Myth and Realities of New Media Technology

Abstract

This article takes a critical look at how new media technology is used as both a medium of instruction as well as a subject of instruction in educational institutions. It tries to sieve the realities of techno-enhanced education from its hype and in the process discusses the sociocultural and economic implications of such a novel idea in a digitally divided global economy. It uses results gathered from a study that evaluated students' performances in physical and virtual classroom environments as a case study. The research came out with the following summary: the online/virtual classroom environment is a useful complement and not a substitute to physical classroom interaction. New media technology has a lot to offer society in flexible delivery of educational materials but it is still at the experimental stage and more work is needed to extract its full potential. It is, however, still predominantly a Western preserve.