Reflections on 50 Years of Experience in Educational Technology

I came to the world of educational technology in the 1980s from a position as a computer science professor at a regional state university in Alabama where I had been practicing as an educational technologist without awareness that I was doing so. In the intervening years, I have come to realize the complexities and challenge of educational technology and instructional design, thanks to mentors such as Robert Gagné, David Merrill, Robert Tennyson, and many others too numerous to name. Those learning experiences were largely unplanned and happened more or less by coincidence as I left teaching computer science to become the senior scientist for instructional systems at the Air Force Human Recourses Laboratory (a.k.a. Armstrong Laboratory) in San Antonio, Texas. I have also had the pleasure of being a tenured professor at the University of Bergen, Syracuse University, Florida State University, the University of Georgia, and the University of North Texas, where I have tried to apply the lessons learned along the way. Regretfully, what I see now happening in the broad domain of educational technology is a return to the beliefs I had when I entered this field so many years ago. Those unaware of the complexities and challenges and untrained in educational technology and learning science but adept with one or more technologies believe they can apply their technology knowledge to solve any educational problem that arises. If these remarks have any benefit, it is to help those technophiles understand that the emphasis and focus in educational technology and learning science should be placed initially and primarily on the learner and not on a particular technology nor the content to be learned. Technologies come and go, and those with keep knowledge in a content domain have already indicated what can be learned in that domain. As a result of my focus on the individual learner in this paper, this will not be a typical academic research paper. Rather it will be a plea to consider what really matters – not one’s own prominence or advancement but helping others develop their own thoughts and understanding. Onward through the fog (a slogan borrowed from Oat Willie’s in Austin, Texas).