| The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of technological change on the evolution of educational technology graduate programs. The rapid advances in computer technology raise questions about the levels of knowledge and skill required for future educational technology practitioners and the appropriate forum for acquiring such skills. This research was conducted using a multiple-site case study methodology to study the faculty and curricula of three educational technology graduate programs: Teachers College, Columbia University's program in Communication, Computing, and Technology in Education; the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Technology, Innovation, and Education program; and the Stanford University School of Education's Learning, Design, and Technology program.;Faculty members from each program were interviewed. They discussed their perspectives on technological change and its impact on their programs. With regard to the response to changes in technologies, the findings highlighted the evolution of educational technology curricular topics: increased emphasis on course topics related to computers and cognition; concentration on strategies for computer use; focus on collaborative learning through telecommunications; the construction of hyper-mediated learning environments; and the Web as the primary delivery mechanism for learning technologies and distance education. These trends represent affordances of technology to apply specific theoretical constructs to practice. In addition, each program illustrated a unique disposition to educating students in technologies, which included limiting technical courses to those who already possessed required knowledge, offering supplementary workshops, short courses, or full courses, and relying on students to teach one another.;This study has provided a framework for programmatic responses to the next wave of technological advances related to educational technology curricula. The framework suggests that educational technology programs lead the discussion on best practices for construction of effective educational designs and appropriate technologies for use in education, model and apply effective educational best practices for the use of technology in education, and finally continually reflect on the accepted knowledge-base for the integration of technology in education while concurrently evaluating new and existing models. The study concludes with suggestions for future research on educational technology graduate curricula, students, and faculty. |
