Course Textbooks
EDUC 450/650: Technology & Cognition
There are two required textbooks which are both available freely online to University of Delaware students.
(1) How People Learn
Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., & Cocking, R.R. (Eds., 2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. (Expanded Edition) Washington, DC: National Academy Press. This book can be read freely online, or you can purchase a printed copy that ships within 24 hours. Created by the National Research Council, this book establishes the research base for making decisions about how technology should be used.
A second volume is feely available from www.nap.edu/catalog/24783/how-people-learn-ii-learners-contexts-and-cultures. The second volume does not replace the first volume. Rather, Volume II endorses the first volume as the canonical treatise about How People Learn, then builds upon it by extending the discourse into the realm of learning contexts and cultures. The second volume further defines types of learning and introduces multimedia learning principles.
(2) AECT Research Handbook
Spector, M.J., Merrill, M.D., Elen, J., & Bishop, M.J. (Eds., 2014). Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology. (4th Edition) New York, NY: Springer. For several decades, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) has been publishing this handbook of research that serves practitioners as a knowledge base of researched best practices in the field of educational technology. If you decide to study the AECT knowledge base, however, normally it requires a subscription. There is a substantial student discount as described at aect.org. University of Delaware students, however, can freely access the knowledge base by following this link to its online copy at Delcat Discovery.
In 2020, AECT published a fifth edition of the AECT Research Handbook. The fifth edition focuses on learning design and the role instructional design plays as a scholarly discipline. It is freely available to University of Delaware students via the UD Library link in the following bibliographic reference:
Bishop, M.J., Boling, E., Elen, J., & Svihla, V. (Eds., 2020). Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology: Learning Design. (5th Edition) New York, NY: Springer. Freely available to UD students via this Delcat link.
Computers
To complete the hands-on computer assignments, each student will need access to a multimedia computer (Windows, Macintosh, laptop or tablet) that is connected to the Internet via the latest version of either Firefox, Safari, or Chrome.
Computer Accounts
Every University of Delaware student automatically receives an e-mail account. You should visit www.udel.edu/network to manage your password, username, and quotas.
Computer Sites
All students registered in this class have the option of using the multimedia PCs and Macs in the campus computing sites. Use sites.udel.edu/computingsites/ to link to the general access site schedule. Please note that the use of the campus computing sites is totally optional in this course. If you have your own computer and Internet connection, you may never need to use the campus computing sites.
E-mail Addresses
Every student in this class must have an e-mail address on the Internet and read e-mail regularly. If you're enrolled in a University of Delaware course, and you do not have an e-mail account yet, go to the help center and follow the e-mail link for detailed instructions on how to activate your e-mail account. During the course, when your instructor sends e-mail to the class, the messages will go to your UD mail address. If you do not read your UD mail regularly, you should go to www.udel.edu/network and follow the instructions to forward your e-mail to your preferred e-mail address.
