Page 17 - Educational Technology A Primer for the 21st Century

4 1 Introduction to Educational Technology
case, write down the formative and supportive feedback you would provide for
both a correct and an incorrect response.
3. Suppose you are teaching a group of preservice teachers the first course on
technology integration in learning and instruction and the first unit of instruction
is on the history of educational technology.

a. List the topics and concepts that you would include in that unit of instruction.
Provide several examples and explain why you would include them.
b. List the resources that you would make available to those preservice
teachers? Provide several examples and explain why you would include
them.
c. State the purpose, scope, objectives, and expected learning outcomes of that
unit of instruction.
d. Indicate how you would determine if the expected outcomes are achieved.
e. Which pedagogical approach, instructional strategies, and technologies
would you prefer to use and why?

1.1 Introducing Educational Technology

1.1.1 Purpose and Scope

Educational technology refers to the use of tools, technologies, processes, proce-
dures, resources, and strategies to improve learning experiences in a variety of
settings, such as formal learning, informal learning, non-formal learning, lifelong
learning, learning on demand, workplace learning, and just-in-time learning. Edu-
cational technology approaches evolved from early uses of teaching tools and have
rapidly expanded in recent years to include such devices and approaches as mobile
technologies, virtual and augmented realities, simulations and immersive environ-
ments, collaborative learning, social networking, cloud computing, flipped class-
rooms, and more. This chapter provides a historical overview, key definitions and
principles, various perspectives and representative developments, all of which will
be explored and elaborated in subsequent chapters.
The basic approach in this volume is competency-based. A competency is a
collection of related knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) that enable a person to
perform a particular task. There are many tasks that educational technologists
perform as part of their role and responsibilities. This primer provides an elabo-
ration of many of these tasks and the associated KSAs that are common in the
twenty-first century, while building a grounded rationale for them on the basis of
prior work in learning psychology, computer developments, and human–human and
human–computer interaction.
Previous educational technology textbooks have focused primarily on knowl-
edge and skills and have not emphasized attitudes and values as strongly as they are