DISCIPLINED INQUIRY AND THE STUDY OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

The purpose of this chapter is to present one way of making sense of the vast body of educational technology research by organizing and categorizing research related to technology in education along a number of facets.

Abstract

Few developments have piqued researchers ’ interest as has the growth of computers in their various hybrid forms as educational tools. A seemingly infinite range of methods and strategies has evolved to exploit the potential of technology. The problem has not been a scarcity of research. Literally thousands of studies related to computers and learning have been published during the past three decades. The problem has been one of making sense of the enormous, and growing, body of available research. This dilemma is compounded by the continuous metamorphosis of technologies—hardware, software and design—and the relatively short shelf-life of what is considered “state of the art. ” Present-day technologies often bear little resemblance to the computers of even a decade ago; new hardware and design technologies continue to emerge. During the past 40 years alone, computers have evolved from cumbersome, expensive room-size machines with typewriter displays to inexpensive hand-held devices of substantially greater power, flexibility, and ease of use. Applications have shifted from primitive tutorials to tools for individual inquiry, from typed text to high-fidelity visual images and immersive three-dimension CAVEs (computer-aided virtual environments), and from systems that present information to systems in which individuals construct knowledge. Indeed, the construct of “emerging ” technology seems apropos in a field of such rapid and continuous change. The purpose of