Technology and Education
The education industry has undergone tremendous change over time. This is due to the integration of technology. The drastic change in education by use of technology has created opportunities and challenges for educational institutions. There are several aspects that interests me when in comes to the integration and use of technology in education.
Interesting Aspects of Technology in Education
First it is the efforts that learning institutions have had to pull so as to keep up with the changing technologies. Though the adoption of up to dater technologies in schools is recommended it is an expensive venture due to the regular changes. Schools strive to determine the best technological options that are available (Education Commission of the States, 2004). The aim is to look for the technology that will aid teaching and learning and not merely adoption of any technology that is deemed suitable for schools. The second thing of interest is the use of social network for purposes of education. Social networks have evolved and are now used for learning purposes (Russell, 2005).
As technology advances more people have signed up to interactive social sites such as face book and tweeter. These social sites have enable people, including students to interact with others from across the globe (Johnsons, & Maddux, 2003). In education social sites have evolved and have become an essential tool for learning and professional growth and development. Thirdly, use of technology for e-learning is quite phenomenon.
In the past education was formally done through students sitting through a class with their instructors. That has swiftly changed with the introduction of technology in education. Students across the globe can converge and study via the internet (Education week, 2011). The instructors do not have to be physically available. E-learning has enabled student’s access educational studies of their choice without incurring expenses of travel.
Research Questions
How has technology in education been adopted?
How does one determine the technology that works best in a specific educational set up?
Are social networking sites used in learning?
How has e-learning change the view of education?
Selection and Formulation of Research Questions
Research questions can be summed up as the summary of the entire research project. It is expected that the research questions will be a guide on the concepts that will be tackled in the research paper. When discussing about technology in education, the aim is to determine the various spheres of technology that have been integrated into the educational system (Education week, 2011). Focus therefore was on creating a feasible, logical and clear question. The first step in writing the research question clearly understands the topic. The topic ‘Technology in education’ aims at looking at how education has changed with integration of education.
Focus of the research will therefore be based on determining the progress of adoption of technology across learning institution. Focus will also be on determining whether it has been positively adopted or not (Education week, 2011). If it has been adopted in most learning institutions, what are some of these technologies? Examples of these technologies are social networks and e-learning. With this in mind, research questions were formulated with regards to these two technologies and their integration to the educational system (Russell, 2005).
Focus on the research paper was aimed at educating potential readers on the need to determine the technology suitable for a specific learning procedure. This thus led to the formulation of the research question aimed at determining the appropriate technology that can be adopted for educational purposes.
Formulation of these research questions was not easy (Education Commission of the States, 2004). This is mainly due to the broad sense of the topic. Technology in education is broad and there is need for the researcher to narrow down his or her discussion using the research questions. From the research questions, it is possible to trim down the areas of discussion. It was also a challenge to formulate the research questions in a manner that can lead to a discussion. Research questions should no be simply answered with a yes/no but it should be discursive enough.
Application of Educational Research Rules
Educational research should aim at solving a problem; it should also entail accessing raw data through primary sources and should also have principles and theories that are in support of the research topic selected. These are some of the few rules that are strictly adhered to during the formulation of the research topic (Education week, 2011). Technology in education is a very relevant topic in the academic arena as it will give more light into the ever changing technological world and the importance in the educational sector. Data can be randomly gathered through schools i.e. among the students and the instructors (Johnsons, & Maddux, 2003).
The research will adopt a basic approach of educational research where the aim of the research will be the quest for the truth. In this research focus will on determining the extent of integration of technology in education. The descriptive education research will be suitable for this research study (Russell, 2005). With the descriptive research it will be possible for the researcher to gauge the evolution to technology in education, determine the presence situations and the way forward. As the name suggests, the research ill be highly descriptive looking at various spheres related to technology in education.
Reference
Education Commission of the States, (2004). Research Typology. Retrieved from
http://www.ecs.org/html/educationissues/research/primer/appendixa.asp
Education week, (2011). Technology in education. Retrieved from
http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/technology-in-education/
Johnsons, D. & Maddux, C. (2003). Technology in education. Routledge Publishers
Russell, C. (2005). Writing your research question. Retrieved from
http://www.natco1.org/research/files/researchquestion_001.pdf
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