Conceptual artifacts are ideas that we use in planning, but these are ideas whose definitions never change. We are all familiar with the compromises that we make when planning and decision-making, but when planning is organized around conceptual artifacts, we do not compromise on what we mean. When planning with conceptual artifacts we cannot even Read More
A previous post described educational design research, a method for designing and understanding interventions: Educational Design Research: An Emerging Planning Tool In this post, I continue developing the rationale for using this method. Compared to other planning methods and other methods of gathering data and evidence, educational design research may be perceived as necessitating greater Read More
If information technology is to be used to realize the strategic goal of allowing students to fully participate in the digital world, then it must be appropriately used, properly configured, and reasonably supported. Deficiencies in any of these aspects of technology management are a serious threat to the overall efficacy of the IT managers. To Read More
Early in the history of electronic digital computing, computers were large devices that filled rooms. During this phase of their evolution, the calculation to be performed by the computer was hard-wired into the circuits. Changing the calculation required technicians to physically reconfigure the circuits following the direction of the computer engineers. Lohr (2001) observed the Read More
If we hope to make technology an easy-to-use and useful educational technology that is also secure and reliable, school and technology leaders must gather data to understand the information and instructional technology (I&IT) in schools: Users’ perspectives—There is a rich body of research that supports the conclusion that perceived ease of use and usefulness is Read More
Technology acceptance is an idea that has recurred in this blog, and with good reason. I have used it as a guiding principle in the design of instructional technology for more than a decade. Specific posts where it is featured are: #edtech for #edleaders: Measuring Technology Acceptance The Application of Technology Acceptance to Educational Design Read More
Usability is a factor that has been recognized as playing a role in the widespread adoption of ICT to meet the strategic and logistic goals of businesses and industries other than education. Designers recognize that usable systems decrease extraneous cognitive load, and thus facilitate knowledge building. In general, usability is associated with the extent to Read More
Educational data has been a recurring theme on this blog. In this post, I continue considering the nature of data in education and the nature of data in science… comparing and contrasting the two. Constructs and Instruments Scientists are always specific about what they are measuring, and there are accepted methods for measuring these quantities. Read More
The newest type of device to enter the educational market is the Internet-only notebook. When these devices were first marketed, they had no functionality without the Internet, but later generations have added some offline functionality. Still, however, these devices are most useful in schools when they are connected to the Internet. The dominant device used Read More
The two dominant mobile operating systems are Apple’s iOS (which is installed on iPads and iPhones) and Google’s Android operating system (which is installed on a range of tablets and phones). Microsoft makes a version of Windows available for mobile devices and the open source community also makes version of Linux available, but these are Read More