Week 1 Review

Yesterday we held our first class in the new semester for the CPED 2023 (Introduction to Educational Technology) course. As much as I thought I had most of my thoughts together prior to starting the course there were so many more things I felt I left out.

I would have liked to have painted a broader and yet more detailed view of what we'll be studying. There's so much to Educational Technology (as many of us well know) and yet to teach it in a single 16 week course limits how much can be done. So what I hope to accomplish in the course is to expose the length, breadth and some depth of the technology that is and that's coming to the class.

We came up with definitions of what educational technology is, which just about all included the idea of something new or innovative being used to enhance or aid in teaching and learning. Then we came up with the 'what does that look like' to educational technology. It includes cameras, the Internet, Classroom 2.0, email, LiteBright, blu-ray, AOL, Atari 2600, Sakai, Microsoft, Apple, computers, hulu, YouTube, facebook, DVDs, radios, VCRs, Blackboard, Blackberries, iPhones, iPods, video cameras and so much more.

The one thing I failed to emphasize in introducing the class it the age old problem working with technology. Technology is almost always moving forward (or at least in some direction) which is different or varied from where it was the day prior. This is to say that the technology as it exists today, in it's form or in how it's accomplished will be different in form or presentation in the following days, weeks, months and (definitely) years. Who knows how long CNN will really use Twitter for getting updates from regular people? Will there really be a point at which our TV becomes the one stop location for entertainment, information and communication - and in it's spare time doubles as a really cool looking fireplace? The difficulty in learning about technology is that it is ever changing, evolving into something newer and possibly more innovative. Learning about something that's in a constant state of change is difficult - but it is doable.

Just look at what's being done with technology today:

• Creativity Tool for younger children
• Building a framework for promoting Higher Order Thinking
• Teachers building their own Classroom Websites
• YouTube? How about this instead?
• Project Based Learning that Utilizes Technology

It really is amazing to see what's out there and often my first feeling is that of the deer in the headlights - there's so much coming at me and I have no idea what to do except to stand here and be overwhelmed. With so much technology available to us today how do you use it all?

You don't.

You discover and explore a few technologies that will be appropriate and effective for use in instruction or with your administrative tasks and you focus on using those, until they're no longer as relevant or as effective as some other technology. Technology - even great technology will never replace a teacher. Moose A. Moose calls himself a teacher on Nick Jr. -and he is, but he's not the kind of teacher who can facilitate and be available to help a student understand a process or problem the way a real flesh and bone one can.

So in this class we'll explore and discover and play with and assess "what's out there", and how it's being used. We'll examine where all this technology came from (to gain an appreciation for what's here now, and where it's going). We'll also look at what teachers use today to enhance not only student learning but also their own professional practice.