Technology-based learning thrives through virtual classrooms due to its increase in students' academic performance and motivation and decrease in test anxiety.

Technology-based learning is rapidly becoming a necessary educational tool at schools and universities, which is evident through the rise of virtual classrooms. This new education has many benefits, as well as disadvantages for student’s learning, but it has been determined that the benefits outweigh the detriments for the typical student. A study by two professors from Alzahra University in Tehran depicted that technology-based learning decreases test anxiety, while increasing academic performance and motivation. Media Psychology is a recent field of study that evaluates how technology impacts students in this psychological manner. It is significant to analyze these effects in order to improve the future of students' learning behaviors.

Technology-based learning has psychological benefits for students, including an increase in academic performance and motivation and a decrease in test anxiety. 

In order to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of technology-based learning, it is crucial to compare an online classroom setting with a physical classroom setting. In a physical classroom setting, a student gets the attention they need from teachers, but it can also be stressful with other students around them. It is common to compare your academic performance with classmates, as well as get anxious and nervous about expressing your opinion to a group of students or even taking a test with others.

In an online learning setting, there is no face-to-face interaction and students are not amongst their classmates, so they do not compare their grades and they are able to take a test on their own time in their own comfortable atmosphere. This not only reduces one’s social anxiety, but also significantly decreases one’s test anxiety. In addition, students tend to have more motivation and do better in an online setting.

So if this is the case, shouldn’t teachers only use technology-based teaching? Dr. Scott Roberts, the Director of Undergraduate Studies and a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland, explains some psychological effects of technology-based learning and illustrates that isolating students to a strict technology-based learning environment may take away from important social necessities for students.

The study from Alzahra University tested these three dependent variables, academic performance, motivation, and test anxiety, through a 200 high school student sample. 100 students were randomly put into control and experimental groups, where the experimental group used an online site for their educational learning. The graph to the right portrays the test scores of the students in their assigned groups after the semester ended in order to compare the scores between online learning and traditional learning. The study concluded that learning using technology increased one’s academic performance, as well as academic motivation, and decreased one’s test anxiety. These results are significant because they suggest that technology-based learning could be the key to improve students' education.

Virtual classrooms are rapidly evolving at schools and universities, which indicates that the future of education will exist in an online format.

The successful discoveries of the effects of technology-based learning have created a rapid growth of virtual classrooms throughout America. Lindsey Cook, a reporter for U.S. News & World Report, wrote an article that discusses a 2004 prediction of how education will be conducted in 2014. The 2004 prediction indicated that education will be enhanced by technology and students will choose how they want to learn. In addition, it expressed that most students will use virtual classes for some courses instead of entering a physical classroom setting to gain the information. In the following video, Dr. Roberts compares virtual classrooms to an in-class setting and how the educational differences affect students' needs.

The internet and other useful education applications have increased the amount of schools and universities implementing these virtual settings. The 2004 prediction explained that virtual classrooms would pioneer in adult education and then rapidly move all education to an online format. Although the prediction was accurate regarding adult education, online courses have only been slowly progressing in grades K-12. However, students are starting to obtain the resources themselves. For example, Khan Academy is a technological tool that provides online education, which allows its users to access this information at anytime and from anywhere. This type of education is always available and it will continue to grow. It is expected that individuals in the next 10 years will learn how to use virtual classes effectively in order to obtain more educated students and professionals.

Dr. Roberts explains that technology-based learning is a tool; it must be used correctly in order to provide effective learning. For new applications to be used successfully, such as virtual classrooms or specific software, it is important to learn how people absorb knowledge using these types of technology.

The success rate of virtual classes are so high that schools have even transformed their entire institutions to an online format. In addition, some schools are even replacing teachers with computers and other technological advancements. Learning online will continue to grow in the next 10 years, with the expectation that virtual classrooms will completely take over student education.

Pew Research Center conducted a survey in spring 2011 of 1,055 college and university presidents in America to evaluate the expectations of online learning. The college presidents indicated that at the time, there were limited students participating in online courses, but come 2021, half of the college presidents suggested that most students will take online classes. The growth of online education is evident nationwide and colleges are beginning to prepare for this transformation. In the survey, 62% of presidents depicted that in 2021, more than half of college textbooks will be strictly digital. Therefore, there is significance in studying how these changes will effect a student's education. 

Media Psychology is a new and growing field, which evaluates how media affects the individuals who use its tools.

Media Psychology is an emerging field that evaluates the psychological components that arise from the new technologies created. As you can see, it is crucial that technological advancements are studied to analyze its effects on the individuals that use it. Technology has become a prominent aspect in most individual's everyday lives; an article in the Media Psychology Review explains that our world has become completely media dependent. Televisions, computers, and cell phones are staples in society today. This field of study researches the interaction between media communication and psychology.

The article discusses the difficulty to define the field due to the complex aspects of psychology and the media. The purpose of Media Psychology is to discover how new technologies effect its users to better the human experience and create beneficial social change. Experts in this field of study are the individuals that proposed the benefits of technology-based learning. Learning how virtual classes affect students enables institutions to improve their educational tools and enhance the knowledge of future generations. As virtual classrooms continue to grow, so will the field of Media Psychology, which will continuously learn and teach the effects of evolving technologies in order to benefit the lives of its users.

An interactive map illustrates cities with more than 500,000 individuals rapidly growing in population size from 1800 to 2030.

The image to the right is a photo of an interactive data visual in which urban development is portrayed in cities with over 500,000 inhabitants. The International Institute for Environment and Development illustrate this interactive graphic in an easy to use map and grid. Below the graphic, there is a guide depicting how to use the map; however, I think this visual does not need instructions because it is very self-explanatory. The map has information on the population size in these cities from 1800-2030. A user can easily change the year and find the increase in numbers within the populations; one can also zoom in and out of the well-presented map. In addition, one can hover over a city with a keyboard mouse and find information on that city. I believe this visual is explanatory because it is easy to use and simply illustrates the information which provides graphical knowledge over a large period of years, including the future. I think the only negative issue with this map is the difficulty in finding information on a smaller city. Many circles on the map overlap with other cities and it is complicated to hover over the exact city you want to learn more about; however, IIED creates an easy to use grid construction of the information. This part of the graphic allows users to easily find a city in a grid format. This visualization is a good example of an explanatory graphic because it is easy to use and learn the information presented about the growing cities around the world.

Research Suggests When Exposed to Violent Medium Interactive Video Game Users Exhibit More Intense Violence than Non-Interactive Television Users

• Study shows that an interactive medium generates more positive feelings and information processing for media users than a medium with no interaction
• Video game users become completely absorbed in their game, as opposed to passive television watchers who do not become immersed in this virtual experience     
• Violence in video games can lead to violence in the real world because of this intense absorption and need for control

Video games are more interactive, which cause greater effects on the audience than television does. The most relatable example is the theme of violence in the media. Although debates arise between violence and television, violence is the main concern with video game use. A study explains interactive vs. non-interactive media use that deeply explores the psychological meanings behind why interactive use is more detrimental to society than non-interactive use.

The study depicted that an interactive medium creates more information processing and positive feelings toward the messages being portrayed than a medium that is not interactive. In an interactive medium, users focus more on the content because they must engage in the activity, so the individuals are more clearly encoding the messages in this type of medium. Users have control over what they want and do not want to see in an interactive system; consumers can more easily and intensely process the information. Strong cognitive effort is used when engaging in interactive media, so the information being presented becomes favorable and desirable.

In addition, this study discovered that interactive users experience a higher flow state than non-interactive users. A flow state is the sensational feeling individuals get when they are fully immersed in an activity. In order to gain full enjoyment, consumers must have the skills to immerse themselves in the challenging activity, such as a video game. The interactivity of a video game can bring users into a flow state where they are totally absorbed in the virtual experience, forgetting their physical surroundings. When users do not interact with the medium, such as television, they are not as involved in the content and can more easily remove themselves from it.

Some could say that it is the media’s fault for injecting the violence into our everyday life through different medium, such as video games and television. Pavlik and McIntosh, authors of the text Converging Media, explain that the media completes this task by a theory called the “hypodermic-needle model.” This model depicts that the audience takes in whatever the media is portraying in a passive way. This model specifically relates to the passive medium of television. The audience just sees what is depicted on television and learns from the messages being presented. Pavlik and McIntosh describe another theory about the effect the media has on its viewers, known as cultivation analysis. This theory explains that viewers witness what is on television and accept that this is the reality in the world. For example, if one watches a violent television show with lots of murders, the viewer won’t feel the need to murder others, but will believe society is more dangerous than it truly is. Viewers observe the heavy, graphic, and realistic violence on television and believe this is how humans behave off the screen as well.

Video games are even worse; this interactive medium puts the audience in control of the violence. This type of media user learns how it feels to kill others, sometimes in a brutal way. They even get rewarded for murdering in this interactive medium; a user can win a game by killing a certain amount of people. This type of medium desensitizes the audience to violence and teaches that violence resolves conflict. An example of violent actions transformed from video games to real life is the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. An article portrays that the shooter, Adam Lanza, was obsessed with violent video games; one game he played often was called “School Shooting.” The article states that Lanza shot and killed six adults and 20 first graders in his real life interactive video game. A violent interactive medium gives users the power and confidence to conduct these horrible acts out of the media’s hands and into the real world.

Although video games do create a larger effect on its users than television does because of its interactive nature, it is important not to forget that television still has an effect on its viewers that should be noted. Studies have shown that children act more aggressive after watching violent behaviors on television; in the text, Pavlik and McIntosh discuss famous studies in the 1950s, called Bobo Doll studies. The studies showed that children were more likely to hit a Bobo doll after watching violent television in which rewards were given to the violent characters, over violent television that punished the violent characters. These studies portrayed that children absorb the violence that the media puts out for their viewers. There is a correlation between aggression and violent television; so it is significant to understand that although interactive medium, such as video games, allows the user to be in control of the violence (and can ultimately lead to real murder), television can adjust behavior as well.

Children are not the only ones playing video games, many college students play frequently as well. This could possibly be the cause of many recent university shootings, so it is crucial to take note of the severe consequences of interactive violent video games.

About Me

My name is Julie and I am a junior at the University of Maryland. My major is psychology and I am also on a pre-dental track. I grew up in Westchester County, New York and hope to move back for dental school. Journalism has always fascinated me and I can't wait to learn more about technology and what the future holds for the next generation.