What is Educational Technology?

The advent of the personal computer and the Internet is impacting upon every aspect of our society. The way we do business, socialize, amuse ourselves and learn are all being radically changed.

This series of Web pages is designed to provide an introduction to the topic of educational technology. It is aimed at educators, educational administrators, learners, potential learners, employers or just about anyone with an interest in learning in the 21st century.

The Meaning of Educational Technology

Let's begin by offering a definition of educational technology.

Educational Technology - also known variously as e-learning, instructional technology and learning technology - is the use of technology to support the learning process. Although the term can refer to all kinds of analogue technologies, eg photographs, film, video, audio recordings etc, it is usually used to talk specifically about digital computer technology.

Although technology is widely used in the administration and management of education (eg student records, marketing, procurement, finance etc etc) and in research, educational technology is only concerned with technology as it impacts upon the learning process, eg in delivering learning materials, faciliating communication and providing assessment and feedback.

Technology can benefit both traditional (ie face-to-face) and open and distance learning models. And perhaps it makes it easier to combine different models to provide a blended learning experience tailored to the individual's needs.

Educational Technology is BIG - Google searches return 3.5 million hits for "educational technology", 2.3 million for "instructional technology", 1.8 million for "learning technology", and no less than 10.6 million for "e-learning". Technology is already serving millions of learners worldwide. However, in my experience, there remains a considerable sense of unfulfilled potential among the educational technology community and examples of wasted effort and disappointing results abound.

In the coming pages we'll be looking at some of the many ways technology can support learning. We'll also be describing the reasons why the appropriate application of technology can provide significant improvements over traditional modes of educational delivery.

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