Week 1: Educational Technology- The Big Picture

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These advertisements use different language and images to help sell educational benefits.  The language the 1980s advertisements use is more engaging and interactive because they introduce the software as a real person by giving it a personality while the current day advertisement focuses on a more formal language explaining the key benefits to the software.

The images they use are also different. The 1980s advertisement is a print-based advertisement while the current day advertisement is a video. The 1980s advertisement only shows the image of 'Sprout' while the current day advertisement shows teachers and students using the software. 

They are both similar though as they have the same message which is its educational benefit. The 1980s advertisement is targeted at parents as 'Sprout' is a home educational software for students to develop and generate data such as their alphabet, spelling, vocabulary, counting, adding and pattern recognition. This allows parents to process their child's data to see if there is any improvement (Selwyn, 2016). The current day advertisement is directed at school at teachers as 'ASAU Education' is a software that focuses on a student-centred learning. This software allows teachers to focus on teaching standards, grades and syllabus outcomes by tracking student progress (Lim et al., 2013).

As a teacher, how can you make informed decisions about the use of digital technologies in the classroom?

Education is simply defined seen as where learning takes place. The process of learning is "an individual's acquisition of new skills, or else new forms of knowledge and understanding" (Selwyn, 2016, p. 3). In an educative perspective learning is facilitated by the teacher. The teacher can decide on how learning is going to take place. In the 21st century teaching, digital technology has been decision teachers are making when it comes to educative learning. In current teaching, digital technology is being used in the classroom as a form 21st century teaching as it leads to enhanced teaching and learning outcomes. Teachers as making informed decisions about the use of digital technology in the classroom for students as it allows them to search and analyse information, solve problems, communicate and collaborative learning experiences (Lim et al., 2013). 

There are so many forms of digital technology that can be used for educational purposes such as computerised devices such as laptops, computers and phones, display devices such as smartboards and projectors, different software's and data analysis tools (Selwyn, 2016). Teachers can make informed decisions about the use of digital technology in the classroom based of these forms of digital technologies and what suits them and their teaching and learning outcomes. In my classroom, I will be using digital technology as much as possible in ways such as using laptops and phones, PowerPoint presentations about content, quizzes, research tasks and collaborative tasks. I will do this because I see the use of digital technology in education is an interactive and engaging way to promote student learning.