EdTech 504 - Reflection 2 - Theories of Educational Technologies

EdTech 504 - Reflection - Module 2

Theories of Educational Technology

Semester:    Summer 2015

Instructor:    Dr. Yang

Textbook:    Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments - David Jonassen and Susan Land

Assignments:

1. Readings

Historical overview of technology use in the classroom

1. De Castell, S., Bryson, M., & Jenson, J. (2002). Object lessons: Towards an educational theory of technology. First Monday, 7(1). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/923/845 (Required free registration)
2. Issroff, K., & Scanlon, E. (2002). Educational technology: The influence of theory. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 6. Retrieved from http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/2002/6/issroff-scanlon-02-6.pdf
3. Lankshear, C., Peters, M., & Knobel, M. (2000). Information, knowledge and learning: Some issues facing epistemology and education in a digital age. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 34(1), 17-39. Retrieved from http://michaelbatie.com/papers/information_and_knowledge.pdf
4. Reeves, T. C. (1994). Evaluating What Matters in Computer-Based Education. In M. Wild & D. Kirkpactrick (Eds.), Computer education: New perspectives, (pp. 219-246). Retrieved from http://www.eduworks.com/Documents/Workshops/EdMedia1998/docs/reeves.html
5. Jonassen, D. H. (1991). Objectivism versus constructivism: Do we need a new philosophical paradigm? Educational Technology Research and Development, 39(3), 5-14. doi: 10. 1007-BF02296424.
6. Wilson, B. (1997). Thoughts on theory in educational technology. Educational Technology, 37(1),22-27.
7. Ross, S., Sullivan, H., & Tennyson, R. (1992). Educational technology: Four decades of research and theory. Educational Technology Research and Development, 40(2):5-7.
8. Required Reading: textbook - Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments
9. Chapter 7: Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning in Student-Centered Learning Environments (Azevedo, Behnagh, Duffy, Harley & Trevors)

1. Annotated Bibliography
2. Jigsaw activity

AECT Standards:

3 - Learning Environments

3.2 - Using - Make professionally sound decisions in selecting appropriate resources to provide optimal conditions for learning.

5 - Research

5.1 - Theoretical Foundations - Demonstrates knowledge of past and current theories of educational technology.

5.3 - Assessing/Evaluating - Applies formal strategies in assessing and evaluating resources for learning.

5.4 - Ethics - Conducts research using accepted professional and institutional guidelines and procedures.

   

Module 3 Reflection:

   

This week continued with a lot more reading, again, not my favourite part of the MET program. However, the readings were interesting but many were hard for me to read. It took quite some time to comprehend the concepts as their were so many new to me. It was surprising to me of how little I knew about learning theories but I am now starting to understand these concepts.

The first assignment - after the readings - was to do a learning jigsaw. Each person in the class had to take detailed notes of any of the remaining unread chapters from the textbook. I chose Chapter 12 - What Is Communities of Practice and How Can We Support It? The notes were to be discussed with anyone else who read Chapter 12. Once the notes were approved by all Ch. 12 members, they were put on the discussion thread for the rest of the class to read. I really enjoyed this as I found the textbook quite hard to read. By reading only the detailed notes from each group, it saved a lot of time and my understanding of the chapters grew much more than if I had to read the entire book. It is an activity I will surely use in my classroom moving forward.

I did not have enough time to go through all of the notes for each chapter so I have them on my reflection to read at a later date. Here are the chapter summaries including chapter 12.

Chapter 3 - Designing Model-Based Learning Environments to Support Mental Models for Learning

Chapter 4 - Conceptual Change and Student-Centered Learning Environments

Chapter 5 - Argumentation and Student-Centered Learning Environments

Chapter 6 - Theory and Practice of Case-Based Learning Aids

Chapter 8 - Embodied Cognition and Learning Environment Design

Chapter 9 - Everyday Expertise: Learning Within and Across Formal and Informal Settings

Introduction

Chapter 10 - Activity Theory in the Learning Technologies

Chapter 11 - Learning Communities: Theoretical Foundations for Making Connections

Chapter 12 - What Is Communities of Practice and How Can We Support It?

The second assignment was very time consuming. Although we only had to do seven to ten references for the annotated bibliography, is took me so much time to find articles to match topics. Dr. Yang gave us the course in advance so we knew what are topic was in regards to our synthesis paper. This research could have - and should have - been used for research for our final paper. My original thought process for my paper was on constructivism but when I began to read some articles on connectivism and I became very intrigued. I changed my research in mid stream so only a couple of the readings were used for my final paper. One thing to note however, the readings did create in me a need to change my teaching techniques. Here is my annotated bibliography.