Teaching and Learning Technologies: What are they?

The software, supporting hardware, and the processes used when integrating computers into education is what I mean by teaching and learning technologies. Uses range from relatively simple mailing lists, to informational or interactive Web pages, to high-end graphics and animations. But technology in education is more than these tangibles.

Technology-based tools arrived fairly recently, and provide new delivery mechanisms. Still, they share characteristics of traditional activities of teaching and learning. Just like the older methods, technology-based tools are as effective and as varied as the people who create and use them. To use these new tools we can apply much of the accumulated wisdom within the areas of pedagogy (the art, science, or profession of teaching) and presentation and instructional methods. In addition, technologies afford many new possibilities in distance education, visualization of information, interactions, and other areas.

One way to think of the technology in education comes from Sir John S. Daniel's paper Why Universities Need Technology Strategies. Daniel describes technology in the context of organizations consisting of people and machines. Paraphrased somewhat, he says:

Technology always involves people and their social systems. When it is used in education, the underlying hardware is only as important as the processes, approaches, rules, and ways of organizing the information housed on the physical plastic, metals, and electronics.
Teaching and learning technologies can be used to augment the classroom and labs, to add depth and breadth to classroom material, and to reach beyond the traditional walls of the classroom. They give us new ways to learn.

Maintained by Andrea Chappell, Information Systems & Technology. Last updated 1998-April-5.