The Media is the Massage

We are amidst transitions in media, and that has implications for OTL. The tried and true principle of looking around to see what other people are doing applies, though often educators overlook obvious models to adopt. Such as, when one is trying to make online learning as immersive and as absorbing and emotionally fulfilling as face to face interactions, who does that best? And how do they do it?

Masters of the form, such as Hollywood and Independent cinema, Video Games, TV commercials, Music Videos, and YouTube clips, and the even shorter form of TikTok, display for the taking the methods and arts of powerful interaction online. We often hear that education needs to have an entertainment component, which is really just saying it must use all the means possible for rich media experience.

Costs are one factor slowing immersive media adoption for education, as generally scaling up requires a larger than local “audience”/ student group to be aggregated into a definable market.  Yes, we can get to a mass media type online education experience involving the best teachers producing the best content, but we’ll also need to meld with local contingencies and cultures.

That’s tricky, but can be done. For example, just as we juggle the needs for language translation online, a sort of lookup table (LUT) could be devised to interweave local language forms with “national” content, as well as local mentors and facilitators. Yes high production values can be pricey, but much less so in today’s world of “prosumer” but powerful cameras, and “home” computer based media “studios”.

And as noted, media continues to transition to ever more immersive and dynamic experience, such as “coming real soon now” AR, and VR and if Elon Musk isn’t totally crazy, some form of brain/computer interface of the biologic with silicone. Previous PSA posts have suggested we will need to keep an alert eye on media developments for a number of reasons, but perhaps most importantly their effect on “who we are”, or “who we perceive we are”, and/or “who others perceive us to be”. That gets harder and harder to do as media advances toward an AI/ human blending.