“Prerequisite: Either ETEC 411, 444, equivalent experience satisfying the California Level I computer technology standard, or consent of instructor.
Introduction to the field of educational technology. Overview of theoretical approaches, research trends, major developments, and prominent issues in the field. Incorporation of social, historical, psychological, and philosophical perspectives in the study of educational technology.
Letter grade only (A-F). (Seminar 3 hours)”
Artifacts
Educational Technology Timeline
For the 1st assignment we develop a timeline for the 1950s and wrote a double-spaced two-page summary that discussed the trends and patterns that we observed.
Conference Attendance
For the second assignment, we attended a professional conference (that included a sessions on technology) and summarized our experience in a double-spaced two-page report. The report includes the following information:
- – date(s) of your attendance
- – title of the conference
- – conference web address (if any)
- – title of the sessions (at least two) that you attended
- – brief descriptions of the sessions
- – a discussion of what you have learned from the conference
Educational Reform and Technology
In the third assignment, my team created a multimedia presentation
(for our “colleagues, supervisors/ administrators, policy makers, parents of your students, and/ or district board members”) that informed them about ways in which technology can support education reform and the challenges that we have observed.
Diffusion of Innovation
In the fourth assignment, we interviewed an individual of our choice (e.g., your colleague, friend, relative, or a fellow student in this class) about his/ her observations of and/ or experience with the diffusion of a technological innovation and created a report. The individual described the innovation, the setting in which the diffusion took place, the key players who initiated the diffusion process, what might have been the key players’ intention when introducing the innovation to the setting (i.e., possible reasons for the initiative), the amount of time it took for the innovation to spread (or to be rejected) in the setting, as well as the characteristics of the adopters and/or the characteristics of the laggards. In addition, the individual discussed his/ her thoughts about and attitude toward the innovation and the diffusion process. (For this assignment we interviewed Leslie Kennedy, Director, Instructional Technology Support Services)
Reflection
I found this class to be fairly beneficial, in that it provided me with a general overview of educational technology. The activities and projects provided a means to find out more about the major and what the differences are between the different fields that tend to get lumped together in the Educational/Instructional technology field. I also found the readings for the course to be quite relevant, some of the texts might have been dated, but they were still important in the general context of the course; they provided more of a historical view of how technology was viewed through its use in the classroom. The project where we had to interview a professional in the field provided an extremely useful insight into the field and what is required in some of the fields that are related to educational technology.