Is this technology right for me?
The article “Evolving Technologies” offered insights to the different popular technologies and their best practices.
The “7 Things You Should Know About…” and scenarios are good guidelines on how to assess particular technologies. I believe it is more suitable for community of educators and for learning technology ventures.
Community of educators are interested in various technologies to help them enhance the learning experience of their students; while learning technology venture(s) may consists of one or more persons who decide which technology to purchase. Each person in the team might have different reasons for selecting a specific technology.
There are some key issues that I find equally important that were not mentioned:
- ease of use
- level of technical skills required from the curriculum developer to use it
- is it user-friendly?
- cost of ownership (like licensing, support fees)
- the number of concurrent users the technology can support
- supply of specialists who can maintain, customize and troubleshoot the product
Technology specialists and administrators
Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech MarketplaceThey are the subject matter experts (SMEs) for a particular technology. Their concerns might include but are not limited to:
- maintenance (configuration and setup, reliability, backup, etc)
- level of security
- level of customization that can be done
- learning curve
- required hardware and infrastructure
bcourey 1:19 am on September 13, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Your list of 6 key issues that were not mentioned reminds me of Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model (2003) of assessing technology. Anyone who has taken ETEC 531 will be very familiar with this model. Even though I also read their book excerpts in other MET courses, it was not until 531 that I really appreciated their list of assessment tools when selecting a technology. As a “purchaser” of technology for our school board, I see the importance now more than ever to ensure that we are spending our limited funds as effectively as possible. Your list of the 5 considerations for SMEs is very interesting as well – a very good summary of something else we should be considering. Great post!
jarvise 7:21 am on September 13, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
So true – anyone spending money in this area needs to take 10 minutes to read that article. Ten minutes to save yourself ten years of flailing around! 😉
mcquaid 2:13 am on September 13, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Brenda, you stole my post! Well… part of it, anyway. B&P’s SECTIONS model is what immediately came to mind for me, too. It is one of the things that has stuck with me the most after my first five courses. It’s something that’s “everyday useful”, so it pops into my head / use from time to time. When I was helping to deliver a PD day to school tech contacts last year, it was something I shared with the group… I could see several of the keeners copying it down & taking note(s). Like the other guidelines Stephen mentioned, it’s helpful to have a concise checklist to run through and force one to think of a technology’s many facets.
jarvise 7:22 am on September 13, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
haha! your comment about the keeners taking notes made me chuckle. I bet those guys were nodding a lot too. 😉
jarvise 7:27 am on September 13, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Your comments made me think about another possibility for a list of recommendations, given that lots of educators want to pick something that doesn’t require much infrastructure (beyond internet access) or tech support. It could be rephrased into something catchy like, “the seven things you should know about technologies that are able to be used with little to no help like …”. On second thought, maybe they should just stick with the title they have. 🙂
Deb Giesbrecht 10:30 am on September 13, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Very astute observations of the missing components of the article ….and very valid reasons for concern. Often we miss some of the key components – like the cost of ownership, which makes a big difference versus the upfront pricing model. Very interesting – thanks for sharing.
Everton Walker 9:15 pm on September 13, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
schiong,
Great observation! There’s no way those significant considerations should be omitted. In ETEC 565, we learned about the importance of those missing pieces. Well I guess they will deal with these issues in future publications.
hall 12:15 pm on September 14, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I have made impressive observations. The listing of six key issues reminded of Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model (2003) of assessing technology, ETEC 531 and 565. I guess that points you have stated could be very useful in the selection of most suitable technology for an individual.