Differences between media and differences between learners: Can we relate them?

The paper takes as its starting-point the generally undisputed assumption that there are educationally relevant differences between learners and between different types of media and that an appropriate match between these fields will lead to an improvement of learning. The first section looks at how the traditional school system has attempted to tackle the problem of the individual learner and the use of media. The second section surveys different attempts to define and investigate differences between media, and considers in depth the relationship between media taxonomies and instructional media research. A similar survey is made of attempts to define differences between learners and to relate them to media; this survey centres on the field of aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) research. The closing section focusses on the chances of the individual learner participating in controlling his own conditions of learning within institutions using media-based or media-supported instruction.