This document provides an overview of key concepts related to educational technology and digital learning. It defines technology as the application of knowledge to organized tasks involving people and machines to meet sustainable goals. Media are discussed as channels of communication, with examples of now obsolete media provided. Educational technology is defined as the application of technology in education. Computing and internet history are briefly outlined, and examples of media and technology applications in schools are given. The implications of web 2.0 technologies like blogs and their role in education are also discussed. The document considers what digital learning is and debates whether a dedicated "Digital Learning Day" is needed.

1. EDU626 Integrating Educational Technology Spring 2012
Educational Technology & Digital Learning

2. 2
What is Technology?
. . . technology is about more than gadgets
and gizmos
– Technology concerns itself with
understanding how knowledge is
creatively applied to organised
tasks involving people and
machines that meet sustainable
goals.
• What is technology?
By: Professor Andy Lane
(The Open University)
14 September 2006

3. 3
What about Media?
What do you mean, media?
– Not mediums (that‘s spiritualism)!
– Nor:
• When the media ask him [George W. Bush] a question, he
answers, ‗Can I use a lifeline?‘
~ Robin Williams
– 2media 1 : a medium of cultivation, conveyance, or
expression; especially : MEDIUM 2b
1me·di·um 2 : a means of effecting or conveying
something:
b plural usually media (1) : a channel or system of
communication, information, or entertainment

4. 4
Is there a connection?
 Media are for communication
 Therefore, technology applications in media apply
knowledge to me sustainable communication goals
– In developing this site, we, the students of the
Vancouver Film School-Multimedia, first had to
define what the term media involved. It was our
belief that the word itself implies the notion of
communication. Therefore, anything that was
once used to relay a message would be applicable.
• The Dead Media Project
http://student.vfs.com/~deadmedia/dedmedia.html

5. 5
Dead Media?
– ―. . . some media do, in fact, perish. Such as: the
phenakistoscope. The teleharmonium. The Edison
wax cylinder. The stereopticon. The Panorama.
Early 20th century electric searchlight spectacles.
Morton Heilig's early virtual reality. Telefon
Hirmondo. The various species of magic lantern.
The pneumatic transfer tubes that once riddled the
underground of Chicago. Was the Antikythera
Device a medium? How about the Big Character
Poster Democracy Wall in Peking in the early 80s?
– Never heard of any of these? Well, that's the
problem.
• Bruce Sterling Dead Media Manifesto

6. 6
What is Educational Technology?
Educational technology is
– the application of technology in education
– or, ways in which ―knowledge is creatively
applied to organised tasks [in education]
involving people and machines that meet
sustainable goals [for example, in teaching].‖
– Thus, chalk and a blackboard,
pen and paper, textbooks and
the big ol‘ pointer, they all are
forms of educational
technology!

7. 7
A broad concept

8. 8
An evolving concept

9. 9
Computing History
http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/
http://www.computerhistory.org/
http://www.thocp.net/

10. 10
Internet History
http://www.archive.org/
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
http://www.pbs.org/opb/nerds2.0.1/
http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html

11. 11
Media in Schools
Stone tablets?
• Wax tablets?
• Slate tablets?
• Silicon tablets?

12. 12
Applications of media & technology
What are the applications of various
types of media and technology in the
classroom or the school library?
– Tablets
– Paper-based media
– Electronic media
– Multimedia
– Etc.

13. 13
Also assistive technology

14. 14
Technology includes Web 2.0
Blogs and podcasts, oh my!
– Blogs and podcasts are changing the way we interact
with information on the Internet . . . These are part of a
reinvention of the Internet, referred to as Web 2.0,
which is focused on using Internet technologies to
connect people and information.
– While the idea as a whole extends into social
bookmarking, collaborative development, and other
tools, Web 2.0 is firmly rooted in the basic ideas of
blogs.
Read Harris’s blog Infomancy

15. 15
The implications of web 2.0
The web effect: Clay Shirky’s
Here Comes Everybody
(2009)
– One of the biggest shifts that Shirky
outlines is emergence of the amateur
over and above the expert. In many
professions, it is now practically
impossible to preserve occupational
selectivity and authority.
• Mark Meynell in blog Quaerentia

16. 16

17. 17
November on participation
From “Myths and Opportunities” video
– ―One of the things I think is critical is, a kid needs to
make a contribution . . . Well, what we did, I believe,
over time—and the irony is, technology did this—
because we invented all kinds of machinery, we don‘t
need kids working any more. And so, we‘ve robbed
them of their sense of making a contribution to
community.‖
– ―I think one of the breakthrough ideas is to change the
concept of the learner into some who becomes a
contributor by doing their work. It means we have to
redefine the work. That represents the shift of control
from the teacher . . . to the network of children‖

18. 18
What is November’s proposal?
Encourage
children to be:
– Researchers
– Reflectors
– Writers
– ―Students
researching the
kinds of assignments
they would like to do,
rather than the teacher
coming up with the assignment.‖

19. 19
But how does that square with our
definition of technology?
What is Technology?
– Technology concerns itself with
understanding how knowledge is creatively
applied to organised tasks involving people
and machines that meet sustainable goals.
• By: Professor Andy Lane (The Open University)

20. Digital Learning?

21. 21
What is Digital Learning?
Definition:
– Digital learning is any instructional
practice that is effectively using
technology to strengthen the student
learning experience.
•

22. 22
Another definition

23. 23
Another definition

24. 24
Do we need a day for digital learning?
What is Digital Learning Day?
– Digital Learning Day is a culminating event in a
year-round national awareness campaign to
improve teaching and learning for all children. On
Digital Learning Day, we are asking everyone, no
matter your comfort with technology–teachers,
librarians, school leaders, afterschool programs,
community groups, parents–to sign up and be
counted in this effort . . .
•