Education for the future :

Abstract

Purpose. This study explores the role of educational technology in education and society from the perspective of selected futurists. This study provides a systematic analysis of what those who study the future believe about the future, and then relates these beliefs to research in educational technology. This will enable educational technologists to identifiy areas in which research is adequate, more than adequate, or insufficient.

Results. Much of the research in educational technology is concerned with the strategies of learning and the development of intellectual skills. The futurists believe that this is a potentially productive endeavor for research activities.

Methodology. This study applies ethnographic techniques to content analysis. The results of a content analysis of fourteen selected futurist books were compared to the results of a content analysis of the research in educational technology. This study employed a specific ethnographic technique called documentation, which is a method of observing, recording, describing, and analyzing human action.

Finally, educational technology needs to develop a systematic mechanism for technological assessment in order to evaluate the potential human and social effects of technological innovations in education.

Educational technology needs to investigate alternate ways of using the capabilities of technology in providing educational services to nontraditional students in nontraditional settings. Educational technology needs to become involved in the policy and administrative aspects of the innovations being made by cable and broadcast television.

More research should be done with the affective domain of learning, specifically with the social, emotional, aesthetic and spiritual learning abilities. Educational technology should also study the interrelationships of these aspects of learning and their effects upon cognitive ability.