ETEC 511 Assignment 1A

John Koetsier
Section D
Email: john@sparkplug9.com
Phone: 778-549-1353

Assignment
Identify two local educational spaces that make use of educational
technology, broadly defined. A space should be understood in its broadest
sense. In other words, it could be an emotional, physical, psychological,
political, economic or other type of space.

For each space (e.g., town square, school, factory, parking lot, advertising
billboard, broadcasts, videos, churches, classroom, prison, farm, popular
movement) produce the following:

A 300 word (maximum) per space analysis that describes the space.
Feel free to include a photograph, drawing or map of the space.

Your analysis of the space should answer the following questions:

• What kind of educational technology is being used in the

space?
• How would you classify the technology according to the
frameworks discussed in Unit 2?
• How is the technology being used?
• How are the space and the technology discursively
constructed? By “discursively constructed” we mean who put it
here and whose interests are served by its presence? (You may
need to jump ahead and look at Unit 3 for this.)
• What are the significant social issues related to this space
and the use of educational technology?

Submitted
September 15, 2007
Space#1: my dining room, the evening of Sept. 13

What kind of educational technology?

I’ve found 10 educational technologies:
1. pencils and felts for taking notes
2. paper for storing information
3. tin box for organizing papers
4. poster illustrating multiculturalism (top of table)
5. glue, scissors for tactile learning and creating
6. computer for information search, synthesis, storage, retrieval
7. wireless internet for many learning purposes
8. learning management system: ETEC 511 website
9. radio remote control for audio learning
10. table, chairs, light for enabling learning

Classification?
1. Illustrative: 1, 2, 4
2. Manipulative: 5
3. Environmental: 3, 10
4. Extension: 9
5. Connective: 6, 7, 8
How is the technology being used?
My oldest child is doing homework. My younger children are coloring and
creating. I am accessing, organizing, synthesizing, and creating information
for ETEC 511.

Who put it here? Whose interests are served?

Our kids are learning, which is a desire my wife and I have for them. Their
interests are being served (though they may not always understand that)
because education will multiply their life options.

In terms of my learning, my interests are being served – I’m learning, and

advancing my career. Also, UBC’s interests are being served since I am a
student and paying for my classes, and my instructor’s needs are being
served since without students, she would not have a class to teach. Finally,
my employer’s needs are being served, since by learning I can do my job
more effectively, and my employer can market better products and services,
thereby making more money.

Social issues?
The family is learning together.

Our kids’ schools and teachers are being supported at home.

Since I’m learning here, in my dining room … I’m not in a university class
setting, which entails trade-offs. For instance, I can stay home and be a
better father and husband, but I cannot participate in face-to-face
discussions with my fellow students.
Space #2: corporate boardroom

What kind of educational technology?

I see 7 types of educational technology:
1. Table, chairs, and lighting for enabling learning
2. Easel, markers for noting and storing information
3. Whiteboard to illustrate concepts via an LCD projector
4. Conference phone to communicate with remote team members
5. Wireless internet to check information
6. And overhead projector (behind corner wall) for showing slides
7. Language: a tool for communicating, learning, understanding

Classification?
1. Illustrative: 2, 3,6
2. Manipulative: 2 (some people learn by drawing/writing)
3. Environmental: 1
4. Extension: 3 (in some uses)
5. Connective: 4, 5, 7

How is the technology being used?

This room is primarily used as a meeting room, Meetings are social learning
occasions in which knowledge is shared, created, analyzed, synthesized.
Knowledge is shared via conversation, projector, and captured via notes,
sometimes on easel.

The internet is used to gather new information, or (sometimes) to kill time

during long or boring meetings.

Conference calls bring in remote parties with specialized knowledge or

authority figures who cannot or choose not to be physically present.

Just about every learning technology involves language to some degree or

another as the medium of information sharing.

Who put it here? Whose interests are served?

My company uses the space to build and share knowledge that will result in
decisions on new products, or better marketing of existing products, in order
to generate increased profits.

Social issues
There is a definite hierarchy to boardrooms: the most important person is
positioned at the head of the table.

This is not a place for play but for work. Certain types of behavior are
encouraged; others are discouraged.

Every workplace is a political environment, and which comments are listened

to and supported depends to a degree on who said them, what position that
person occupies … and what that person can do for or against other people.