The history of educational technology is interesting insomuch as the focus has shifted away from the technology. In today’s educational environment, technology can be used as an alternative modality to deliver instruction to a digital generation of students but can and should never take the place of good instructional activities. I agree with Eldringhoff’s assessment on his blog where he correctly identifies too much attention has been focused on the "technology" to see if it "makes a difference." I believe as educators we should focus on the instructional technique to see if that "makes a difference" and plug in the technology to fit the need.
This is reflected in the focusing over the history of the field from technology to process. All too often technology is viewed from a purely academic or administrative perspective. It is important to view technology holistically for the ways it can facilitate learning with today’s student. In the past there was a “field-of-dreams” mentality of administration to acquire technological stuff assuming proficiency would soon follow. To an extent, that philosophy has worked but has never produced overwhelming results that did not see technology become the victim of the first budget cuts during rough fiscal periods.
The ultimate purpose of any instructional technology project is to increase the knowledge of the student. In today’s educational environment, technology can be used as an alternative modality to deliver instruction to a digital generation of students. Modality is independent of instructional technique. The use of technology should always be for the promotion of student learning and effective instruction.
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I agree. Technology is a tool, without good motivation and instruction it will flop.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of research question do you think would address the “focus on the instructional technique to see if that "makes a difference" and plug in the technology to fit the need”?
ReplyDeleteFor a current research project I am conducting with one of my faculty, we are looking at specifically how experiential learning can affect a student's understanding of acid-base balance in humans. So our research question is “Does problem-based scenarios affect a student’s understanding of acid-base balance?”
ReplyDeleteLet me explain. Last year one of my faculty approached me with a problem. He indicated that his student did a great job of memorizing the data for acid-base balance and understood the technical classifications of the material, but were unable to make connections when presented the information in a clinical setting. Over a one-month period we researched how others taught the subject and looked into various teaching techniques. The decision was to settle on some type of experiential learning and develop a set of problem-based scenarios that would allow the student to make the connections between the descriptive information in the course and the physical problems experienced by patients. Our final solution has elements of constructivism and behaviorism.
Once we arrived at the “technology” part of the problem it was determined that those problems-based scenarios could be presented to the student in any number of ways. There were discussions of manikins, iPhones, a Website, and Second Life simulation. Regardless of the technology, the instructional methodology would be applied. Honestly, the media or technology really did not matter from an instructional stand-point.