Preface

Methods of Education Technology: Principles, Practice, and Tools, is based on the fundamental idea that effective teaching, with or without technology, is more important than knowing many tools. For this reason, all technology uses in the text are grounded in standards, principles, and research, and much of the text focuses on pedagogy before technology use. For readers who are familiar with engagement, critical thinking skills, and effective instruction, this text provides a useful overview. For those who are new to teaching, this text provides support not only for using technology in classrooms but for understanding when, why, and how to do so.

Much of this text was previously published by Pearson as Supporting Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice (Egbert, 2009). In 2016, copyright was released and permission granted by that publisher to revise the text. (However, copyrights to screen shots and other information in the text are not released and may not be revised without consent; they must have the copyright information attached in any remix, revision, or adaptation.)

Although many of the references in the chapters have been updated and added to the reference lists of each chapter, the lists still contain many of the original references so that teachers not only can see how things have changed over the years but can also refer to those resources that they see as still useful. While much about the technologies in the text has changed, little about the principles of learning and the need for 21st century skills has. Therefore, we have removed many of the references to tools from the main text and Susan Skavdahl has created a new Teacher Toolbox that can be added to and updated as needed. I thank Susie for her hard work both on the Toolbox and the Instructor’s Guide.

We hope that by making this an open resource that it will be accessible to more teachers and serve as a resource for many years to come. Please feel free to contact us through jegbert@wsu.edu.

Joy Egbert

August 5, 2017