I will gain a detailed and evidence-based understanding of the appropriate and effective use of educational technologies in postsecondary contexts.
Goal #3
Goal 3 Main Page | Artifact #9 | Artifact #10 | Artifact #11 | Artifact #12
Format: Academic Paper
Course: ETEC 524 Learning Technologies: Selection, Design and Application
One of the most useful assignments in the course was to create a proposal for the adoption of an educational technology in my own context, that of a postsecondary college. I chose to create a proposal for PebblePad, since we are actively looking at the tool as a potential new educational technology for adoption in 2025.
Guiding Theories and Frameworks
As with the assignment on creating a rubric for ed tech selection, Tony Bates’ SECTIONS framework (Bates 2015) was instrumental in this exercise, as was Puentedura’s SAMR Model (Puentedura 2010). The SAMR Model will be a useful tool in analyzing the use of PebblePad once it has been adopted – to what extent will it change the way course materials are designed (i.e. modification and redefinition), rather than being just another tool for the delivery of unchanged existing content (substitution and augmentation).
Reflections
Creating a real-world proposal helped me to bring together the frameworks and theories we had been learning in the course – namely SECTONS and SAMR. It demonstrated the practical applicability of these frameworks.
Since creating the artifact, the project has moved into the subsequent stage of acquisition. It’s become apparent that, in a real world context, having a good business case, based on solid evidence, is a necessary precursor, but not a guarantee of success. There are many variables – institutional inertia, faculty resistance to new tools, cost factors – all of which have the potential to derail a proposal, even if it is backed by solid research and would be a demonstrable benefit to the college. But creating the artifact has helped me to be able to argue for adoption at the various bureaucratic stages that we must pass.