Feb
7
Technology – An Appealing Definition?
Posted by: flick | February 7, 2012 | 2 Comments
It was in another MET (Masters of Educational Technology) course in which I was asked to pen a definition of educational technology. At that time I chose to define technology not educational technology. I defined technology as the ever changing array of digital tools, programs, internet capabilities, social media opportunities, that are available for all to make use of in business, pleasure, education, health . . . These tools, in my opinion are not educational tools, but may be employed as such. Many practitioners use technology to present information. Is that an example of educational technology? I think not. Many students use technology to produce a product. Is that an example of educational technology? I don’t think so. Can practitioners use technology to enhance and deepen the learning in such a way that the absence of technology would be a detriment to learning? I am leaning towards – yes.
The definition of technology that appealed to me from the offered choices was the one written by David Jonassen (2000). I agree that students do not “learn from computers or teachers” and that “students learn from thinking in meaningful ways”.
As Jonassen (1998) further supports, “technologies should not support learning by attempting to instruct the learners, but rather should be used as knowledge construction and representation tools that students learn with, not from” (p. 1).
I am intrigued by the concept of mindtools as “digital tools that support knowledge construction, exploration, learning by doing, learning by conversing, and learning by reflecting” Jonassen(2000). The mentioned qualities of mindtools are the qualities of purposeful pedagogy with or without digital technology.
Perhaps I can wrap my head around the notion of educational technology if I look at it from a connectedness angle. All learners (teachers and students) have access to a greater community of information, sharing, knowledge, . . . than ever before. As Tom Whitby states in his blog Island View, “The genie is definitely out of the bottle when we look at Social Media. Of course there are many who fail to recognize this, and continue to believe that somehow, someone must approve the use of Social Media in order for it to be acceptable in our education system.” (Whitby, 2011). Perhaps it is Social Media that truly is an example of educational technology. The funny thing is, it is Social Media of all that technology has afforded us, that most often is banned from our education institutions.
And lastly, what is technology? What we think of as technology today we will not think of as technology in the future. Again as Tom Whitby caused me to reflect (you really should check him out), the car was once considered technology.
Is it today? Is what we put in the car considered technology? The radio? Traffic-monitoring Global Positioning Satellite displays?
Have we asked our kids lately to define technology? Have we asked our students to define educational technology?
Jonassen, D., Carr, C., & Yueh, H. (1998). Computers as mind tools for engaging learners in critical thinking.TechTrends, 43(2), 24-32. Retrieved from https://eee.uci.edu/11y/12385/home/Jonassen – Mindtools.pdf
Jonassen, D. H. (2000). Computers as mindtools for schools, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/ Prentice Hall. Retrieved from Google Scholar:http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Jonassen+mindtools&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Search
Whitby, T. (2011, October 27). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/social-media-more-or-less/
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