How Technology is generally used in the field of education

One way technology is being used in education is as a tool to enhance instructional practices and globalize learning for students. Students utilize computers and the internet to research information, connect globally, share their thoughts, ideas, and opinion through blogs, take online courses, create web pages, download applications, programs, and software, and share information. In the future, I foresee K-12 education taking technology to the next level by allowing students to have more control of the time, access, and hardware being utilized in the classroom. Blogging, creating wikis, texting, and twitter will become standard ways of communicating ideas and thoughts. Students will no longer utilize textbooks. Instead there will be more action research, investigations, and project based learning because students will possess tools like iPads and Smart Phones to write and share their experiences in real time. In Higher Education and Adult education, students will have more online options for degrees and virtual classrooms will be a norm. You will have professors from all around the world which will allow you to gain different perspectives and global connections. 

Dick, Carey and Carey Model

Dick, Carey and Carey Model- The gears represent interlocking ideas for supporting student learning by completing data analysis and setting goals. This will give you insight on student's prior knowledge and design lessons that are student centered. The cycle is represents creating meaningful learning objectives and valid and reliable assessment instruments. All together, this instructional design is supporting student performance. In my work environment we are constantly flowing in and out of different parts of the model and revising our decisions as it related to student's performance. Our biggest challenge is making sure we are not to focused on one part of the ID model while neglecting other essential parts.

Aishley's Model Design

Defining the Field

The evolution of the definition of educational technology or instructional technology or instructional design and technology, as chronicled in the book, provided me with justification for having difficulty defining my own thoughts about our field. I think each of the definitions presented where relevant in the time period they were created. I have to admit that I found the 2008 definition by the AECT committee more along the lines of how I would define educational technology. I thought including “ethical practices” was an important aspect of educational technology not mention previously. My definition of educational technology (I personally like educational technology than instructional design and technology) as it relates to my work environment is a follows:

Educational technology is the study and analysis of learning and performance by designing, implementing, evaluating, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.