When I originally saw the term “educational technology” my mind immediately went to what I’ve done the past couple of decades, like CBT and online course facilitation. I didn’t immediately think of the term with regards to what it actually means, i.e. devices/technologies used to produce some sort of educational outcome or activity. That’s not a formal definition—just an interpretation of the two words.

However, if I jump in my way-back machine and return to my early school years, I recognize activities that qualified as “educational technology.” I remember art lessons by radio as a student in our small rural school on the prairies. Once a week the teacher would tune into what I assume was the CBC for a broadcast where we’d be led through an art lesson. I don’t recall the lessons themselves, aside from a pastel drawing of a seashore. Then there was educational TV programming: I recall being at my grandparents one day, and they had been given strict instructions to make sure I watched an episode of a series on King Arthur. I recollect the series as abysmally boring, but nonetheless, educational technology by definition.

Scoot the way back machine into the future. In nursing school, we had the majority of our theoretical modules presented on video with written workbooks, assignments, and multiple-choice tests. Educational technology? Of course.

I did my undergraduate degree by correspondence. Snail mail. To participate in the program, we had to find a mentor, and mine was the president of Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. Every few weeks I’d be in his office at 7 am with a paper for him to read and critique. I still recall the sight of him moving his finger down the page as he scanned my work and the little jump I’d get in the pit of my stomach when his finger stopped. Educational technology? Of course.

… and thus begins the third course of my adventures in educational technology and its greater world.