Chapter 9: Selecting Technologies That Support Instruction

1. Methods for conveying instructional messages:

1.1. Low vs. High Tech

1.2. Face to Face vs. Virtual Settings

1.3. Individual vs. Group

2. Technology - any tool that helps to take action more efficiently or think better. Includes both products and processes.

2.1. Products are both hardware and software.

2.2. Processes cover design procedures and models.

2.3. Ways technology fosters learning:

2.3.1. Support knowledge construction

2.3.2. Learning by doing

2.3.3. Enables learners to represent and simulate meaningful real-world problems, situations and contexts, beliefs, perspectives, arguments, and the stories of others.

2.3.4. Provides a safe, controllable problem space for student thinking

2.3.5. Facilitates communication for collaboration

2.3.6. Fosters reflection by enabling learners to articulate and represent their learning in many formats, and mindfully consider where they have come from and where they are headed with respect to their learning goals

2.4. Technology should always be used to meet a specific instructional need.

2.5. Mindtool - technology that prompts learners to learn alongside the technology, as a partner.

2.5.1. Mindtools represent a constructivist approach for using computers or any other technology, environment, or activity to engage learners in representing, manipulating, and reflecting on what they know, not reproducing what someone tells them.

2.5.2. Refer to Table 9.1 for ways technology can serve as mindtools

3. Project Analysis Data

3.1. Learner and content analyses should reveal what the learner needs to know about the content, what he or she already knows, the extent and complexity of the content, and just how motivated the learner is to learn that content.

3.2. As data is consulted, consider if adequate amounts of data were captured, can you identify relevant questions, interests, motivations, and/or prior knowledge?

3.3. Media decisions should take into acount the lifetime of the project and need to update content if necessary

3.4. Constraints, performance context, availability and applicability of existing technologies impact which technology to choose

3.5. Questions to ask when gathering data:

3.5.1. What factors or conditions should be considered for face to face instruction and how could the same strategies be supported in an online environment?

3.5.2. What mix of activities should I use in a blended environment?

3.5.3. What should be done face to face and what can be done online?

3.5.4. How can I make the best use of a limited face to face experience?

3.5.5. Shold I use a "flipped classroom" approach?

4. Refer to "Keeping up with Emerging Technologies" for a list of current technology strategies

4.1. It is important to set time to evaluate new learning technologies so that their use can be understood. The benefit of some of these technologies is that they streamline the learning process or satisfy a particular need.

5. Streamlining Technology Selection:

5.1. Sustainable - Select technologies, when possible, that can be used for other efforts in your organization.

5.2. Optimized - Consider if the revision of existing technologies is an option.

5.3. Redundant - Select technology that provides adequate ways for a learner to access knowledge

5.4. Right-sized - Guard against selections that are based off of a particular favorite technology or new and exciting technology. Go with the lowest tech solution that will sufficiently support strategies and learning experiences identified.

5.5. Continuously Improving - Keep record of success with particular technologies, as well as challenges or consequenses of using a particular technology to refer to and help improve on.

6. Select technology that best supports the demands of project content, the needs and prior knowledge of the learners, and the requirements of the teaching/learning strategies identified.

7. Steps to make technology selection:

7.1. Consult the project analysis data for information on the learners, the content and the project constraints and resources

7.2. Reflect on and identify the support requirements of the strategies and delivery mode you have selected for your design

7.3. For each possible technology option, identify its inherent media affordances that could be used to support the learning tasks and strategies

7.4. Study media theories and best practices to inform your design

7.5. Refer to Table 9.2 for a detailed step by step

8. Identifying Strategy and Delivery Mode Requirements

8.1. Media choices should take into account any interactions with the content, strategies, and learner characteristics

8.2. Audience characteristics affect delivery methods, ex. multicultural audiences demand several languages be available

8.3. Refer to Table 9.3 for a categorization of instructional technologies by delivery mode

9. Thinking about evaluation:

9.1. Reaction - surveys of how the technology worked, whether it was easy to use or learn, and whether technology issues interrupted the flow of learning

9.2. Learning - How will assessment of learning take place given the selected technology/delivery mode?

9.3. Behavior - How will changes in behavior and the transfer of learning be measured with the given technology/delivery method?

9.4. Results - Record benchmark and learning analytics data on technology use in your organization before and after the instructional project, as well as information on learner familiarity with the technologies selected, to provide data for later comparisons.