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
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
83: Technology Acceptance and Educational Design In 2016, I delivered this paper at the Annual Conference of the New England Education Research Organization. Abstract Despite a long history of computers in schools, many educators continue to struggle with the problem of creating effective technology-rich learning environments. In this exploratory research, documents collected as several K-12 Read More
Scientific discoveries are deep, difficult and complex. They require a rejection of one view of reality (never an easy task, either conceptually or psychologically), in favor of a radically new order, teeming with consequences for everything held precious. One does not discard the comfort and foundation of a lifetime suddenly or lightly. Moreover, even if Read More
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
Appropriate Proper Reasonable I stumbled across this selection from a work iI wrote about five years ago…. it still seems to apply: A part of all education research is recognizing one’s responsibility to proceed in a manner that respects the subjects, the process, and the community. Ethical researchers do not endanger the physical or emotional Read More
What are the fundamental “things” that teachers need to understand? This question has been interesting to me thorough my career, and the list that comprises my answer appears to have changed (at least if I am interpreting the notes I have kept and saved over my career accurately). One of my current answers is backwards Read More
This is a continuation of the theme contained in the posts: Training, Learning, and Design The Organization of Training, Learning, and Design “Design” is a word that is broadly applied in the vernacular. We can “design” many things, and the motivated among us will actually build whatever we design. In education, we use design to Read More
I first encountered the terms “Fordist (old)” and “ICT (new)” in a 2006 article by Olumuyiwa Asaolu. Since then, I have seen the terms used in earlier works, and they are used to differentiate the nature of organizations and the work they do (and the workers and leaders they need). I summarized the differences in Read More
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