September 2005
by Minjuan Wang
Bourban, Del Percio, and Manoo win the Outstanding
Practice in an International Setting
Award by a Student of Educational Technology
1. What attracted you to the Educational Technology field?
We were attracted by the fact that with Educational Technology the learning process can get interactive and
sometimes even amusing for the learner. Another interesting point is that people can share resources and improve their knowledge
from distant places.
2. What trends have you seen in educational technology in other countries as different
from the US?
The only trend we know is that of Switzerland , where Educational Technology is spreading
across the country, above all at university level. For example we have the Swiss Virtual Campus, which is a funding program for Swiss
universities to promote learning over the Internet in Higher Education. The current European Higher Education reform (the so-called
Bologna process) is pursuing this forward, too. The advantages are that students are no longer tied to a programme of lectures
with set times and locations and they can acquire knowledge whenever and wherever they choose. This opens up a whole set of new
possibilities for education.
3.
What changes do you predict in the field?
We think that Educational Technology will open new opportunities to many who now have only limited access to
education, and to improve the quality of education, because it takes some advantages like sharing resources, work at distance
and saving time. We also think this can be a great opportunity for developing countries, which experience a dramatic need for
education.
Moreover Educational Technology has created some new professional fields, where different kinds of profiles
(educators, technologists, content experts, and so on) collaborate together for a common purpose. This makes important a
through understanding of professional communication.
4.
What suggestions do you have for the International Division of AECT?
International connections are made by people: one positive contribution that the International
Division of AECT can give is to support exchange programs for international students who want to have the opportunity to grow
in this field by getting in touch with experiences in other countries. This does not mean investing a lot of money. Often, a
simple financial support for an overseas trip can be enough, and also helping getting in touch with other AECT members in the
host country. This would help these students to build their future professional life. The International Division could also
try to make AECT as a whole more and more aware of the different non-US Educational Technologies traditions over the world,
enhancing cross-fertilization.
5.
What advice can you give to current students?
To continuously update their knowledge on Educational Technology, to be flexible and
open to changes and to get familiar with different subject matters in order to be able to ensure high quality of the courses they
will produce.
6. What trends do you see for the future internationally?
We think that in the future Educational Technology will open new ways of learning, new possibilities to improve our
knowledge. Technologies are there, and they advance fast. We need to improve our methods and, beyond the closed definitions of
teaching and learning that can be found in books, to get new enthusiasm for education, for keeping human relationships and learning
in the centre and make technologies serve them. Maybe it is a sort of humanistic view of educational technologies.
We think it is paramount to build international connections between people of different countries. This is necessary to share
knowledge and experiences from multiple perspectives.
