Elements of Education Technology

Elements of Education Technology

On June 1st, 2004, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology posted the Definition of Education Technology. The definition presented in this pre-draft is as follows:

 "Education Technology is the study and ethical practice for facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources."(2004, page 1) 

The post included thirteen elements of this definition.  THIRTEEN!  Reading this gave me more insight to our responsibility as educators.  All thirteen elements are important to this definition and the use of technology in the classroom or on the web.  Attached is a short discussion on two of these elements that I felt were important on a personal level. Click here to see the below document in Google Docs

Reflection on The Definition of Education Technology:

I was awed by the depth of the definition.  At first, I thought the writers had just drawn out the definition with 13 elements, and while some elements are very closely related, each one is justified as being separate.   Though this is a specific definition for education technology, many of the elements make up good education policy.  I was familiar with most of these elements and used many of them to create lessons such as study, appropriate, creating, improving, resources, facilitating, managing, and learning.  The elements of ethical practice and appropriateness, their definitions from this document, have changed my teaching perspective.  The considerations when creating lessons have become broader.  It may make creating lessons and units more time consuming factoring in these elements but, I believe, it will make them more engaging and learner-oriented.