Educational Technology Overview

 

Q. How has technology transformed education?

 

            By all accounts, it has made it much better in most areas, but also much more complicated and much costlier. Ed tech has expanded school staff, salaries and benefits, professional development needs, space allocations, and much, much more in our schools. With proper management, ed tech has fabulous applications and lots of promise. But, as with everything else, there are all those examples in which poor management, government interference, profit-hungry contractors, and fun-loving or irresponsible students have mucked things up.

 

            Take a look at this list of ed tech terms, and see if you can add some more. Now think: how many of these did the teachers and administrators of a generation ago have to deal with? Not many. So think about how far we've come . . . and in the articles to come, get ready to "download" information for educators, parents and the taxpaying public on the important area of educational technology.

 

Artificial Intelligence

 

Audio

 

Cellular Phones

 

Computer-Assisted Design

 

Computers

 

Blogs

 

Databases

 

Data Collection, Mining and Warehousing

 

Digital Media

 

Digital Portfolios

 

Email

 

E-Rate

 

Games

 

Global Positioning System

 

Graphics

 

Hardware

 

Human Computer Interaction

 

Hypermedia

 

iMovies

 

Information Communication Technologies

 

Instant Messaging

 

Internet

 

iPods

 

iTunes

 

Laptops

 

MP3s / Podcasts

 

Multimedia

 

Navigation

 

Networking Technologies

 

Personal Data Assistants

 

Programming

 

Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

 

Robotics

 

Security Filters

 

Social Networking Systems

 

Software

 

Spam

 

System Configurations

 

Video

 

Viruses

 

Whiteboards

 

Wikis

 

Homework: A good publication that covers all aspects of educational technology is www.eschoolnews.com