After reading this chapter and completing the learning activities for it, you should be able to:
- Describe four different views on how to define the term educational technology, and identify professional associations that represent each view.
- Identify periods in the history of educational computing and describe what we have learned from past applications and decisions.
- Generate a personal rationale for using technology in education based on findings from research and practice.
- Place a given educational technology resource in one of the following general hardware (stand-alone computer, network, and related device/system) or software (instructional, productivity, or administrative) categories.
- Identify which one of the following technology resource configurations would be appropriate for a given educational need: laboratories, mobile workstations, mobile PCs (e.g., laptops or handheld computers), classroom workstations, and/or single classroom PCs.
- Identify the general categories of educational technology instructional/productivity resources: instructional software, software tool, multimedia, distance learning, or a virtual reality environment.
- Explain the impact of each of the following types of issues on current uses of technology in education: societal, educational, cultural/equity, and legal/ethical.
- Identify trends in emerging technologies and implications they may have for teaching and learning.
- Identify technology skills teachers and their students need to have to be prepared for future learning and work tasks.
