Systems analysis and media — A perspective

Summary

To sum up, my reactions to the excellent papers presented by our five scientists as related to instructional media are these:

• 1. The concepts of systems research, particularly those concepts related to the more precise definition of the whole and a more definitive analysis of the factors that go to make up the whole are applicable to what appears to me to be a relatively neglected field of direct research in instructional media; namely, the refinement of our knowledge of the most fruitful and potent characteristics of the various media themselves within the relatively loosely defined context of the educational system.

• 2. Systems analysis seems clearly relevant to the application of what fairly sketchy knowledge we have concerning the educational implementation of newer approaches to the curriculum. In this connection, I have referred to new curriculums in science at the secondary level. It seems quite clear that the humanities and the social sciences are in the process of developing such curricula or are about to enter this process. Furthermore, I would assume that a thoroughgoing systems analysis approach applied to these curricular developments would result in modifications of the curriculums themselves, since, to a large extent, relevant considerations concerning media, learners, and methodology have been brought to bear on these curriculum development projects in a very sketchy or incidental fashion—if, indeed, they have been considered seriously at all.

• 3. Operations analysis might be applied appropriately to the total school system. Models of school systems could be constructed within the parameters defined by various objectives to be included and excluded from the public school domain. No aspect of such models would be more important than instructional media, which, in themselves, would need to be described with far greater precision than they have been up to now.