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Educational Technology Issue Page

Ronda Hull

Foundations of Educational Technology (EDU 352)

Week 5 Final Assignment – Portfolio

Instructor Kathleen Blanco

November 17, 2018

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Educational Technology Issue Page

I choose, “If we were really serious about educational technology, we would… [Here are ten

to get you started]” This paper has 10 issues to discuss and all of them are important to advance

technology in education.

The reason I choose this topic is that it points out some areas of concern that I have had

while teaching my computer classes and I would like to research these areas to further

understanding for the benefit of my classes. Areas of importance are: protecting our students

while online and still being able to use different sites, like Social Media, or using Wikipedia to

our benefit. Another controversial subject is the digital learning devices vs paper, pencil, and

textbook. Many teachers are overwhelmed with having to change with the technical world we

live in, so instruction for teachers to feel comfortable in using all the tools available to them is

very important. These are just a few of the 10 that we will discuss. I am going to concentrate on

the topics of Social Media, Wikipedia, and the use of technology in the classroom.

The first issue of a debate has been the use of Social media, like Facebook, or the

controversial use of Wikipedia. According to McLeod (3007), many school districts and most

colleges ban Wikimedia from being a reputable source because all information posted on

Wikipedia has not been proven accurate. This author is stating that not all Encyclopedias have

been proven accurate, that newspaper articles do not always tell the truth and only the truth.

Library books are not all screened word by word before going on the shelf. So, should we ban

these items too? According to Comunica.com (2017), Wikipedia has been used in an activity to

critically analyze existing articles to expand and analyze. Doing these practices have shown
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improvement in basic skills, such as interaction, communication, writing, comprehension,

research, and motivation.

In the case of social sites like Facebook, many feel that students are not ready because of

being immature and too young. The sites are being used to bully and because of this, it should be

banned. The other side of this is that students also bully in the lunchroom, on the playground, so

should these be banned also? Of course not, we need to train our students, along with parents, to

not bully, but to be responsible and have good character (as cited in McLeod, 2011).

According to McLeod (2009), we have come a long way in technology with each device

becoming, smaller, more powerful, and economical throughout the last three decades. Today,

almost every job has some sort of technology required, but yet our schools are still teaching in a

paper-suffused learning environment. One of the problems is lack of funds for schools to supply

a device per student. Just in the state of Iowa, the cost of laptops would equal 144 million. There

are ways to help achieve the cost with state and school district general funds, levies, and

referenda. Other challenges are adding the televisions, projectors, electronic whiteboards, and

document cameras that are needed in many areas of technology. Another issue is training

teachers to be prepared to use all the technological tools available. Many teachers have taught for

years before technology and changing their way of teaching from teacher-led and textbooks to

using technology and more hands-on can be a challenge. Technology is forever changing and

improving and staying abreast is an ongoing learning process for everyone.

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References

McLeod, S. (2010, November 22). If we were really serious about educational

technology. Retrieved from http://bigthink.com/ideas/if-we-were-really-serious-

about-educational-technology. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Nadel, B. (2017). Riding the next wave: effectiveness and efficiency increase with automatic

grading, automated buildings. District Administration. Vol. 53, Issue 1, P. 65.

Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-

library.ashford.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=2c18f7b3-aa5a-48c8-

a0fd-8edaf77b0cf8%40sdc-v-sessmgr02 (Links to an external site.)Links to an

external site.

Quinn, P. (2016). Google Schools? A chromebook case study. Screen Education. Issue 82.

P.90. 6p Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-

library.ashford.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=bc6a2279-1463-4194-

bc3c-2524039a9681%40sdc-v-sessmgr04 (Links to an external site.)Links to an

external site.

Sabin, A., Top, N., & Delen, E. (2016). Teachers’ First-Year Experience with Chromebook

Laptops and Their Attitudes towards Technology Integration.

Technology, Knowledge, and Learning. Vol. 21 Issue 3, P.361, 18p.

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Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-

library.ashford.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=24&sid=a86cc69f-6743-44eb-be7d-

96f9ee3608d7%40sdc-v-

sessmgr02&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN

=edsgcl.463646509&db=edsgao (Links to an external site.)Links to an external

site.

Soler-Adillon, J., Pavlovic, D., Freixa, P. (2018). Wikipedia. In higher education: Changes in

perceived value through content contribution. En la Universidad. Vol.26 Issue 54, Pp.

39-48. 10p 1 chart. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-

library.ashford.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=20&sid=a86cc69f-6743-44eb-

be7d-96f9ee3608d7%40sdc-v-sessmgr02 (Links to an external site.)Links to an

external site.