A. Educational Technology B. Goals of Educational Technology C. Definition of Educational Technology from different perspective

Educational Technology (Information Technology) according to International Technology Education Association T eaches with technology (uses technology as a tool) P rimarily concerned with the narrow spectrum of information and communication technologies Primary goal: To enhance the teaching and learning process

Goals of Educational Technology Educational technology research always had an ambitious agenda. Sometimes it only aims at increased efficiency or effectiveness of current practice, but frequently it aims at pedagogical change.

While it can be considered as a design science it also addresses fundamental issues of learning, teaching and social organization and therefore makes use of the full range of modern social science and life sciences methodology.

"Technology provides us with powerful tools to try out different designs, so that instead of theories of education, we may begin to develop a science of education. But it cannot be an analytic science like physics or psychology; rather it must be a design science more like aeronautics or artificial intelligence.

For example, in aeronautics the goal is to elucidate how different designs contribute to lift, drag maneuverability, etc. Similarly, a design science of education must determine how different designs of learning environments contribute to learning, cooperation, motivation, etc." (Collins, 1992:24).

Technology is therefore both a tool and a catalyzer and it can become a medium through which change can happen. Educational technologists would not therefore consider the computer as just another piece of equipment.

If educational technology is concerned with thinking carefully about teaching and learning, then a computer has a contribution to make irrespective of its use as a means of implementation, for the design of computer-based learning environments gives us a new perspective on the nature of teaching and learning and indeed on general educational objectives. (O'Shea and Self: 1983: 59).

From an instructional design perspective Besides being a field of research, Educational Technology is synonymous for { Pedagogy, Learning, Instructional design, etc.} with technology and therefore also an engineering discipline, a design science or an craft (whatever you prefer).

In order to define educational technology we may ask ourselves what constitutes an instructional design and what disciplines look at these constituents.

From a fundamental research perspective Many researchers in the field rather adopt a more fundamental research stance and they focus on small well defined problems such as "under which conditions can multimedia animations be effective".

From an institutional perspective A field is implicitly defined by journals, conferences and study programs. The Journal of Interactive Learning Research published by the association for the Advancement of Computing in Education included on March 2006 the following enumeration of interactive learning environments that gives an idea on the technical scope of the field.

authoring systems cognitive tools for learning computer-assisted language learning computer-based assessment systems computer-based training computer-mediated communications computer-supported collaborative learning

distributed learning environments electronic performance support systems interactive learning environments interactive multimedia systems interactive simulations and games intelligent agents on the Internet intelligent tutoring systems micro worlds virtual reality based learning systems

From a technology perspective Each time a new technology appears soon after it may be hailed as a new solution to education by both researchers and practitioners. Therefore, one also could argue that fundamentally speaking, educational technology research and practice is technology driven (although not many members of the community would accept this stance). E.g. see Daniel Chandler's Technological or Media Determinism discussion.

From a "where is it used perspective" Distance education Blended learning Technology-enhanced classrooms (at all school levels) Informal learning (of various sorts)

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