Any commercial use requires the permission of the
author and the editors of this journal.

MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship
v.3#2
Fall 1995
ISSN 1069-6792

November 1995

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