The place of educational technology in higher education in the computer age

Education technology has focused on a variety of physical, social and cognitive contexts of learning, and indeed has changed in its theoretical platform over the years. It has, however, continued to offer a rich experience of theory and practice of teaching and learning which cannot be overlooked by developers working in the area of higher education.

The Internet has, without doubt, provided a unique method of communication and delivery to higher education. Web sites are being created every day and students are using them as part of their course work. Trial classes are being tested and evaluated, and important information is accumulating on learning from the internet. It is becoming clear that writing for display on the Web is in many ways different from writing for display on a printed page. But how much different, and why, are questions which are not producing the same quantity of research and debate. The cognitive dimension remains the domain of a handful of Australia's researchers, and much of the new work on metaphors and transfer is trivial and unconvincing.

Are the creators of educational Web sites effectively using the knowledge available from earlier times, from print based and audiovisual technologies to help build the developments of today? Are the technological "experts" of the current wave of higher education development sufficiently versed in instructional technologies, as distinct from the technologies, to avoid reinventing the wheel and repeating the mistakes of the past?

In this paper, the authors will look at some central principles of educational technology, such as interactivity, the structure of the learning message, use of learning activities, student centeredness, constructivism and such. Links will be made between the findings from print, audiovisual and computer based research. An argument will be made regarding the stability of knowledge in the field of educational technology and the need for technical developers to be well grounded in its principles.