Analyzing Learning Spaces

ETEC 511 Assignment 1A John Koetsier Section D Email: [email protected] 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.