This discussion of media has thus far focused on media as a delivery device.

Educators have typically

viewed media in two ways. First, media are viewed as a means to amplify the teacher's message, such as
with the use of an overhead projector or a video projector. Second, media are viewed as a way to
deliver instruction using computer-based instruction or television. For example, Alfred Bork suggested
that computer-based instruction would revolutionize schools and change the way students would learn.
Yet, by the beginning of the twenty-first century the computer-based instruction revolution had yet to
materialize.

Subsequent efforts shifted attention away from using computers to deliver instruction through a tutorial
or drill- and-practice instructional method toward using computers as a tool that is integrated into other
classroom activities to facilitate problem solving and learning. In their 2002 book Integrating Computer
Technology into the Classroom, Gary R. Morrison and Deborah L. Lowther described technology
integration as the process of using application software (for example, spreadsheets, databases, and web
browsers) as tools to help students learn problem solving. An example of technology integration is the
NteQ (Integrating Technology for Inquiry) model. This model provides teachers with a ten-step approach
for developing problem-based instructional units that integrate technology. Students use computers to
gather, manipulate, and present information related to solving academic problems. The emphasis at this
level is on the use of the computer as a tool in the same way that scientists and business professionals
use computers in their work.

This shift in focus from using computers and other media to deliver instruction to one of using
computers as an integrated problem-solving tool places a greater emphasis on the development of
media-based instructional methods. The emphasis of the research also shifts from comparing two media
conditions (e.g., classrooms with and without computers) to one of investigating the effectiveness of the
media-based instructional strategies employed in the classroom. An extensive description of a
classroom-based example of technology integration can be found in an online article from 2000, written
by Steven M. Ross, Morrison, Lowther, and Robert T. Plants, that investigated a school district's pilot of
an Anytime Anywhere Learning project focused on writing achievement. Teachers in the pilot project,
where the students had laptop computers, were more likely to use problem-based learning, cooperative
learning, facilitation, and sustained writing than teachers in traditional classrooms. Similarly, students in
the pilot project had significantly higher scores on a writing sample collected at the end of the year.
These differences were attributed to the student-centered environment created by the teachers rather
than the computer technology.

MORRISON, GARY R., and LOWTHER, DEBORAH L. 2002. Integrating Computer Technology into the
Classroom. Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice-Hall.