Sep 09 2010
Course Syllabus
UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Master of Educational Technology (MET)
Winter 2010
ETEC 511: Foundations of Educational Technology
Version 2.1 (Sect. 64a, 64b, 64c, 64d)
Course Designer: Stephen Petrina (Version 2.1)
Course Instructors: Dr. Stephen Petrina, Dr. Matiul Alam & Dr. Franc Feng
Email: stephen.petrina@ubc.ca, malam@interchange.ubc.ca,feng@interchange.ubc.ca
Course Graduate Teaching Assistant: Juyun Kim
WWW: http://www.met.ubc.ca, https://www.elearning.ubc.ca, http://www.edcp.educ.ubc.ca
Course Description:
“Educational foundations” and “curriculum foundations” were, from the 1930s up until the mid
1980s, generally understood as the convergence of 4-5 disciplines applied to the study of
education. Cultural and social foundations underlying education (including curriculum and
pedagogy) as studied through anthropological, comparative, economic, historical,
phenomenological, philosophical, political, psychological and sociological inquiry constituted the
field. Journals like Educational Foundations, Educational Theory and Interchange articulated
these disciplinary and interdisciplinary discourses. As critical, feminist, postcolonial, and
poststructural studies began to erode away some foundations in the 1980s, the field of educational
foundations faced a crisis of unity and purpose. This erosion and crisis continue today.
“Foundation” as a useful metaphor was questioned in an era of postmodernism, poststructuralism
and a deconstruction of “solid truths” and what Lyotard called “grand narratives” or
metanarratives. The cultural and social foundations of education and technology more or less
collapsed. Hence, the “foundations of educational technology” are never straightforward or
stable.
This course provides both a disciplinary tour and poststructuralist deconstruction of the
foundations of e-learning, educational technology, learning technologies, and new media. It
addresses the anthropological, economic, historical, phenomenological, philosophical, political,
psychological, sociological, and spiritual foundations of educational technology along with a
critique of these foundations. These foundations are cast within a larger framework of ecologicalnatural,
ethical-personal, existential-spiritual, socio-political and technical-empirical dimensions
of technology with implications for curriculum and instructional design. How, why and to what
degree have media and technology been incorporated into, or changed by, education and what
foundational structures underlie these processes? How do the processes of foundation building
shape educational media, technology or learning technologies? What happens to e-learning,
educational technology, learning technologies, and new media if and when we can no longer rely
on their foundations or when foundations shift? This course is designed from a basis that
educational media and learning technologies are not merely tools; educational premises are
neither fully durable nor pliable; and actors or agents of education are not merely humans. It
begins with an exploration of the cultural and social foundations of education, and proceeds
through disciplinary and interdisciplinary foundations of e-learning, educational technology,
learning technologies, and new media and concludes with a critique of these foundations and the
cultural studies of educational technology, learning technologies, and new media.
Texts (Required):
ETEC 511 Readings.
Valued Ends of the Course:
Our intention is to help you develop a framework for exploring and understanding the
foundations of e-learning, educational technology, learning technologies, and new media as
unsettled and lived by students and teachers. We will encourage you to examine your own biases
toward the foundations of media and technology, and a major effort will be in providing you with
a background for research into the foundations of e-learning, educational technology, learning
technologies, and new media.
Assessment (for details, see below): Deadline:
1. Participation in Online Activities (20%) Ongoing
2. Keywords of Educational Technology (10%)
3. Tooning Educational Technology (10%)
27 Sept
18 Oct
4. Discourse Leadership (groups of 3-4) (20%) Ongoing
5. Scholarly Essay or Essay Review (40%) 6 Dec
• Academic Honesty and Standards, and Academic Freedom: UBC Calendar 2010/11
• Policies and Regulations (Selected): http://www.students.ubc.ca/calendar
• Academic Accommodation for Students with Disabilities: Students with a disability who
wish to have an academic accommodation should contact the Disability Resource Centre
without delay (see UBC Policy #73 www.universitycounsel.ubc.ca/ policies/policy73.pdf).