Author: Jennifer

Immediate relevance

Chapter 9 – 2002 – Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Pretty much every school whether it be high school, college, or university is using some form of LMS. Even though the layouts and ways of doing things may be somewhat different, the abilities are similar. Weller states that their benefits include reliability, institutional support, and standardization. I use Blackboard Ultra where I work and it is constantly being updated and changed to meet the growing needs of what is required by the institutions. Some of these changes are beneficial, some are not. The LMS allows me to see submissions, who has logged in and when, track attendance and grades, and post announcements and assignments. Students are able to complete assignments and tests, see due dates and grades, and communicate with faculty and classmates.

Conflicts with or Contradicts

Chapter 16 – 2009 – Twitter and Social Media

I work at a college and all upcoming events and anything newsworthy is posted via social media. Weller states the benefits include democratization, visibility, engagement, and research dissemination. This can be great for getting the word out there, connecting people around the world allowing for support and a sense of community, and for locating help resources for topics such as mental illness. Weller warns that there are risks including harassment, context collapse, platform monopolies, and blurred personal or professional boundaries. Social media has been linked to negative effects such as anxiety and depression, social comparison, sleep disruption, addictive feedback loops, cyberbullying, and isolation. It seems somewhat contradictory to advertise a mental health workshop or session on social media that can ultimately lead to things like depression. There is also the point that students are told not to use social media in class as it is distracting to them while at the same time asked to look at current posts. This puts students between a rock and a hard place.

I find it surprising how many different years took credit for the start of educational technology. Now, with that said, I don’t know if I was aware of how far back it actually went.

I find The Web and Constructivism to fit the categories of compelling and problematic.

The main argument for the web is that its invention and early adoption fundamentally reshaped educational technology by enabling open publishing, global communication, and resource sharing. This laid the foundation for all subsequent ed tech developments. Berners-Lee’s four foundational technologies created a universal, open system that was “designed as a communication system, around principles of robustness, decentralization and openness” (p. 16). For distance education, the web removed the broadcast bottleneck and lowered the cost of entry for universities. The web is the foundational technology for LMS, OER, MOOC, blogs, analytics, and social media.

Constructivism’s main argument is that it became the dominant pedagogical lens for early web-based learning because of the web’s affordances (non-linearity, communication, abundant resources) demanded models beyond traditional lecture-based instruction. The theory behind constructivism is that it emphasizes learners constructing knowledge through experience and social interaction instead of just lectures and textbooks. There has been a shift in the way many educators teach going from a “sage on the stage” approach to a “guide on the side,” which helped educators leverage the web’s participatory nature. There were, however, limitations such as it not fitting all disciplines, discovering that learning can be ineffective without guidance, and some of the implementations were superficial. While constructivism marked the first widespread attempt to align pedagogy with the affordances of digital technology, it was a conceptual engagement rather than a purely technical one.

When I searched back to when educational technology started, it was back in ancient times with oral communication and paintings on cave walls. I think that it is important to reference from that time, however I think that would make for a rather large book.