85: Edtech for Edleaders: Computer Rooms Today While computer rooms have largely fallen out of favor, they continue to be maintained in many schools. As more diverse computing devices have entered the educational market and Internet-only notebooks became more popular, computer rooms have become more important for providing capacity for specialized purposes that require sophisticated Read More
Category: Technology Planning
What Larry Cuban Said About Technology is (Discouragingly) Still Accurate
The computer technologies introduced to schools in the last quarter of the 20th century were part of a long parade of electronic information technologies that were introduced first into the popular culture and then into education throughout the 20th century. In 1986, Larry Cuban, a professor of education at Stanford University, reviewed the history of Read More
Evidence and Design
When I was studying biology as an undergraduate, a students asked the physiology about Daltons, the unit used to measure the size of large molecules such as proteins. The professor was so used to using the term, he had to look up the definition so he could explain it to the 250 or so students Read More
Reflexivity: Teachers and Technology
In a previous post, I presented reflexivity as a phenomenon that we can observe in schools. The concept is grounded in the mutual feedback and feedforward influences that exist between humans and the technologies they use (especially the information technologies they use). Reflexivity can be extended to other observations in schools as well. For example, Read More
Papert’s Three Phases of Educational Technology
In 1994, Seymour Papert, the mathematician from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was a pioneer in using computer programming to teach mathematics to young children, suggested that the history of computers in schools could be deconstructed into three phases. First, there was a brief time when innovative educators had computers in their classrooms and Read More
Edtech for Edleaders: Choose Two
68: #edtech for Educational Leaders: Choose Two IT professionals confirm leaders, including educational leaders, want systems that are: Inexpensive; Designed and installed quickly; Of high quality. When faced with those three design needs, the IT professional usually responds with “choose two.” While this is often done in an attempt to introduce humor into the conversation, Read More
Deconstructing #edtech
The question of just what should we educational technology professionals spend their time and energy doing and what school leaders should expect of the IT professionals they hire is one that has been raised by several within my network in the last year or so. The answer that I tend to give is this one: Read More
Avoiding Red Herrings: Technology Support that Works
I made this presentation at the 2015 Association of Educational and Communications and Technology conference. Avoiding Red Herrings: Technology Support that Works Abstract Information and computer technology has been incorporated in teaching and schooling for several decades. Despite on-going efforts to provide both technical support to maintain functional systems and support for educators to integrate Read More
Review of Digital Habitats
Between 2008 and 2011, I wrote several brief reviews of books which appeared on the Education Review web site. Since then, the editors ceased publication of that type of review and removed the previously published brief reviews from the site. I am making the original drafts of my reviews available here. Smith, J. D., Wenger, E., & Read More
Situational Awareness in Instructional Design
64: Situational Awareness in Instructional Design As we think about the work of creating appropriate, proper, and reasonable educational technology, our decisions and actions are often biased by the perspective of our position. Educators are biased towards ease of use and effectiveness for teaching; technologists are biased towards reliable, robust, and secure computer systems. School Read More