Instructional Technology at the College of Education: get set

Educational Technology Position Statement: More verbs. Fewer nouns.

Instructional Technology is no longer just about nouns. Instead, verbs and adverbs dominate the educational landscape. By empowering students to work effectively, creatively, efficiently, collaboratively and reflectively while building, communicating, solving, designing, and sharing, they learn the content and skills necessary for the 21st century.

The dynamic and ever-changing environment of instructional technology must be embraced as a benefit rather than a detriment. Each new variation of instructional technology brings new opportunities and new outcomes. Therefore it is the teacher’s responsibility to model an appropriate attitude when faced with change.

Although this is a technology course, it is based upon the underlying philosophy that instructional technology should be about learning more with the technology and from the technology, and less about learning specific technologies. The core principles of education remain the foundation of this course even though the content, application, and products may change from semester to semester.

The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers will be used as guidelines for the scope and direction of this course. In essence, education is at a unique crossroads where the accessibility to information and the speed of personal communication is equivalent for both the teacher and the student. Further, there is a somewhat odd wrinkle in the public education paradigm where in many cases, the student has better and less restricted access to information when at home than when at school.

The structure of this course involves a set of tasks, each with a product. The depth of the task is dependent upon the skills of the student, the time frame of the assignment, and the goals of the product. Therefore each individual student can enter and exit the task at their own level and the grading of assignments will reflect the gains the student made rather than a fixed threshold. The verbs of instructional technology mandate a considerable overlap across the various tasks. For instance, word processing often involves the use of pictures and Internet links. Therefore, with each new task, it will be expected that previously explored technologies will be used as needed to enhance your assignments.

We will be using digital technologies including computers, cameras, software, and various peripherals to produce products containing text, images, audio and video. The products will be shared digitally, in hard copy, onscreen, posted on the Internet, and presented in class. Each product will be the outcome of a task, however the process as well as the product will be considered in the grading of each assignment.

-Dr. Martin Horejsi, Professor of Instructional Technology