The media effects question: “Unresolvable” or asking the right question

ate his point. The first is ThinkerTools (White, 1984, 1993) and the Jasper Woodbury Series (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1992). These two studies, however, suggest that the issue is not reframing Clark's question, but asking a different question. According to Kozma, ThinkerTools allows students to manipulate computer objects that behave according to rules derived from Newtonian mechanics. The study Kozma cites (White, 1993) compared sixth-grade students who used ThinkerTools to a similar group of sixth graders studying a standard curriculum unit on inventions. The experimental group was also compared to a high school physics class who had studied Newtonian mechanics using traditional methods and a high school class who had not studied the topic. The results support the effectiveness of ThinkerTools to teach Newtonian mechanics as measured by a posttest. The study, however, is inappropriately designed for interpretation as a basic research study to provide evidence for the contribution of the media to learning. Kozma suggests that it was the ability of the computer to present motion and react to the learners' input. One must ask, however, what would have been the result if the instructor had taken the