Page 38 - Educational Technology A Primer for the 21st Century

1.4 Educational Technology Perspectives 25
1. Knowledge competence domain—as should be obvious at this point in the
discussion, an educational technologist has to have well-developed knowledge
in a number of areas, including learning psychology, human–computer inter-
action, social psychology, instructional design, software engineering, technol-
ogy integration, and so on.
2. Process competence domain—understanding what is possible with regard to a
variety of devices and software is critical for an educational technologist; main-
taining an up-to-date understanding of what can and cannot be done and at what cost
and with which expertise is expected of an educational technology professional.
3. Application competence domain—educational technologists are often respon-
sible for making things happen, such as taking the specification for a learning
environment or course and translating that specification into a reality; that ability
requires competence in a number of application areas, including the creation of
media resources and assessment mechanisms.
4. Personal and social competence domain—the work of educational technologists
offers within the context of a team involving persons with different backgrounds
and expertise; as previously indicated, effective communication, collaboration,
and coordination skills are critical for success as a professional practitioner.
5. Innovation and creativity competence domain—new technologies and approa-
ches to learning create a need for professionals to be flexible and creative in
making use of appropriate resources and technologies to achieve desired out-
comes; this often involves significant changes in learning activities, teaching
methods, and instructional designs.

1.5 Emerging Technologies and Changing Contexts

One of the basic beliefs guiding this volume involves change. Learning is char-
acterized by stable and persisting changes in what a person or group of people know
and can do. Monitoring changes and progress of learning is among the things that
educational technologists need to understand, as do teachers and learners. Tech-
nologies change, as indicated in the earlier discussion of the history of educational
technology. Changes in technologies are occurring at an increasing rate, as noted
previously. In addition, there are changes in how formal learning is conceptualized
and organized. The world of the educational technologist is dominated by change,
and the various things that change have an effect on each other. A new technology
can introduce a new approach to teaching. Subsequent chapters in this volume will
revisit the impact of these changes on learning, performance, and instruction. An
excellent source for information about emerging technologies and their likely
impact on learning and instruction is the New Media Consortium (see http://www.
nmc.org/) and their annual Horizon Reports in a variety of locations and contexts.
As an advance organizer for subsequent chapters, a few remarks on emerging
technologies and changing contexts follow.