social bookmarking and definitions for ETD

I found the social bookmarking tool extremely useful. It saves me time when researching for lesson plans and activities. Although I can see where it will be important for me to use appropriate tags, tags others might use, to link my interests with others. I can see how I could also use it to help my students in research. I could bookmark sites that I find acceptable for their research which if left to them might not include scholarly articles. This will also help parents who are trying to help their children. Teachers and administrators can also share new information with each other about theory and practices, interesting articles, professonial development sites, grant opportunities, etc.

I have to admit that the reason I registered for this program was to learn about the "media . . . which can be used for instructional purposes alongside the teacher, textbook, and blackboard." That was my definition of educational technology. However, after reading the definitions in Trends and Issues, I find myself realizing "instructional technology goes beyond any particular medium or device." A device or piece of software or hardware in and of itself does not guarantee learning which is the goal of education. I should have been able to think about this more clearly after fifteen years in fast food management and employee training which include videos. Also, having just granduated with my BS in Elementary Education where I was taught about learning styles, differentiation, evaluating, reflective learning, objectives, and research. Although the definition has become more technical, at least to me, I find the two 70's definitions, "a systematic way of designing, carrying out, and evaluating the whole process of learning and teaching in terms of specific objectives, based on research on human learning and communication, and employing a combination of human and nonhuman resources to bring about more effective instruction" and "a complex, integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices, and organization, for analyzing problems and devising, implementing, evaluation, and managing solutions to those problems, involved in all aspects of human learning," to be the most clearly stated and reflective of what I agree with. As a teacher, I can not just be looking for software and devices to use but must be aware of my objectives and my learners needs with the goal of facilitating learning.