1. Technology in Education

3. How do you define technology? • Technology is a rational discipline designed to assure the master of man over physical nature, through the application of scientifically determined laws (Simon, 1983, p. 173). • “Technology…is not a collection of machines and devices, but a way of acting”(Muffoletto, 1994, p.25).

4. What does technology do for us?” • Reflect upon your drive to class or look around the room. • What technologies did you see? • How do these technologies solve problems and make your lives easier?

5. Pick a technology. • What types of knowledge were required to develop that technology.

6. Group Activity • Divide up in small groups • Imagine that your are in the Stone Age. Your only garment has been torn and requires mending. How would you repair it? • How would your approach to mending the garment change as time advanced from the Stone Age to the present. • What new knowledge would allow the development of new technology?

8. Group Activity • Divide into small groups • Agree upon a problem that society has and brainstorm technologies that have solved this problem • Evaluate if this technology has solved the problem or made the situation more volatile

9. In teaching and learning, technology should be applied as a process rather than as a single, isolated and discrete activity. The American Heritage Dictionary defines process as “a series of actions, changes, functions bringing about a result.” • Technology in education is not a mere object to be introduced into teaching and learning activities at will without considering basic principles of learning and sound teaching methodology.

10. To assume that educational technology is an object that can be used and detached at any time is a false assumption because educational technology is not applied in a vacuum. It is guided by learning principles about how individuals learn and how they retain the knowledge and skill they have acquired. It is also based on the students’ expectations of the outcome of learning and how the outcomes could be applied to enrich practical life experiences. Therefore, technological application should be based on sound teaching and learning principles to avoid teaching hardware and software technologies in an isolated manner. Technologies used for instructional delivery should form part of the cohesive components of instruction; they should not be detachable objects.