Liftology 21: The role of asking for media

Often, you want to use media, and in two ways. First, to illustrate what you’re talking about. For instance, diagrams of models, or video introductions. The other way is to ask for video or audio from your audience. Both have underlying reasons that make sense for learning.

So, different media serve different cognitive roles. These posts, for instance, are text, whereas the original videos were scripted in text but then read, and sometimes altered. Text lends itself to complex statements, and is our most versatile and compact communication. Audio, at least speech, is just the dynamic form of text. (We don’t do enough, arguably, about sounds, as has been said the most interesting sounds coming from a computer is the startup chime, though we do look to audio cues from our devices.) 

Even before we created writing, however, we created drawing, as cave paintings indicate. And images can communicate physical features better than text can. Then, we have diagrams, which capture conceptual elements and their relationships, which can be useful but is more abstract. These too can be dynamic, either video or animation (I make a distinction for the sake of clarity, but the terms are frequently used more loosely). Of course, media can be combined, so sequencing static images with audio overlay can be a video (think: Ken Burns). 

Now, we can communicate with them when we want to achieve something. I could be adding diagrams here, for instance, at least for some of the topics. Similarly, we can ask for media from our learners. That’s particularly important if we’re asking them to learn something about communication: we can ask for video or audio to see how they’re doing. It also might be easier for some to take and upload a quick video rather than compose text. If you’’re doing a text task, of course, text makes sense!

For purposes of quick reactivation via LIFTs, we just want small texts or easily created video or audio, but for formal instruction you want the right media for the task. Mixed in with some variety just to maintain attention, of course. In general, however, using the right media for the message is a key point to successful learning.