This article bridges the fields of instructional design and teacher education, presenting and modernizing the media influence debate and synthesizing it with the technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) framework. Five modern technologies are presented as media comparison studies, analyzed from both the medium-as-variable and medium-and-method-as-variable perspectives, and highlighted in an example teaching and learning scenario analyzed for TPACK. The media debate is newly synthesized with TPACK, acknowledging the teacher as a critical variable in instructional success, and implications for research and teacher education and professional development are presented.