We in India have a term in Hindi called “Jugaad” which means to make ends meet with whatever is available. The most time and cost effective way of doing things. Yes of course if I can achieve the purpose of learning about Greek Civilization by reading something, then why should I go and build a video game to explore ancient Greek Cities? And somebody who is not interested in reading might equally be not interested in video games. But is it the case? Not always, someone might be interested in video games and not in reading. This is where I agree with Salomon, that we need to consider other factors. Clark’s arguments especially hold good in Indian conditions where typically a class will have 50-60 students and thus it becomes difficult to provide each of them with a video game. Thus textbooks are the most cost effective way out. But think of a situation where you are using a text editor to type something, and every time you misspell a word there is a red underline that indicates you of the mistake committed. Is it not a persuasive way of learning? You don’t have to rely on the teacher to correct the spellings for you, and sometimes the teacher might not be looking into the spellings due to excessive work load. Don’t you think the media plays a role here?
We all pay a lot of stress on practical examinations of Science students. Imagine a Biology student who has learned to operate on a human body through texts only and no practical exams. We clearly stress the importance of contextual learning in this case. Similarly media takes up a very important role when it comes to Role Playing or Virtual Stimulation of a situation. Secondly the media advances are also influencing the content that is delivered. I would thus agree with Cobb and Kozma when they stress the need to consider the role of these tools on the cognitive process. We cannot be indifferent to other modes of learning in this world of media advancement. One might argue that good wine sells by itself, but then why are there booming advertising agencies, if there was no need for them?
