Foundations of Educational Technology

The Social, Historical, and Educational Foundations of Technology in Education


Julie Formo
ETC 567-Technology, Society, and Education
Professor Laura Sujo De montes
June 25, 2007


Abstract
Technology means tools; using tools to enhance our lives.  Teaching tools are a form of technology that have made huge advances since the first days of school.  From books, pencils, and paper, we now have a vast amount of information available instantly at our fingertips through computers that are connected to the internet.  Along with the advances, there are some hidden dangers that must be addressed.

The Social, Historical, and Educational Foundations of Technology in Education

Technology has a very basic meaning. When I thought of technology, I pictured computers, aerospace dynamics, etc, but I now see that technology involves any tool that increases our growth and development as productive human beings and societies.  In the world of education, technology has advanced from books, pencils, and paper to include many tools; a few recent additions are television, various kinds of computers, and the internet.  In the late 1960’s, a television studio with cameras, video tape recorders, and monitors was built at Stanford University where students had there first encounter with advanced interactive technology (Cuban, 2001, pp. 99-100). The future of high technology in education was just beginning.
When I was in high school in the 1970’s, my counselor told me that I needed high scores on the SAT’s and ACT’s in all core areas; mathematics, English, reading, history, and government to be accepted into a college.  Although knowledge in the main core areas is still important, today, the key elements to focus on have changed somewhat.  Recent studies have found that a precursor to success in college is high achievement in Algebra II and technology (Texley, 2007, Par. 7 &8).  “Technology skills often dubbed "twenty-first-century competencies" are the new tickets to success in college and career:” These include:
* The ability to search, find, and evaluate information on the Web.
* Web-style reading skills, which are very different from the sort of left-to-right sequential pattern that older adults learned in school.
* Communication skills, synchronous and asynchronous.
* Multimedia production skills-the ability to integrate text, images, and video.
(2007,Par. 7& 8).
In today’s society our teachers and students must be able to function in an ever- changing, technological world.  Higher level thinking skills are fundamental to solving complex problems and are also needed skills to effectively utilize technology for problem-solving assistance and enhancement. “In an age, however, when it is imperative that people be good thinkers, administrators, the media, legislators, parents, need to encourage teachers to feel comfortable experimenting with practices that challenge students to think at higher levels” (Sparapani, 2000, Par.  3). Evaluation, analysis, and synthesis abilities are required to create innovative new ideas for the future. Students are empowered to be self-reliant when they can discover and create their own knowledge and understanding which will enable them to compete in the new global workplace (Todd & Shinzato, 1999,Par.  1).
Teachers' pivotal role, then, is to help students find for themselves what they need to know. If students ask significant questions and find information on their own, they will test their own resourcefulness, instead of falling back on memorization. This ability will be useful throughout life (1999, Par. 2).
Our world is becoming smaller and smaller as the Internet brings people from all over the world into contact with each other instantly.  As a result of high technology, many American businesses are creating jobs overseas where there is a growing labor market who not only will work for cheaper wages, but the employees are also highly skilled (Massachusetts Institute, 2006, p.1). This process known as outsourcing is available because of the advances in information technologies which include fiber optic cables, satellites, computers, advanced software, and the Internet.  Competition for jobs will increase in the future because of the availability of so many skilled people to choose from all over the world.   
Low-cost countries--not just China and India but also Mexico, Malaysia, Brazil and others--are turning out large numbers of well-educated young people fully qualified to work in an information-based economy. China will produce about 3.3 million college graduates this year, India 3.1 million (all of them English-speaking), the U.S. just 1.3 million. In engineering, China's graduates will number over 600,000, India's 350,000, America's only about 70,000 (Colvin, 2005, Par. 2).
Educational Technology
         Higher-level thinking skills can be taught to our students using a method of teaching known as Constructivism in which the key is for the learner to construct their own knowledge and understanding actively, not passively from the teacher.
Constructivism has presented the first challenge of reconceptualizing learning as a constructive process whereby information is turned into knowledge by means of interpretation, by actively relating it to existing bodies of knowledge, by the generative creation of representations, and by processes of purposeful elaboration (e.g. Resnick, 1989) (Tam, 2000, Par. 41).
Another advantage of using Constructivism is that it can work hand-in-hand with information technology to create authentic and relevant learning activities (2000, Par. 44) .  The principles and ideas behind Constructivism could be easily enhanced with the use of technology to provide opportunities for students to use higher level thinking skills as they access information on the Internet for research or interactive learning activities and by using software such as Excel to build presentation models (2000, Par. 45).
Computer/Internet use combined with a Constructivist learning philosophy brings many higher level thinking activities to the educational world.  The combination of hands-on learning and the abundant variety of Internet and Web-based information, as well as, amazing computer software can be utilized to enhance learning.  There are software programs, such as Microsoft Office which provides numerous, useful tools.  The versatility of educational technology allows educators the ability to utilize many channels to deliver information.
In a school in Minnetonka, Minnesota, students are learning in an exciting technologically enhanced environment (Peterson, 2005, Par. 1).  As the new superintendent, Dennis Peterson envisioned “enhancing classroom instruction with appropriate technology”, he set his sights on educating staff and the community on the “power of technology as an accelerator of learning” (2005, Par. 4).  Through a district wide effort, a technology levy referendum yielded the school district thirty million dollars for technology education (2005, Par. 4).  A technology immersion classroom was designed, and teachers and specialists received the necessary training to implement technology into the curriculum and maintain the systems (2005,Par.7). 
Each immersion classroom is equipped with an interactive whiteboard and a projection unit; a computer display; a sound system that supports voice distribution; a VCR/DVD player; and remote management tools. Remote tools allow our technical support staff to view or control a user's computer desktop in order to troubleshoot without sending a technician to the site (2005,Par. 9).
The result is engaged, excited students, teachers who make the most of each other's creativity and a community willing to share its expertise (2005,Par. 23).
Multiple presentations of information enables students with different learning styles, ability levels-physically and emotional, and various forms of cultures and backgrounds to grasp new concepts and relate to the world around them.  A program called Tech Now is enabling classroom teachers in Oklahoma the ability to facilitate learning by using technology to give students with physical and learning disabilities the opportunity to learn about and solve real life problems.  These students are creating television and radio commercials and animated films and short stories (The Daily Oklahoman, 2007). Students can use all their senses in real life situations to build on their critical thinking skills and developing these skills for a career after high school is the main goal. The first teacher involved in this program feels that “everything today involves some kind of technology--even working in a grocery store” (The Daily, 2007).          
Technology and Society
The technological discoveries of the twentieth century have given the world many positive benefits; however, disadvantages are also present with the use of advanced technologies like the internet and the World Wide Web (Web). Young children across the globe can be subjected to many dangers including online pornography. 
Online pornography is an industry that has grown into a billion dollar a year business.  The massive increase in this business is possible because of the demand of millions of customers for the service of viewing pornography online.  The United States Internet Caucus Advisory Committee has presented an event titled: Controlling online pornography:  Options for parents and families (Berman, Hughes, Magid, Raskin, 2002, podcast). This event is also available on podcast at http://www.netcaucus.org/events/2002/onlineporn/video.shtml.  Speakers at this event discuss online pornography as an issue that can adversely affect the youth of the world today.  Obscene and sexually explicit material viewed by children is a real problem today with younger and younger children becoming victims of accidental or purposeful exposure. If parents are not very cautious about the times and places that children use the internet, the online pornography ads can jump right up in front of them on a harmless website. Whitehouse.com used to be a website that had explicit adult content and children have inadvertently searched there for information about the White House. There is illegal online pornography that is also available to children that portrays images that are not easily forgettable and can put false ideas about sexual activities in the minds of children. 
The Internet Caucus Advisory Committee introduced speakers from the National Academy of Science and the National Research Council to discuss a two year research study titled, “Youth pornography on the Internet” which was performed by a variety of experts and was funded by the federal government (2002, podcast). The experts explained that one of the main reasons online pornography has become so dangerous and wide-spread is because in the first years of inception, the people responsible for online obscenities were not prosecuted to any real extent (2002, podcast).  Some facts uncovered in the study include:
          There is confusion between the 1st Amendment to the Constitution and material that is sexually explicit
          Children for the most part are more technologically savvy than adults
          There has been very little sound scientific research on the affects of viewing pornography by young children
          75% of adult sites are overseas making them difficult to reach legally
          Rape, incest, bestiality are common place on pornography websites
          9 out of every 10 children on the internet come across pornography accidentally, 5 out of 10 are solicited
(Berman, Hughes, Magid, Raskin, 2002, podcast)
Good parenting skills, including instilling values in children and being a positive role model are imperative to protecting children against the dangers of online pornography (2002, podcast).  Some techniques mentioned in educating and protecting our children are to warn them of the dangerous materials present, to punish children who access these sites, use blocking and filtering software, and to learn how to report illegal pornography on the cyber tip line at www.cybertipline.com (2002, podcast).  As children’s guardians, parents are advised to stay fearful and skeptical and to stay in touch with new developments.  Parents also need to become educated about hidden dangers, such as how easy it is for pornographic banners and ads to pop up on the screen and mouse traps that keep trying to make people go to pornography sites (2002, podcast).  A combination of “safety rules and software tools” can help ensure the safety of children using internet services (2002, podcast).  The full report can be seen at www.nap.edu (2002, podcast).          
Conclusion
         We are in a new and exciting time in history where technology can take us into worlds of communication and information sharing that was never thought possible until the discovery of the personal computer and the Web. In the near future, there may be a universal culture because people who were once worlds apart are now able to see, hear, and interact with the ease of pressing the right keys and links on a computer. Along with all these benefits are hidden dangers that must be addressed to stop harm from coming to our children. 
  The personal computer, Internet, and highly useful software are wonderful tools can be used to integrate technology into the classroom. If the methods we are using to teach necessary concepts are not part of a constructive process which will allow for creative, higher-level thinking with technology implementation, we may not be able to keep up with the rapid changes and the thinking skills necessary for our students to succeed in a global society.  We can no longer think of learning as a segmented event of learning one part, then another.  We must integrate all areas of study into the realm of higher level thinking activities to form connections in the dynamic system that our world exists. “Technology-education courses have consistently combined the core content areas into hands-on learning activities that allow students to touch, feel, see and experience their knowledge in practical application” (Valentine, 2007). As Peter Lund, doctoral graduate of Ohio State University’s technology-education program, said, “If math counts and science matters, technology education is the innovation and application of all that counts and matters” (Valentine, 2007).  Utilizing technology in a constructive way will empower our students and educators and eventually our whole society with the ability to think critically about any situation and stay on top in our competitive world.


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