Catalog

Learning, Media, and Technology

Comparative Media Studies/Writing MIT CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 10 lectures

New digital technologies are transforming learning for all ages—reading apps for toddlers, intelligent tutors for school children, blended learning for college students, MOOCs for adults, and interest-based learning communities for hobbyists. In this course, we explore these technologies and how they shape people’s lives and learning. Coursework will help students explore learning, media, and technology through multiple lenses—history, policy, social theory, design, and evaluation. Students will refine their thinking about the opportunities, limits, and tradeoffs of educational technology. Graduate students will complete additional assignments.

Syllabus

  1. 1 02. How People Learn: Cognitive Load Theory
  2. 2 03. How People Learn: Situated Learning
  3. 3 07. EdTech Before the Internet
  4. 4 09. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
  5. 5 10. Intelligent Tutors
  6. 6 12. Interest-Driven Learning
  7. 7 14. Learning Games
  8. 8 16. Start-Up and the Curse of the Familiar
  9. 9 18. Trap of Routine Assessment
  10. 10 20. The Toxic Power of Data and Experiment

Course materials