Thinking Critically About EdTech will challenge participants to analyze the relationships between the real or perceived effects of educational technologies and research-based best practices for the classroom. What is the intersection between what educational technologies can do and what research shows can help students in achieving our classroom objectives?

Whereas the course EDU 928: Emergent Educational Technologies guides participants in the analysis of the decisions made by educators when adopting new technologies, participants often wonder how the promises of education technology companies compare to research-based best practices for the classroom. Do the two align closely? Or are educational technologies themselves driving our pedagogical decisions, regardless of their merit? Essential questions for the course include “How do present understandings of the role of educational technologies in the classroom compare with the past?,” “How can we be sure that rhetoric used by educational technology companies reflects the true value of their products in classrooms?,” and “What research-based best practices for promoting student learning are or are not presently reflected in educational technology products?”