The study of technology in education is interesting for many reasons. There is a rich, if relatively recent, history to study. There are laws, regulations, and guidelines associated with the use of technology. There are policies and political aspects to consider, and no shortage of financial and business decisions to weigh. There are thousands of pieces of software to examine, evaluate, or form some opinion about. There is also a more scientific side related to the ways that systems behave and interact, and how code may be used to manipulate such systems and interactions. Of course, rules and facts play a central role in any coding activity.
At a very fundamental level, educational technologists must think about the way people learn, and the way they communicate with each other when artifacts are involved in the transmission process. Media is always an issue, and often a subjective one; understanding new media is not accomplished by memorizing rules and facts.
The WebTech Projects page is filled with projects that future teachers create as they are trying to get a bead on the dovetail between theory and practice in Educational Technology. They experiment with the elements of interactivity, presentation styles, the use of sound, the use of color, and buttons, and animation, and timing. and....
The dominant activity engaging students involved in the development of a WebTech project is decision making. Students are solving problems, and in order to solve their problems they must make hundreds and thousands of decisions. Decisions about sound, layout, research, color schemes, length, volume, speed, algebraic formulas, variables, drop shadows, programs, platforms, timelines, wait-time, scoring, reinforcement, etc. have to be made.
In order to create a soft tool or other software for learning, a great deal of patience is required. Perhaps an even more important requirement is a large portion of gumption. To some extent, one has to be undaunted by reality to do a good job on a WebTech project. Unlike other courses our students take, Educational Technology courses allow students to fail, to fail often, and to learn from their failures.
The dominant activity engaging a teacher involved in WebTech development is staying out of it....understanding when it is appropriate to help, and when it isn't. The teacher must think carefully about designing assignments that are ill-structured, that allow multiple pathways to multiple solutions, and under specify the goal state. The important thing is to let students practice making decisions. This empowers them, and makes them better problem solvers.
Over the three decades that I have been teaching, I have come to learn that much of the common wisdom about the teaching process is in contradiction to technology rich learning, and the development of student centered learning environments. When I set the bar for student projects, students usually meet the level I set. When I am vague about the bar, students consistently exceed my expectations. Students who are accustomed to augmenting their performance with technological tools are often limited by teachers who assign narrow, highly specified learning activities. I find that educational technologists and teachers who work a great deal with technology have come to similar conclusions. Simultaneously, other teachers find these ideas ludicrous.
I hope you enjoy the work of the educational technology students. Their dedication and motivation is a joy to behold. If students know less now than they used to, it is probably because we are only measuring what we used to know. These students are learning, and learning to learn, and hopefully they will figure out how to help their students do the same.
College of Education
University of Florida
May, 2001