Week 2: This week’s focus was on Technology Transience, teacher development in a CMC environment and communication.
Technological innovation is quickly outpacing pedagogical innovation and in some ways is providing the illusion of transformation in educational practices, when in fact quite often old pedagogical practices are simply being reskinned into digital environments. Quinton highlighted this issue when he mentioned that most online learning environments are “structured around the traditional instructional delivery model” (2010, p. 327). Essentially, what many Educational Technology solutions offer at best is entry-level integration of technology in which “instructors or faculty are merely using technology to aid in the transmission of content to students (Muillenburg & Berge, 2015, p. 95).
A variety of barriers exist to reaching higher levels of technological integration. Many faculty are reluctant to adopt technology in their practices due to lack of time, lack of knowledge of the tools, or the perception that digital tools provide a substandard learning experience.
The TPACK framework offers a strong model for the integration of technology, but I think it’s important to examine this framework from the perspective of teaching and or curricular teams. The requirement for faculty to have an in-depth knowledge of technology, pedagogy and content is unrealistic in many contexts, particularly in Medical Education, where quite often clinical faculty are also full time clinicans in addition to their teaching responsibilities. In this setting, the team approach could alleviate some of the knowledge burden being placed on the faculty and allow for other team members to provide the pedagogical and technological knowledge required to successfully employ TPACK.
REFERENCES
- Colbert, J.A., Chokshi, D.A. Technology in Medical Education—Osler Meets Watson. J GEN INTERN MED 29, 1584–1585 (2014). https://doi-org.proxy1.lib.uwo.ca/10.1007/s11606-014-2975-x
- Muillenburg, L. Y., & Berge, Z. L. (2015). Revisiting teacher preparation. Responding to technology transience in the educational setting. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 16(2), 93-105.
- Quinton, S.R. (2010). Principles of Effective Learning Environment Design. In Ebner, M. & Schiefner, M. (Eds.) Looking Toward the Future of Technology-Enhanced Education: Ubiquitous Learning and the Digital Native, 327-352.