Introduction#
My system of interest is the system related to learner-oriented technology choices. Issue #1 in this system is has been the ongoing workshop of how to describe it. In educational settings, there are two end users: the educator and the learner. The educator makes choices on what webtools they use in their learning environment, and the educator uses the educator set of tools to create lessons, assign learning activities, or even use the tool for group instruction. The learner uses it as a learning tool that is assigned (or simply linked to) by the educator. My school uses the phrase “student-centered teaching” and while my boss loved “student-centered technology choices” an academic at a conference I was at was confused because it’s a heuristic for teachers, not learners. Can you even have a tool/heuristic if it doesn’t have a catchy name though?
And that’s just the complication of who uses a tool. Every system has a confluence of other systems within it, that it is a part of, and that touch it on its boundaries. We saw this in The Theory of Everything with how systems intersects can drastically change, or even permanently alter, existing systems (the medical system inadvertently leading to the divorce of Stephen and Jane), in how planning for something does not mean your plan will work out the way you expected (salmon runs in dams), and economies of both time and money drive so many decisions (pretty much every system we’ve looked at).
We try to plan for everything, it’s typically not human intention to do harm (positive intent), but the impacts of our decisions unfold over time, and there are always unintended or unexpected consequences, and frequently reality plays out very differently than the models we build for a situation.
Systems for Educational Technology Choice#
Research Concept MapI built this starter model for my dissertation work. It started as a sketch and moved into a digital format. I am using it as a guide to start my thoughts, and provide starter questions to quickly jump start an educator’s thinking in each domain, and provide an organization system for approaching the domains I need to research in order to build a robust thinking routine. Even creating this was more work than I expected, and there are overlaps. It’s not a clear distinction between the concerns about how technology impacts a learner’s brain and the classroom environment. Neuroscientist Chantel Prat (2022) defines learning as anything you experience “that changes the way you think, feel, or behave.” The learning environment teaches us what is expected, or at least tolerated, in our educational institutions and from our peers. The tools we select impact the learning environment, which in and of itself teachers learners, even if its not the direct learning we are attempting to provide.
References
Prat, C. S. (2022). The neuroscience of you: How every brain is different and how to understand yours. Dutton, Penguin Random House.