Continuing to explore the history of educational technology, but more specifically over the last 100 years, numerous lessons surface. As an educator in K-12 environments, one lesson from the past that I can apply to my work is that educational technology is often adopted from technologies not initially designed for the education sector; furthermore, “the simple transfer of technology from other sectors often fails to appreciate the sociocultural context in which education operates” (Weller, 2018a, p. 48). This lesson is meaningful to my work in the context of the ongoing considerations that I need to apply in any classroom setting, being sensitive to different students’ learning needs, which includes being aware of their different sociocultural perspectives. I also train other educators on best practices regarding the use of a specific digital learning platform, made up of provincially aligned-content and numerous third-party partner applications that are designed to amplify student learning. I see many schools moving towards 1:1 programs, forcing different educators to engage with educational technologies that they might not have chosen to implement otherwise. Cognizance of the sociocultural contexts in which education operates seems like a natural component of best practices, but the intersection of sociocultural contexts in conjunction with the learning curve of new learning platforms is overwhelming for many teachers, and therefore worthy of discussion earlier, rather than later.

A second lesson from the past, one that is in conflict with my role as an educator in K-12 environments, is that instructional media or educational technologies that are promoted with great excitement and expectations, often don’t meet initial expectations (Reiser, 2001; Weller, 2018a), or fade away through a lack of ongoing Ed Tech professional development or funding. Ironically, another lesson, perhaps connected to those above, is that the education sector (K-12 and higher ed) tends to be slow to change (Reiser, 2001; Weller, 2018a; Weller, 2018b). There are many reasons for this, one of which is again — funding, another is the unmet expectations or teacher buy-in of previous instructional technologies. In any event, as an educator who sees the immense power that educational technologies can bring to issues such as student voice, equity, flexibility, personalization of learning, and development of digital literacy skills – we cannot afford to be slow! We need to get a move on with teaching 21st learning skills as it is already 2019, and we seem to largely not be meeting previously established expectations, locally and globally. There has been so much progress in educational technologies, what is being created and offered, but when one considers the digital divide and participation gaps today (Hargittai & Walejko, 2008; Jenkins, 2009), we still have some serious work ahead of us. I am very positive about the future of educational technologies, but I am also impatient – with students in mind and heart.

 

References

Hargittai, E., & Walejko, G. (2008). The Participation Divide: Content creation and sharing in the digital age. Information, Community and Society, 11(2), 239-256. https://doiorg.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/10.1080/13691180801946150

Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Retrieved from https://www.dropbox.com/s/co9mdasoh8r1ew7/8435.pdf

Reiser, R. (2001). A history of instructional design and technology: Part 1: A history of instructional media. Educational Technology Research and Development, 49(1), pp. 53-64. Retrieved from https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/article/10.1007/BF02504506

Weller, M. (2018a). Twenty years of ed tech. Educause Review Online, 53(4), pp. 34-48. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/7/twenty-years-of-edtech

Weller, M. (2018b). 25 years of ed tech. In R. Kimmons, Educational technology in the wild: critical blog posts (2019). EdTech Books. Retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/wild

Attribution

Photo by Gemma Evans on Unsplash