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 Ratings
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| Reviewed: |
Mar 25, 2008 by Teacher Education |
| Overview: |
The Educational Technology Textbook is an open source textbook that may be used to supplement or replace texts currently in use by many of today's teacher education programs. It addresses technology for meaningful learning, information literacy, and issues in educational technology. Furthermore, it addresses the importance of technology literacy, choosing and evaluating technology resources, and the use of technology for meaningful learning in new methods. The textbook also discusses the ethical, social, and legal issues in educational technology. Each section is supplemented with key terms, related websites and references. |
| Learning Goals: |
Provides an overview of meaningful technology integration for learning. |
| Target Student Population: |
Higher education students at both graduate and undergraduate levels. |
| Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: |
A basic understanding of theories supporting teaching and learning will be helpful. |
| Type of Material: |
Reference Material |
| Recommended Uses: |
This website can be used as a reference for higher education faculty, for teacher education programs and for K-12 professional development activities. |
| Technical Requirements: |
Internet connection. Some free plugins may be required to successfully follow links. |
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| Strengths: |
This site provides a well-developed presentation of methods of using technology integration to provide meaningful learning for students of all ages and grade levels. It provides a firm foundation of current learning theory. The site also provides an excellent overview of information literacy, including what it is, why it is important and ways to develop the necessary skills to be a fully competent information consumer in today's and tomorrow's world.
The content continues to provide information and resources for using technology as a teaching and learning tool with examples of integrated lessons. The online textbook presents the importance and uses of information literacy. A variety of educational technology issues are presented. These issues include copyright, fair use, privacy, plagiarism, and security. The content would be easy to use as a resource in an educational technology course. |
| Concerns: |
The section on issues of educational technology provides a cursory overview of the primary ethical issues of technology integration, but the coverage does not reflect the depth achieved in the other two sections. |
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Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool |
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| Strengths: |
This site could be easily be used as supporting material for any teacher education course in technology integration. The information is clear, easy to understand and is well documented from reputable sources. The site also provides links to excellent resources to support the principles being addressed. The inclusion of quality sample lesson plans should also prove helpful for students. |
| Concerns: |
Though rare, there are some broken links to resources supporting technology integration. |
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Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty |
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| Strengths: |
The website is clean, well-designed, easy to read, and easy to navigate. The interactive table of contents allows the user to quickly access desired information. The basic outline format of the material is an easy design to follow and to move around. There are numerous hyperlinks as resources for additional definitions or examples for the information presented. |
| Concerns: |
None |
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| Other Issues and Comments: |
The Educational Technology Open Source Textbook would be an excellent way to provide students an additional source of current information on technology integration with many useful tools at the fingertips for exploration. |
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