Educational technology - an introduction

This is an outline for a print text on educational technology - DSchneider 18:22, 26 June 2006 (MEST)

Author: DSchneider

Version: 2 (19:09, 3 July 2006 (MEST)). See the discussion page for pointers to other versions.

NOTE: Chapters 4 to 11 may be combined into one huge chapter or 3-4 standard sized ones. Total should not exceed 100 pages.

Introduction (10 pages)

• See: educational technology

Schools of educational technology

• Goal: Present the major forms of educational technology research. This discussion will be picked up again in the "Research and development" section.

Content (examples):

• EduTech as a design science - part of the learning sciences
• EduTech as playfield for research on learning and cognition
• EduTech as playfield for computer science (technology driven)

Conceptual foundations ( < 20 pages )

Goal: This chapter should be short and "understandable" and demonstrate why learning and education theories are relevant for educational technology practise and research. Its purpose is not really to teach learning theory, didactics etc. but to shortly define/recall important concepts that are necessary to understand the foundations of pedagogical designs that use technology.

Learning theory

Content (examples):

• learning theory
• Behaviorism, including various schools like programmed instruction, etc.
• Cognitivism
• Constructivism, including various schools like socio-constructivism, situated cognition, etc.

Learning types, levels and style

Content:

• learning type
• learning level
• learning style

Ergonomics and HCI

• Goal: Introduce constraints

Content:

• some words on HCI concepts and research
• cognitive ergonomics
• usability
• cognitive load theory etc. ??

Motivation and Affect

• motivation
• emotion and flow theory

Education, pedagogy and instruction

• Goal: This should be very short and strongly be linked to learning theory and explain the difference between educational, pegagocial and instructional theory.

Content (examples):

• educational theory
• pedagogical theory
• instructional design

Pedagogical strategies and tactics

• Goal: Provide a general overview, terms and well know typologies, such as Joyce, Reeves, etc.

Content (examples):

• Pedagogic strategy
• Pedagogic method
• Pedagogical scenario

Technologies in education - an overview (10 pages)

Instructional design models in educational technology

• Goal: Reinforce the learning/teaching scenario concept and its relation to abstract design models. This is based on the previous chapter and acts as a bridge.
• Overview: instructional design model (see also various

instructional design models)

• Contents: A good sample of designs for which use of technology is relevant. Each entry will have forward pointers to appropriate technologies. The idea is that students should be able to find out what we mean e.g. by "inquiry learning", "case-based learning", etc. and at the same time already show why and where the use of technology makes sense ...

Overview of educational technologies

• educational technologies, including a short categorization of major technologies used in education. This also will go beyound teaching/learning, e.g. include tools for student management.

Standards

• Goal: discussion of various standards and trends. Also discuss the issue here whether teaching can/should be "programmed" (e.g. with educational markup languages).

Content (examples):

• Standards
• IMS standards

EduTech 1: Technologies for facts learning / teaching (< 10 pages)

• Goal: Provide an overview of a major set of technologies used today in education, each will be linked to appropriate instructional design models/theory or other fields of applications.

Content (examples):

• CBT, e-instruction, the content parts of LMS (e.g. IMS Content Packaging, CMS, LCMS, multimedia presentations

EduTech 2: Technologies for concept learning

Goal: as above

Content (examples):

• hypertext, wikis, concept maps (both reading and writing), microworlds.

EduTech 3: Technologies for reasoning and procedure learning

Goal: as above

Content (examples):

• Intelligent tutoring system, simulation, multimedia animations, interactive multimedia

EduTech 4: CMC, tutoring and collaborative learning

Goal: as above

Content (examples):

• computer-mediated communication, e-tutoring, CSCL

EduTech 5: Technologies for problem solving and production strategies

Goal: as above

Content (examples):

• CBL, Cognitive tool,groupware, weblogs, simulation and gaming

EduTech 6: Technologies for learning in action (situated)

Goal: as above

Content (examples):

• learning e-portfolios, C3MS-like portals, etc.

EduTech 7: Other

(Maybe split into 2 chapters, one that has to do with teaching/learning and an other to do with school organization, management of educational materials and such).

Content (examples):

• Learning object repository

EduTech 8: Integrated learning environments

Goal: Discuss global learning environments (make sure that people understand that and LMS is not neutral, also discuss other alternatives)

Content (examples):

• learning management systems
• virtual environment

Research and development methods (< 15 pages)

Research schools in educational technology

Content:

• Overview
• design-based research
• clinical experimentation
• quasi-experimentation (ecologicallly valid experimentation)
• clinical qualitative research (e.g. qualitative cognitive science like dialog analysis and classroom observations)
• educational sociology

Development methodology

Content:

• Introduction to instructional design methods
• Plus a choice of 4-5 major approaches like:
  • MISA (heavy industrial)
  • Kemp design model, ADDIE (medium industrial)
  • Light models, such as Backwards design
  • Teacher-centered lesson planning and associated tools.

Evaluation methodology

Content:

• Design / course evaluation methodology (for practicionners)

Innovation & change management

• Goal: Provide some insights on how to manage a project to introduce ICT

Content:

• General change management methodology
• Teacher development models with respect to ICT usage

The relation between research and the field

• Goal: Discuss an innovation/diffusion model and show how research and practice may influence each other. This may be merged with the previous section