Trends and Research Issues in Educational Technology

If one looks back at the last 50 years or so at educational technologies, one will notice several things. First, the pace of innovation has increased dramatically with many developments in the application of digital technologies to learning and instruction, following by a few years developments in the sciences and engineering disciplines that are largely responsible for the rapid growth in information and communication technologies. Second, advocates of new educational technologies have been overly enthusiastic in promising dramatic improvements in learning and instruction, in part due to the success of new technologies in transforming other sectors. Third, the levels of public and governmental support of educational technology have fallen far short of how technologies have been supported in other areas. These remarks represent a critical review of what appear to be the most promising educational technologies and the challenges these technologies bring to society, and especially to educational researchers. This is by no means a rigorous or comprehensive review. Rather, these remarks are simply those of someone who wishes to better support learning and instruction using appropriate methods and technologies.