Lesson 3 - Implementing Online Learning

3.1. Defining the Role of Technology in Education

Even an electronics engineer will be hard pressed to identify all the technologies in the photo of a not untypical home entertainment system in a North American home in 2014. The answer will depend on what you mean by technology:

• Hardware? (e.g. TV monitor, laptop computer)
• Software? (e.g. computer operating system, channel selection)
• Networks? (e.g. Internet, cable)
• Services? (e.g. television, telephone)

The answer of course is all these, plus the systems that enable everything to be integrated. Indeed, the technologies represented in just this one photograph are too many to list (Nevertheless it is a futile exercise as I was forced to change the whole system a couple of years later due to technological ‘upgrades’ by the service provider.)

In a digital age we are immersed in technology. Education, although often a laggard in technology adoption, is nevertheless no exception today. Yet learning is also a fundamental human activity that can function quite well (some would say better) without any technological intervention. So, in an age immersed in technology, what is its role in education? What are the strengths (or affordances) and what are the limitations of technology in education? When should we use technology, and which technologies should we use for what purposes?