Blogs are what Weller (2018) points to as one of the remnants of past movements in education technology that are still relevant and widely utilized today. Weller (2018) points out – as a parenthetic aside – that it is easy to witness the prevalence of blogs by examining the wide spread adoption of the blogging platform WordPress (WP). WordPress (WordPress, n.d.) states that the once blogging only platform has evolved into an overall Content Management System (CMS), but that it’s role as a blogging platform is still it’s most prominent use. Given that WordPress has such a large presence in the self-published online world (WordPress, n.d.), many post-secondary institutions utilize WP for both their students and instructors. I taught the installation and modification of WordPress’s code base and surrounding ecosystem during my tenure at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), where I taught Digital Development for over seven years. I also used it as an instructor at BCIT. I utilize my WordPress skills today, as the Masters of Arts in Learning and Technology (MALAT) program that I am currently studying within, uses WordPress as it’s students’ blog environment. WordPress is one technology piece that has stayed relevant throughout my entire education technology career.<\/p>\n
Reiser (2001) points out the failings of instructional television and radio as educational technologies, and speaks to an optimistic future that sees an uptake in the use of computer mediated instructional material. According to Reiser (2001), both of these mass media approaches, radio and television – mediums that were widely available to the public at large – did not live up to their educational technology potential, and I see the same scenario possibly repeating itself with the use of computers as educational technology unless great care is taken in it’s application. The use of technology in education must incorporate a balanced approach, and must be carefully placed within instructional design methodologies. In my instructional career, I have taught classes that have been designed with both high use and low use of computer based ed tech, and they have both proved to be difficult to manage if the use of ed tech was not carefully designed into the course. Education technology can not be simply ‘bolted on’ to curriculum; it has to be incorporated into the design from the outset of the creation of the course, in this way we can fully utilize this opportunity of ed tech, and not just repeat the past.<\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
Reiser, R. A. (2001). A history of instructional design and technology: Part I: A history of instructional media<\/a>. Educational Technology Research and Development<\/i>, 49<\/i>(1), 53-64. Retrieved from https:\/\/doi-org.ezproxy.royalroads.ca\/10.1007\/BF02504506<\/p>\n WordPress, (n.d.) https:\/\/wordpress.org\/<\/p>\n WordPress, (n.d.) Overview of WordPress. Retrieved from https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/article\/overview-of-wordpress\/<\/p>\n Weller, M. (2018).\u00a0Twenty years of EdTech<\/a>.\u00a0EDUCAUSE Review, 53<\/i>(4). Retrieved from https:\/\/er.educause.edu\/articles\/2018\/7\/twenty-years-of-edtech<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Skills from the past Blogs are what Weller (2018) points to as one of the remnants of past movements in education technology that are still relevant and widely utilized today. Weller (2018) points out – as a parenthetic aside –… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt523"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0124\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0124\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0124\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0124\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0124\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0124\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0124\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions\/307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0124\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0124\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0124\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}