Chapter 7

There are three criteria educational technology must meet in order to be considered "appropriate". First, it must be considered appropriate for the educational situation. Secondly, it must be motivational. Finally, it must promote learning at the correct levels of student ability and academic achievement. Evaluation should occur before instruction, during the instructional period, and after the instruction has occurred. At each of these stages, you should continuously evaluate and revise. There is a wide variety of resources available to educators that will help them determine the appropriateness of educational technology. These tools come from a variety of sources including school districts, state Department of Education, professional educational organizations, catalogs, colleagues, published evaluations, conferences, and most popularly, the Web.

So what exactly should you be looking at and looking for when determining the appropriateness of educational technology? Software evaluation rubrics can be very helpful. They provide important evaluation criteria including content, documentation, technical support, ability and academic levels, technical quality, and ease of use. Evaluating web resources is also very important to do, as discussed in the class when we created our own web evaluation forms. Evaluating technology integration is taking a look at the big picture and seeing if the school as a whole is properly utilizing and implementing educational technology.

Since my last post, I learned many new things about Wikipedia! I have used Wikipedia extensively in the past to conduct research and gain information. It was especially enlightening when I did a speech on different kinds of wine grapes. However, I had no idea it was an interactive Encyclopedia, where you could add your own information at any time! I had no experiencing design a site of my own, so it was a really cool experience for me. I do think Wikipedia sites would be a great tool for teachers who shared something in common, such as subject area or grade level taught. Also, reading chapter 7 taught me that it is not only important to use technology in our schools, but to evaluate and ensure appropriateness of those technologies.