The authors review past and current funding/support for U.S. K-12 educational technology companies. They review both who provided the funding for product development and the reasons why. They look back to the 1960s and 1970s, when federal government agencies helped produce computer-based materials, then how the schools' access to technology…

The status of educational technology research in a VUCA world is examined. The acronym, VUCA, stands for "Volatility" (rapidly changing contexts and conditions), "Uncertainty" (information missing that is critical to problem solving), "Complexity" (multiple factors difficult to categorize or control), and…

This article is an analysis of "Performance Improvement Quarterly" (PIQ) for the years 2001-2010. The intent was to examine the article types used, the authors who contributed the most to the journal, the topics the journal most commonly focused on, and the citation frequency of the journal's articles. The analysis revealed that…

The author reviews various elements of what may be considered as evidence that the long-awaited shift in the education paradigm is actually happening. Concepts like student-centered learning, attainment-based evaluation, knowledge-based constructivism, and effort-based intelligence are growing, are being more widely recognized as important, and…

Previous reviews in the field of Educational Technology (ET) have revealed some publication patterns according to authors, institutions, and affiliations. However, those previous reviews focused only on the rankings of individual authors and institutions, and did not provide qualitative details on relations and networks of scholars and scholarly…

To achieve truly learner-centered instruction and assessment, Reigeluth (1994) and Reigeluth and Karnopp (2013) pointed out the importance of schools providing a caring environment. They indicated that such an environment could be ensured with better interaction and relationships among students and teachers in a small learning community. How can a…

The aim of this article is to present a concept of digital content emphasizing its new shape and ways to be developed and shared on Web 2.0 principles. Due to recent EU initiatives, a great number of digital materials, resources, and services for education have been designed and produced in recent years. Digital content from materials such as…

This article examines the affordances of virtual worlds for initiating a transformative learning experience for adults. In particular, it addresses the capacity of virtual worlds to allow creation of an alternate self which requires some level of personal self-reflection; provide atypical experiences that can initiate reflection; allow experience…

The field of educational technology is continuously changing to reflect the increasingly global workplace and development of new technologies and standards. Are educational technology programs keeping up? Are they, in their present form, able to address the evolving needs of the workplace and prepare the next generation of educational technology…

Examines popular approaches to performance and organizational improvement to see what flaws they contain and how continued practice will impede progress. Discusses benchmarking; quality management/continuous improvement; needs assessment; training; downsizing; reengineering; system(s) approach; and strategic planning. Describes the Organizational…

The strongly positivist beliefs on which traditional conceptions of instructional design (ID) are based derive from Aristotelian logic and oversimplify the world, reducing human learning and performance to a repertoire of manipulable behaviors. Reviews the cases against deterministic predictability and discusses hermeneutic, fuzzy logic, and chaos…

This article examines from an economic perspective the ways in which Open Educational Resources (OER) can be linked to economic growth, equality of access to knowledge, and the improvement of teaching and learning. In leading economies, technology and knowledge are the critical factors of economic growth, which is a significant shift from the…

Discusses the historical development of "hard" and "soft" systems thinking traditions and examines how these traditions have been understood and applied in the field of instructional development. Proposes the need for a synthesis of the two traditions in planning, implementing, and evaluating instructional programs. (AEF)