“I’m a better teacher in the class by virtue of having these materials”: A Discursive Analysis of Educational Technology Origins, Validity and Impact

Abstract

This paper investigates how instructors talk about innovation in their practice, specifically their development and use of educational technologies.  Technology is in abundance on university campuses. Information technology centres offer support for productivity, connectivity and research.  Educational technology centres support instructional technologies for teaching and learning.  A wide variety of software is available on the public internet for both educational and non-educational purposes.  Furthermore, students bring a variety of technology with them into the classroom.  However, the impact technology has made on educational experiences varies greatly.  In this paper I use a discursive analytic approach to analyze one instructor’s reflections on designing an educational technology intervention.  The interview provides a rich resource for analysing the impact educational technology use has on instructor identity and practice.

This intent of this paper was to analyze a data source following the criteria for rigor that are emphasized in this course. Whichever method is used, the analysis was to exhibit rigor, always grounding itself in the data. Due to the duration of the course, we used open data sources for analysis rather than collecting primary data.  I selected a video of interest on YouTube and conducted a thorough analysis of the discourse.

mpaskevicius EDCI681 Analysis Final [PDF]

The video analysed was CONVERSATION | Brian Greene, Claudia Dreifus, Maurice Matiz – World Science U from the ColumbiaLearn YouTube Channel