Need of Instructional Media in Education by Amrita Tejpal

 Instructional Media in Education

Instructional media encompasses all the materials and physical means an instructor might use to implement instruction and facilitate student's achievement of instructional objectives. This may include traditional materials such as chalkboards, handouts, charts, slides, overheads, real objects, and videotape or film, as well newer materials and methods such as computers, DVDs, CD-ROM's, the Internet, and interactive video conferencing. Why Use Instructional Media? A good aid is like a window, it should not call attention to itself, it should just let in the light. In general, you should use media whenever, in your best judgment, it can facilitate learning or increase understanding of your material. Of course, communicating to facilitate learning can be a challenging process, often requiring creative efforts to achieve a variety of implicit instructional goals .
Models for media selection range from simple procedures or algorithms to complex theoretical schemes. Some are based on the communication ‘channel’ being used (audio, video, etc) or the characteristics of the media itself. Other emphasize the learning outcomes being addressed, while still others focus on learner attributes or educational theory or the teaching-learning process. Probably all of these factors are worthy of consideration. Strauss and Frost (1999) identify nine key factors that should influence media selection: institutional resource constraints, course content appropriateness, learner characteristics, professor attitudes and skill levels, course learning objective,  learning relationships, learning location, time (synchronous versus asynchronous), and media richness level.