Tag Archives: nature of technology
Teaching is Design: Material Constraints
Before beginning their official designs, engineers and designers have to further understand the context in which they are designing. Part of this context are the material constraints. That is, how do the properties and cost of available materials create barriers or inherent … Continue reading
Posted in Design, Education Reform
Tagged constraints, Design, instructional materials, nature of technology, teaching
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Educational Technology
Every year I teach Educational Technology I feel myself pulled by several goals. I want students to develop practical skills for using technology in their classrooms, but I also want them to develop a critical eye toward technology. This tension … Continue reading
Maintaining the Status Quo
Andrew Feenberg’s critical theory of technology posits that technical structures constructed under a previous system, when inherited by a new system will likely result in the re-establishment of the old system. For example, in a socialist revolution, if the technical … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Assessment, education, grading, institutional momentum, nature of technology, reform, SBG, school, status quo, technology
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Questioning Technology Reform
Dan Meyer has been channeling the nature of technology lately in his critique of various reform efforts. Most recently he commented on the trade-offs associated with technology use in the Rocketship approach: This is “differentiation,” says John Merrow, and it’s … Continue reading
Technology Gives and Takes Away
From Dan Meyer: But the very technology that lets Khan Academy assess hundreds of concepts at global scale — random number generators, string splices, and algorithmically generated hints — has downgraded, perhaps unavoidably, what it means to know math. I … Continue reading
Implications for Learning the Nature of Technology (Part 3)
Beyond the extent to which students’ learned about the NOT, the study investigated ways in which the preservice teachers used NOT in broader context. Unfortunately, a minority of students included NOT ideas within the broader context of technology literacy at … Continue reading
Implications for Learning the Nature of Technology (Part 1)
The results of this investigation seem to indicate that teaching and learning about the nature of technology (NOT) may be especially difficult. Given the deeply engrained, ubiquitous, and oftentimes “invisible” nature of technology in our society, coming to understand deep … Continue reading
Preservice Teachers as Questioners of Technology (Part 3)
Unfortunately, learners might not connect these classroom issues to the greater culture. Therefore, teachers are introduced to historical examples of technology use to further illustrate nature of technology ideas. These examples range from the printing press to the chalkboard. The … Continue reading
Preservice Teachers as Questioners of Technology (Part 2)
When introducing the nature of technology (NOT), activities are used to confront naïve views about NOT. Importantly, these introductory activities are decontextualized in nature. That is, initial NOT ideas are constructed to illustrate the concepts without use of complex technology. … Continue reading
Preservice Teachers as Questioners of Technology (part 1)
The educational technology course in this study uses the six nature of technology (NOT) ideas previously discussed to help the teachers become more informed questioners of technology. As previously noted, the preservice teachers are expected to identify and discuss possible … Continue reading
Teaching as Dynamic 