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=**__Engaged Learning through Educational Technologies__**=

This is the common space for educators to list and share their Web 2.0 ideas and applications for best practice in K-12 education. The focus of this site is on **applying** educational technologies to foster learner engagement - both with content and ideas, but also with educators and each other.

Use the links on the left to navigate current postings or join in and post your own thoughts. There is an active discussion on the "discussion" tab above and you can click on the "notify me" tab to be alerted to updates on this wiki.

Hosts of this site are Mark Hawkes (Mark.Hawkes@gov.bc.ca) and Randy LaBonte (rlabonte@shaw.ca).

Pedagogy vs. Technology

//If technology is the answer, what is the question? The paradox of technology enhanced education is that technology changes very rapidly and human beings very slowly. It would seem to make sense for proponents of e‑learning to begin with the students//. (Bates & Poole, 2003, p. Xiii)

Technology is often viewed as pedagogically neutral (Moll, 2001), yet the organization of learning and engagement of learners through educational technology is essential to pedagogy (Bednar, Cunningham, Duffy, & Perry, 1992; Gayol & Schied, 1997). The question is not “if” technology will impact our educational system and student learning, but rather how we can most effectively utilize technology as an instructional tool to improve student learning (Hughs & Zacariah, 2001, ¶ 20)

To achieve quality in a pedagogical context requires a focus on enhancing the process of learning and the interaction between the learner and the learning environment. Fullan (2003, 86) puts it another way: “technology is powerful, but only in the services of a powerful conception”.


 * How will you use educational technology to support the learning process in your classroom and avoid a cataclysmic collision between pedagogy and technology?**



//Technological revolution inevitably must be matched by a political revolution: The very power of modern technology to liberate learning leaves no role for the sprawling empire of academic bureaucracy but self-serving protectionism. At its root, this technological revolution puts learning and education on a collision course//. (Perelman, 1992, p. 23)