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Author: Meenu Kumari

My understanding of education technology

My understanding of education technology

Many of us associate educational technology with computer-assisted teaching and learning, which makes sense when you consider our current educational system, particularly in the post-covid scenario, where the majority of educational content is consumed online via computers, phones, and other gadgets, including this class of EC&I-833. Without a doubt, it has made our lives easier on so many levels that even after covid, many students prefer online education over offline . But the more I used it, the more I wondered, what does education technology stand for? Is there even a definition? and prompted me to Google what is education technology? The definition I found was “Educational technology (also known as edutech or edtech) is the use of computer hardware, software, educational theory, and practise to facilitate learning.” Well google almost says the same thing.

Instead of driving to a library to find my answers, my natural instinct was to Google it. Isn’t it amazing how Google has become synonymous with search? Knowledge is no longer limited to books or any one particular source; people can learn anything from anywhere in the world, even if they don’t have access to a good teacher in their area. We don’t even use the word search anymore we just google it. This made me wonder if Google was specifically designed with education in mind. The answer is obviously no, Google was officially launched in 1998 with a mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” and Much later, our academic community became aware that information available on Google could be formally used in our instructional process without much difficulty.

photo link – https://elearninginfographics.com/timeline-of-educational-technology-in-schools-infographic/

But what was life like before Google, and how did we search and learn about things other than books? so I  felt like going back in time and learn about the origin and the early days of educational technology because history always has lessons to teach us. I read Tony Bates – A short history of educational technology where I found a brief explanation of how education technology began and evolved throughout its history over  different time periods, initially the means of teaching was entirely based on oral and written instruction even for written instruction there were no blackboards till 18th century and the most interesting thing I discovered which also supports my theory and understanding of education technology is that many of the technology that we have used in education was not specifically developed for education but for other purposes like for the military or business, for example- The United States Army began using overhead projectors for training at the end of World War II, and their use became common for lecturing until it was largely replaced by electronic projectors and presentational software such as Powerpoint around 1990. In addition to this Michael Molenda – Historical foundations  also states that “Research and practice in educational technology are rooted in a primordial human drive to find ways of teaching in ways that are more efficient”  Also that “Every civilization has developed formal methods of education more efficacious than the trial-and-error of everyday living”

After going through these readings , I came to the conclusion that educational technology is all about effective instruction. We live in a technological world, and whatever technology we have incorporated into education up to this point has only one purpose: to evolve our mode of instruction and make it as effective as possible for everyone, even if that means using parts of technology that are not even intended for education and keep coming up with new tools to achieve it.

Thank you!

Introductory Post

Introductory Post

Greetings to all! I’m Meenu, a full-time education student in the teaching, learning, and leadership programme from India. This is my first course in educational technology and my third master’s-level course overall.. Currently I work part-time as a lead instructor for a U.S.-based Edtech company Engineering for kids. In my five years of varied teaching experience, I have worked both in schools and modern Edtech companies as a STEM instructor. My experience gave me the opportunity to work with national and international students online from across countries such as the U.K and the United States in a very interactive and engaging format. Without the use of technology, it would not have been possible, so I can say with certainty that education technology has had influenced my career on many levels.

My experience with various Ed tech’s sparked my curiosity to explore more about the education technology in general., I am intrigued  to see how effortlessly we all have adopted technology in our lives especially in education. My memory is still fresh when I was first introduced to computer lab’s in 5th grade, we only used to have a computer class once or twice a week. The exposer around the technology was very minimal and limited. Compared to those days, it’s amazing that now a days every child is familiar with gadgets long before they register in school, whether it be a mobile device, computer, or tablet, etc. I am sure we all can recall the time when our parents used to restrict us from using gadgets by saying  “too much television or computer will harm your eyes and brain”  it sounds unbelievable today. Back then as an educator I could’t have imagine teaching a subject like mathematics using online tools. Today after being associated with companies like Third space learning I strongly believe invasion of technology in education have helped both educators and students to achieve the desired learning goals. With the help of technology students are able to visualise the content they are learning for better understanding,  it improves imagination, cognition I mean  the benefits are countless. I came across this blog “What are the benefits of teaching math using technology?”  it dive’s deep into the benefits of using multimedia for teaching mathematics which I found very insightful for me.

Since EC&I- 833 is my first course in educational technology, I am very excited to learn more about its background and current applications in teaching and learning. As an educator, I believe that technology has evolved into an integral component of learning that cannot be ignored in the current times. As a result, it is important to teach and encourage the right use of technology among children.

Thank you!

Meenu 🙂