Adventures in MET Land

Philosophy of Educational Technology: Dale Addis ETEC 511 Oct. 17, 2009

I am an educator who strives to help students learn course content.  My main role is to deliver facts. However, I always try to mentor students in their development of work habits, learning techniques, and processes, all of which will lend to success in their future educational and life endeavours. Technology provides me with invaluable processes and tools to do all this, and more. With experience, proper user training, and informed selection, technology can greatly enhance the learning environment for teacher and student alike. To give more clarity to the use of technology within education, we need to understand its purpose, value, and theory therein.

Technology within education servers two intertwined interconnected purposes. The first is learner centred. Adapted or educational specific created technologies help educators deliver and students learn course content. The evolution of the internet, Web 2.0, avails many different methods of supporting both face-to-face and online learning environments. Collaborative (wikis), reflective writing spaces/asynchronous communication (blogs, discussion boards), and synchronous communication (virtual classrooms) tools, as well as introduction and manipulation of various available media, enable students to create relationships with other students, the teacher, and course content. These technologies are commonly (but not always) housed within a learning management system (LMS).  The latter then helps educators deliver course content while supporting different learning styles.

The second purpose of technology within education is to make administration of the course easier for both students and teachers. Technologies such as a grade book, attendance, word processing, and organizational programs (any or all may or may not be in an LMS) aid the instructor and/or student in performing mundane yet necessary educational tasks. The degree to which technology is ingrained into education is evidence to its value within education.

I personally value technology within education because it affords students the ability to take ownership and feel accountable for their work and learning. Technology enables students to foster meaningful relationships with each other, with the teacher, and with the course content. A community of learning arises or is supported when these relationships are created with technology based asynchronous and synchronous mediums. Students participating within these communities take ownership and feel accountable for their work because they are concerned what other community members will think or are proud of their shared artefacts/ideas.  By students taking ownership and feeling accountability for their work, they will automatically develop excellent work habits and learning practice’s suited to their learning styles. Then by nature, they will use those skills and learning methods in future learning and life situations.

I have a simple theory about teaching with technology, and I base it (along with values and purposes I perceive) on what I have seen and experienced in my career. Technology within education, if used responsibly, will revolutionize the world of education for both learners and teachers. It will provide different, more efficient, mediums of supporting student’s growth of knowledge, work habits, and abilities to learn.

Philosophy of Education Mind Map