Reflection 5: Ideas and Thoughts Of What I have Learned

One of the things I have learned in the course is to stay better organized with my notes.  I used OneNote to help me stay organized throughout this course and it has helped me considerably.  I found, I spend less time looking for my thoughts and ideas because they are all in one place.  As I was finishing my final paper, I noticed that I had missed two citations for two of my research findings.  Without OneNote and the internet I am not sure if I would have found where I had read these two studies.  Having the ability to use all kinds of different resources to build my paper and thoughts was inspiring and gave me great motivation to learn more.    

This thought made me think about what I did my research on for this course.  The focus of my research was that mobile technology can create learning and motivation to power one’s own actions and produced desired consequences to shape social and cultural environments.  Supporting individualized learning does not only need to be supported by our education system but by government and corporations too.  As a culture we have to create a better environment to stimulate the new age of learning and not be scared by it.  We all need to be a part of the community of learning and teach each other and mobile learning allows us to create this environment.  Having the ability to learn in all different environments is important.  One thing I find as a distance learner is that I don’t just sit at my desk for all of my learning in the EdTech program.  More often than not I am reviewing and reading on my lunch hour at a restaurant, sitting at the park while my daughter plays and/or having conversation about what I am learning with a friend.   The freedom I have learning online is allows me to direct my learning and environment which allows me to apply it to my own life. 

I am not sure if my definition of education technology has changed much over the course of this class. I think with the reading and research is this class, it’s made a better case to support my extended definition of Januszwki’s definition of educational technology.

Januszewski's definition is [ “Educational technology is a complex, integrated process, involving people, procedures, ideas, devices, and organization, for analyzing problems and devising, implementing, evaluating and managing solutions to those problems, involved in all aspects of human learning" (Januszewski, page 78.] (Januszewski, 2001). I think that Januszewki’s definition is pretty close to how I feel that Education Technology should be defined.

My stated definition of Educational Technology:

Educational technology is a complex, integrated process, involving people, instructional design, ideas, devices, and organization, for analyzing problems and devising, implementing, evaluating and managing solutions to those problems, involved in all aspects of human environment of learning and motivation.

Good instructional design, good learning environments that supports all kinds of learners and motivation to explore new options in technology is the future of education.  After this class I still am in line with what Albert Bandura (2001) believes, that humans can use learning and motivation to power their own actions and produce desired consequences to shape their social and cultural environments.