Document Type
Issue Area Four
Abstract
The title of this essay raises a question concerning not only the notion of technology as a tool, but also the concept of tool user. Most people in education believe technology means computers and their related devices (modems, scanners, printers, etc.). From this perspective, it is generally understood that technology is a collection of devices to be used by a tool user, a craftsmen, a creator. Technology, from an instructional or educational technologist position not only includes various types of hardware (like computers and video equipment), but also various software formats (textbooks, audio tape, videotape, video images as in educational television and distant education, and instructional computer software). These are all organized into various systems and relationships to content and learner. In short, technology from this perspective is concerned with a system that identifies educational needs, defines the end-user (the student), selects a format for delivery (teacher, television, computer), and constructs evaluation instruments to measure the effectiveness of the materials delivered to the intended receiver (student, teacher, parent, aid). Within this framework, technology as a system "is" the tool. The person who constructs or controls the system, the technology, is the tool user. From both perspectives there is a critical re-positioning and differing definition of teachers, students, the use of hardware/software, and the curriculum. The role teachers have and will take in relationship to the system or the tool will vary by the definition of the tool user.
Journal Title
Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series
Volume
6
Issue
1
First Page
113
Last Page
117
Publisher
Institute for Educational Leadership, University of Northern Iowa
City
Cedar Falls, IA
Copyright
©1996 Institute for Educational Leadership, College of Education, and the University of Northern Iowa
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Muffoletto, Robert
(1996)
"Tool for Whom: Teacher, Technology, and Educational Systems,"
Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series: Vol. 6:
No.
1, Article 34.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/iel_monographs/vol6/iss1/34
