Blog Post

Definitions of EdTech or Educational Technology are many and varied. Part of this difficulty is due to the fact that this field is perpetually evolving; we as teachers are perpetual novices! Things never stay the same and in order to do justice, we too must evolve - and it should be seen as a way of staying fresh, up-to-date. and in-tune with today's world. It doesn't mean that we need to dispose of traditional ways of learning, but to stand still is not moving forward, which brings me to one of my favourite quotes, "Fear not moving forward, but standing still!" There are three definitions coined by researchers that are widely cited and I include them here. They turn my eye to a special idea and that of "process".

In 1980 Lachance, later reiterated by Lapointe (1991) stated the following "La technologie éducative en tant que processus systématique intégrant les diverses fonctions du processus éducatif. Elle vise, d'une part, à analyser des problèmes reliés à l'enseignement et/ou à l'apprentissage et, d'autre part, à élaborer, implanter et évaluer des solutions à ces problèmes par le développement et l'exploitation des ressources éducatives." [1]

The Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is an international organisation which publishes a bi-monthly scholarly journal, Educational Technology Research and Development. This is the only scholarly journal in the field focusing entirely on research and development in educational technology. A widely-used definition was coined in 2008, by Richey, RC., K., & Ely, D.P. [2] "Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources. They continue that it is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning.

More recently, Educational Technology has been defined by Jafar (2016) [3] as "...a dynamic system of study and moral action with the aim of specifying and providing an interactive environment for learners’ activity for their fast, easy, durable education and learning in harmony with their interests and characteristics....The study thus includes concepts, theories and design methods, production, application, management and evaluation as well as use of theories and findings of other sciences on educational technology."

The key takeaways from these definitions clarify that learning processes are important. It's not the end, in so much as it is the journey that matters for our students. The importance of theory, research and practice are integral parts of the field; the word "study" to advance knowledge in Educational Technology and to continue applying pedagogical theories and philosophies in addressing learning problems is a must-have. Finally, core to the field, which incidentally is central to Blooms Taxonomy, is that operative word i.e. "to create" which shifts agency from the teacher to the student, thereby shifting passive learning models to active.

A few ideas to think about...

Just how good are we at setting up the frameworks to enable this to happen?

As teachers, how good are we at adapting to the changing skills sets we need?

As a student, how do we keep our newly skills relevant?

[1] Lachance, B., J.J. Lapointe et P. Marton. (1980). " Le domaine de la technologie éducative ", in La technologie au service de la formation, Québec: Actes du colloque du CIPTE, Ministère de l'Éducation, Gouvernement du Québec, Service général des moyens d'enseignement et Lapointe J. (1991) Réflexion sur le domaine de la technologie éducative https://www.sites.fse.ulaval.ca/reveduc/html/vol1/no1/reflex.html

[2] Richey, R. C., Silber, K., & Ely, D. P. (2008). Reflections on the 2008 AECT definitions of the field. TechTrends, 52(1), 24–25. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0108-2

[3] Jafar Ahmadigol, (2016). New Definition of Educational Technology, University of Kharazmi of Tehran, Iran https://members.aect.org/pdf/Proceedings/proceedings16/2016/16_01.pdf