Changing Gateways To Knowledge: New Media Symbol Systems

by Dennis Adams and Mary Hamm

T hinking and learning are based on inter- nal symbolic representations and our mental interpretation of those symbols. Print and video (or film) take very dif- ferent approaches to reaching the mind.

Print relies upon the reader's ability to interpret abstract symbols, the video screen is more direct and emotional.

Television and its associates started a change of instructional focus, but the appearance of comput- ers in the classroom caught everyone's attention. Now there is general agreement that to be fully lit- erate today children must understand print and electronic images.

Educators may be a little late, but they are be- ginning the process of discovering the interrelated- ness of diverse strands of print and electronic me- dia. Learning about either medium requires a sys- tem that emphasizes process, purpose and examining good models. To the teacher who is trying to choreograph this mix, it is a complicated challenge.

Symbol Systems and Learning

Teaching children how to read print is a tradi- tional school role. To even begin to read a child needs to understand the sound-symbol relation- ship. The images that flash across our video screen may have a different vocabulary but com- prehension requires similar skills. Parents and

Dr. Dennis Adams is associate professor at the Educational Technology Department and Dr. Mary Hamm is associate professor at the Depart- ment o f Elementary Education for San Francisco State University, California.

schools have always recognized the importance of print for building higher level thinking skills-- while ignoring the new universal curriculum (tele- vision). TV may have a very different set of con- ventions (and ways of using symbols), but muting its serious study and use may stifle the school's ability to ride the recent wave of educational tech- nology.

In a complex society dependent on instanta- neous communication and information, television, computers and their associates are rapidly becom- ing our dominant cultural tools for selecting, gath- ering, storing and conveying knowledge in repre- sentational forms. These more life-like symbol systems are comprised of everything from struc- ture, sound track, color to concreteness, pace and difficulty. As video becomes mixed with print-- and more interactive--it may become more like reading and less like broadcast TV. Reconfigura- ble video has as many as three windows on the screen--conveying such things as a moving video image, graphs and print from an encyclopedia data bank.

Because electronic symbol systems are central to the media of communication and to thinking their interaction and interdependence cannot be ignored. It is important that students begin to de- velop the skills necessary for interpreting and processing all kinds of video messages.

Symbolically different presentations of media vary as to the mental skills of processing they re- quire. Each individual learns tO use a media's symbolic forms for purposes of internal represen- tation. But just as recognizing numbers does not automatically make a mathematician; watching television does not automatically make an intelli- gent critical viewer. Representation, unlike experi- ence is always coded within a symbol system.

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Learning to understand the major symbol systems of the electronic media cultivates the mental skills necessary for gathering and assimilating internal representations. Whether 25 hours a week at home (TV) or 5 hours a week at school (comput- ers) these devices set the agenda for learning.

Understanding Media Attributes

All media convey contents which are structured and coded by symbol systems. Each may be unique, but all use technologies for gathering, en- coding, sorting and conveying their contents asso- ciated with different situations. The technology of a medium affects the modes of interaction with its users, but the transmitted content affects the knowledge acquired.

Learning seems to be affected more by what is delivered than by the delivery system itself. Does it therefore follow that media are just alternative routes to the same end? Studies suggest that spe- cific media attributes when used as carriers of the critical information to be learned call on different sets of mental skills and by doing so, cater to dif- ferent learning styles.

Media can do more than serve the same educa- tional ends for different learners through alterna- tive means. Violence does not seem quite as strong when read in books or comic strips as when viewed on television. Due to their different natures symbol systems vary as to the mental skills they require in the service of information ex- tracting and processing. The mastery of reading skills, for example, is different than the mastery of skills needed for map reading. And reading a graph or the Wall Street Journal is very different than watching The Nightly Business Report on PBS.

Processing must always take place and this process always requires skill. The closer the match between the way information is presented and the way it can be mentally represented the less recoding that is needed and the easier it is learned. Better communication means easier proc- essing. The potential of symbol systems for saving mental effort by addressing themselves to cogni- tive systems in ways that better respond to our mode of internal representation has not been seri- ously tapped.

There is also concern over the effortless wash of images that are consumed on a massive scale. To

break free from this visual quicksand requires training children to become critical video consum- ers who are literate in interpreting and processing visual images. Only the well informed can commu- nicate and identify the symbolic significance of electronic imagery. What is needed are theories and techniques translating this into a mobilizing vision for instruction.

Developing Thinking Tools for Assessing Media Messages

Our society is in the process of reshaping think- ing about what should go on in classrooms. Teach- ers and parents who care about fostering their children's love for learning want a stimulating cross-media curriculum for children. Understand- ing television conventions helps cultivate mental "tools of thought" and allows the viewer new ways of handling and exploring the world. The ability to interpret the action, make the video mes- sage intelligible and go beyond the surface of fleet- ing images are skills of visual competency. Under- standing both the specific techniques and the philosophical nuances of a medium moves its con- sumers in the direction of mastery.

The levels of knowledge and skill that children bring with them to the viewing situation determine the areas of knowledge and skill development ac- quired. But teachers will, in the final analysis be the ones called upon to make the connections en- twining varieties of print and visual media with mathematics, language arts, social studies or sci- ence.

A few practical techniques follow that may guide teachers in helping students' develop critical thinking and visual literacy skills. They all involve treating children like producers of electronic learn- ing materials.

Decoding images

Decoding visual stimuli and learning from visual images requires practice. Seeing an image does not automatically ensure learning from it. Students must be guided in decoding and looking critically at what they view. One technique is to have stu- dents " read" the image on various levels. Stu- dents identify individual elements and classify them into various categories, then relate the whole to their own experiences, drawing inferences and creating new conceptualizations from what they

22 TechTrends

have learned. We have students take rather mundane photo-

graphs and multiply the image in a way that makes them interesting. Through the act of observing it is possible to build a common body of experiences, humor, feeling and originality. Through collabora- tive efforts children can expand on their ideas and make the process come alive.

Creating video productions

Planning, visualizing and developing a produc- tion allows students to critically sort out and use video techniques to relay meaning. By helping stu- dents realize their ideas through video production they learn to redefine space and time, and use me- dia attributes such as structure, sound, color, pac- ing and imaging. Sometimes the more amateur the work the easier it is to get the viewer to some de- gree of expertise in the actual creation of the idea. New light weight cameras make video photogra- phy much easier.

Here are some ideas for student video produc- tion: 1. Have students create their own music videos

based on a favorite song or recording. 2. Assign students to write, record and shoot a

poetry video based on their own original writ- ing.

3. Shoot one scene from many different perspec- tives. Encourage students to use closeup shots and panning, tilting and zooming techniques.

4. Have students design a video segment from a movie video. Students build their own story or TV ad from selected video segments and add their own soundtrack taking selected parts from the dialogue.

5. Give students 10 or 12 short segments of video and have them arrange each clip under the fol- lowing headings: setting characters problem problem-solu- tion ending Based on their classifications, have them de- sign a coherent film.

6. Create a TV advertisement using video tech- niques such as flashbacks, cuts, and dissolves. Have students demonstrate how these tech- niques convey messages to consumers.

Visions for the Future

For students to create in the medium of print re-

quires that they read great literature, know how to search out information, write for a real reader, tap their personal experiences, and cooperatively edit their material. Learning about electronic commu- nications technology can follow a similar pattern.

It is dangerous to function in a theoretical vac- uum because worse rituals can spring up to re- place what was drained away. As electronic learn- ing devices flood our homes and schools we need research findings to support practice. Daring cre- ative work can coexist with a commitment to em- pirical research.

Understanding the symbol system of a particu- lar medium is an important step to empowering teachers to take control of teaching--and empow- ering students to take control of learning.

Print and hand drawn pictures, the oldest tech- nological media, have been the traditional cogni- tive tools of our culture. With the advent of new electronic technology new processes and symbol systems have emerged. Good theoretical tech- niques developed for understanding how any com- munications medium interacts with human learn- ing will be helpful--even after we have gone be- yond the current technological horizons in education.

We need a wide range of intellectual tools for understanding reality. This requires defining edu- cational needs in a more theoretical and a more practical way. If we don't integrate the two, one will get in the way of the other. Adults and chil- dren should have control over the technology they are using. Progress in understanding the character- istics of effective technology-assessed instruction can result from understanding the role of diverse symbols purveyed in stimulating environments for learning.

As computers take their place as classroom im- age conveyers--and television becomes more in- teract ive-s tudents will have new tools for think- ing and learning. As we become able to graphical- ly search and simulate our way through multiple levels of abstraction previously obscure concepts will be comprehendable with greater depth, at an earlier age. New learning technologies will broad- en our understanding of various symbol systems and invigorate the process of curriculum creation.

It will always come back to our discipline--ped- agogy. If teachers have an extensive understand- ing of human learning--and a thorough knowledge of the characteristics of effective instruction--then they can reach for a mobilizing vision. �9

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