Applications of Educational Technology

Reviewed by Kathryn Webb, Director of Nursing Simulation, Associate Professor, University of Saint Francis on 8/22/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This text is comprehensive and well organized to enhance educator's understanding of applying technology tools for education is various classrooms.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content was accurate, bias, and error free.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content is relevant and will be an asset to both beginning and experienced educators for a long time.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is a well-organized, simple to follow and understand guide for educators.

Consistency rating: 5

The text theme and focus remain consistent and well-focused throughout.

Modularity rating: 5

This links and resources in this text, along with the essential questions section are easily understood. The content following the chapter headings is easy to follow.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The simplicity of this text to understand and follow cannot be overstated. It flows clearly between subtopics.

Interface rating: 5

The images, charts, and links provided were a benefit to the reader.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical errors were noted.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

There is no cultural insensitivity or offensive in this text. To the contrary the section on the Differentiation Model of Learning is a tremendous resource.

Comments

This is an excellent resource for students entering the education profession.

Reviewed by Samantha Blevins, Instructional Designer & Learning Architect, Radford University on 8/22/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text is pretty comprehensive of the educational technology field. However, it might be of interest to add a chapter on assistive educational technologies, as teachers will inevitably be faced with supporting students who need assistive devices. This book could provide a resource on where to start.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I did not find any content within this text that is inaccurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This book is relevant to those within the field of teaching and learning, regardless of level. Given that the focus is on pedagogy and not technology, coupled with the updates that have been made shortly after initial publication, this book will be a great resources for years.

Clarity rating: 5

Everything within the text was easy to navigate and understand. It is a highly palatable text.

Consistency rating: 5

This textbook is a great resource at all levels for those in the classroom. Each chapter covers material in the appropriate amount of detail, and links to videos and additional resources are included. The inclusion of the ISTE standards is a nice touch that will be useful for k-12 teachers.

Modularity rating: 5

I interfaced with the book using the online version. It was easy to navigate and the chapters are divided in such a way that it is easy to understand the layout of the book and also to get to the resources I needed.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The book is organized nicely and I was able to find what I needed using the dropdown menu. An index page would be nice, as it took me a minute to understand the dropdown menu was the index.

Interface rating: 3

I know there has been a recent update to this text, but it looks like additional updates need to be done. Links throughout didn't always work. Perhaps there is a better way to capture the content of the links so that updates wouldn't have to be made constantly.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not see any grammatical errors in this text.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

I did not see anything discriminatory or offensive within the contents of the book. Given that this book is about educational technology, it could be nice to include information on where to learn about assistive educational technology.

Reviewed by Jason Parks, Professor of English, Anderson University on 8/17/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This textbook is full of excellent resources for teachers at all levels. Each chapter is thorough and provides multiple videos, links to additional resources, and provides explanations of how these concepts apply at various grade levels. The inclusion of the ISTE standards is also very helpful.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The information is up-to-date and free from bias. While it was published in 2018, it has been updated, and many of the concepts and resources are still fresh and relevant.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

I think this book will remain relevant for years to come, though there will need to be more updates to address Artificial Intelligence. I think that links and resources could easily be added right into the chapters (or, if you want to use the book, you could find your own examples). The book has a great "backbone" to work from.

Clarity rating: 5

Everything is accessible and clear. Very little jargon. Undergrads or graduate students would have no trouble reading it through.

Consistency rating: 5

The use of the ISTE standards in each chapter helps keep consistency. Each chapter is well-organized with little repetition.

Modularity rating: 5

The overall chapters are divided up well. I read the online version and it was easy to use drop-down menus and move between sections.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Some additional headers or subheadings could be helpful. Also, some of the information within the chapters sort of runs together. There are great resources, such as YouTube videos and various diagrams and charts, but each chapter is organized a little differently. Perhaps the ISTE standards could be presented first? Not a big deal overall.

Interface rating: 3

There were multiple links that didn't work, including all of the Lesson Makeover Assignments (which required GoogleDocs access). Some of the Key Terms links didn't work and need updates. There are so many excellent resources, but, with a lot of links to wikipedia pages and other online wikis or personal blogs, there are changes that will inevitably happen. I'm wondering if some of these articles could be made more static (before they disappear). Overall, most of the links worked well, but I found at least one in each chapter that could use review.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

There were no errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

There are no insensitive or offensive aspects of this book. However, I would love to see a chapter or a section addressing challenges for students with disabilities. There could also be more discussion of technology and cultural differences. There were subsections in the book with links to materials that do address some of these issues, but the book does not have any specific chapters or sections that bring this up directly.

Comments

I really appreciated the depth and breadth of this book. I could see myself using parts of this in my first-year composition courses and my first-year experience (extended orientation) course. I also love considering ways that I can use technology to make my lessons both more creative and more meaningful and effective for students. The charts and videos in this book are really good. The YouTube videos are very helpful and supplement the text well. I will be coming back to this book for some inspiration in my own course design very soon.

Reviewed by Zita Podany, Adjunct faculty, Education Dept., Portland Community College on 8/15/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This OER is an interactive open textbook for EDTC 3123 Applications of Educational Technology at Oklahoma State University. Though the content is geared towards Oklahoma state standards, it can be easily adapted to other states and colleges. The target audience is for teachers or aspiring teachers at a university or college level and is meant for semester-long classes, however, it can easily be adapted to term-long classes. This excerpt best exemplifies this OER textbook and really does an excellent job in presenting up-to-date information, current practices with relevant videos from the “trenches” showcasing how students and teachers are using and integrating technology tools across the curriculum. “….an introduction to the design and development of instruction using educational media and technology. It involves development of teaching and learning materials using digital technologies, contemporary applications of computers and other electronic systems to instruction. Because this is a preservice education course, the main focus is on effective integration of educational technology and instructional design.” The content in the book is engaging and provides many examples, useful resources geared toward K12 education, utilizes current technologies and concepts (from STEAM, to gamification, to virtual reality, to flipped classrooms, project-based learning, digital citizenship, and more). The links and videos work. All except for one section of the book. The “Lesson Makeover” chapter has links that go to individual Google documents to which the public does not have access. I would have loved to see those lesson makeover examples. The description of the activity really sounds intriguing and seeing student examples or the specific activity lesson would have been a great addition to get an idea of the activity and the possibilities. Chapters are topics/lectures and each one starts with an Essential question. Each “chapter” contains content with examples from the classroom with videos highlighting teachers, classroom activities and from technology specialists. Topics provide background info, pedagogy, theory and make mention of research studies, all related to education in K12. Each chapter is aligned with ISTE standards and provides many resource links for further exploration or to use in one’s classroom. For the most part, all links are up-to-date and videos all work even though they go to external sites such as YouTube. At the end of each chapter are short lists of key term links to the Learning Theories website definitions, Wikipedia and other web resources. In the chapter, “Communication and Collaboration with Parents and Students,” the link at the bottom of the in the resource section shows a link to what was once Weebly’s site for educators wanting a free Weebly account for their classrooms. Weebly has changed policies and is now owned by Squarespace so the education component is no longer available. The Digital Citizenship chapter does a really good job of making sure teachers are aware of the various resources and caveats for security and privacy on the ‘Net so they can also teach it to their students. This is an incredible resource and truly a good starting place for building more content into it.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content is up-to-date and accurate. Since this was published in 2018, it would be good to see if this can be updated for newer topics such as immersive technologies, AI and Deep Fake.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The layout and vetted links will make it easy to update and adapt to newer technologies.. I hope it will be updated to include immersive technologies, AI, Deep Fake, as well as Robotics and the teaching of critical thinking skills in a time of artificial intelligence.

Clarity rating: 5

Very clear, concise and easy to follow.

Consistency rating: 5

Each chapter starts out with an Essential Question, aligns to ISTE standards, provides tables, links, and key terms when necessary. Appropriate use of headings, bolding and terminology as well as videos and examples.

Modularity rating: 5

Good chunking of information. Not too wordy, does not focus on the theoretical. Good blend of theory, practice, explanations, examples and practical applications of concepts with engaging activities to explore and adapt as pre-service teachers build their resources/toolkit for their classrooms.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The chapters are based on topics rather than being in numerical order so it makes it easy to skip around. Yet the topics do have a sequential flow from a broader scope to a more definite ending. Allows for application of theory to practice and scaffolding of concepts as students can become more comfortable in exploring certain topics in more depth.

Interface rating: 5

Easy to navigate from one are to another. and the table of contents is hyperlinked to each chapter.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not find any grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

More could be included but there was a good mix of examples and links.

Comments

Even though there is mention of Oklahoma standards and one of the chapters is OpenOKState Spotify Playlist, this OER is a good place to start and to expand based on state standards and newer technologies. The common link that ties it all together are the ISTE standards with good examples and good resources (the types of resources I tend to pick for my students).