For LRNT 523, for the Learning & Technology program at Royal Roads University, we were asked to create a video role-playing a debate focusing on a myth or debate in the field. We chose to tackle the notion that “technology will replace teachers.” We both believe the possibility is remote, but nevertheless, that the exercise helps elucidate the relative value of both technology and the role of teachers. Continue reading “Technology Will Replace Teachers”
John Dewey: a Man Ahead of His Time, a Man of His Time
In 1991, writing in the Wall Street Journal, Robert Cwiklik declared in a headline: “Dewey Wins!: If the ‘New’ Teaching Methods Pushed by High-Tech Gurus Sound Familiar, It Isn’t Surprising.” The title of his article was a reference to the famous headline in the Chicago Daily Tribune, which incorrectly announced on November 3, 1948, “Dewey Defeats Truman,” the day after Harry S. Truman won the election for president in an upset victory over Thomas E. Dewey. Though intended to be playful, Cwiklik’s play on words is intended as an announcement of some similar historical significance. That is, the widespread adoption of John Dewey’s philosophy, whose ideas on education appear to have been years ahead of their time. Continue reading “John Dewey: a Man Ahead of His Time, a Man of His Time”
D. Randy Garrison: EdTech Pioneer
I chose Randy Garrison because he’s a pioneer in the field. Garrison is now professor emeritus at the University of Calgary and was director of university’s Teaching and Learning Centre. Beginning nearly 30 years ago, when the Internet was merely in its infancy, Garrison, was already creating a framework for online and blended education (UToday, 2009). Garrison is the author of many books, articles and papers, having published extensively on distance education (Parry, 2010). His recent books are: E-Learning in the 21st Century: A Community of Inquiry Framework for Research and Practice (3rd Edition) (2017). Thinking Collaboratively: Learning in a Community of Inquiry (2016); Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry (2013); Educational Communities of Inquiry: Theoretical Framework, Research and Practice (2013); E-Learning in the 21st century (2nd Ed.) (2011); An Introduction to Distance Education: Understanding Teaching and Learning in a New Era (2010); and Blended Learning in Higher Education (2008). His current research focus is on the Communities of Inquiry (CoI) theoretical framework, which has been the leading theory guiding research and practice in the field (UToday, 2009). As discovered by Bozkurt et al. (2015), Garrison was the most cited author in journals of the field of distance education research, between 2009 and 2013 (Bozkurt et al., 2015, p. 353). In 2009, Garrison received the award for most outstanding achievement in online learning by an individual at the Sloan-C Annual International Conference in Orlando, Florida.
The Great Media Debate: Is it Still Relevant?
For Activity 7, we formed a team as Christy Boyce, Brandon Carson, Andrea Livingstone, David Livingstone and Michael Murray. We were tasked with reading about the ‘great media debate’ in the field of learning and technology through reading the claims of Clark (1994) and Kozma (1994) as they debate whether or not media influences learning. Our second task was to find four articles that were in stark contrast to either Clark or Kozma’s views in the media debate. Continue reading “The Great Media Debate: Is it Still Relevant?”
The Relative Strengths of Cognitivism and Constructivism
In my field of work, which is web development, the pace of change is quick. Whatever foundational degree anyone may have gained prior to entering the field, would provide only an introduction to the subject. Given the speed of change, it is necessary that programmers remain in a constant state of learning. An additional consequence of this pace of change is the challenge that besets formal educational institutions, who cannot keep pace (Committee on the Growth of Computer Science Undergraduate Enrolments, 2018). As a result, it tends to be necessary for developers to conduct their own learning in a self-directed manner, and often from informal sources (The Conference Board of Canada, 2018). Continue reading “The Relative Strengths of Cognitivism and Constructivism”
History of Adobe Captivate
Weller (2014) illustrated the recent history of educational technology by listing the different educational technology, theory, or concept for each year between 1998 through 2018. What’s telling is that Weller did not include e-learning content authoring tools. Despite the grand expectations about their potential, the omission seams to be indicative of a failure, to consider the fundamental affordances of computers. Continue reading “History of Adobe Captivate”
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: the slow transformation of educational technology and what we can learn from it
Reiser wrote a two-part article in 2001 which summarized the history of Instructional Design and Technology and drew some important conclusions. According to Reiser, of the many lessons we can learn from his review, likely the most important is that there has been a consistent tendency of over-estimate the degree of impact that new technologies would have (Reiser, 2001, p. 61). Reiser (2001a) was cognizant of the fact that he was writing at a time when computers and the Internet were just beginning to make their influence in education. Reiser believed these technologies would likely have a greater impact that those that preceded them. However, given the lesson that he identified, he predicted that, “such changes, both in schools and in other instructional settings, are likely to come about more slowly and be less extensive than most media enthusiasts currently predict” (p. 62). Continue reading “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: the slow transformation of educational technology and what we can learn from it”
Online Learning is New, Distance Education is Not
Effectively, the basis of the innovation in the use of computers in education has been to serve two separate purposes: computers provide new opportunities as learning aids; but, computers are also used to assist in distance education, whose existence long predated their advent. One of the earliest attempts took place between the early eighteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century, where courses in short hand were offered by correspondence (Börje, 2005; Moore & Kearsley, 2005). The University of London was the first university to offer distance learning degrees in 1858 (Sheldon, et al., 1998). Continue reading “Online Learning is New, Distance Education is Not”