Project

In the Taxonomy of Education Uses of Technology (see below for short version of the taxonomy), Bruce & Levin classified educational technology into four major categories; media for inquiry, media for communication, media for construction, and media for expression.  The taxonomy covers most of educational technology applications fairly well, and it seemed challenging to find out some applications that DO NOT fit into these categories in the first place.  However, educational technology is continuously evolving and various types of applications are being developed.  Because of this change, I was able to find some applications that fit into several categories of the taxonomy. 

One of the educational programs I reviewed last year, "Everything Weather" (for reference, see my review of weather science CDs), allows users to do various activities.  Most activities can be classified as the first category, media for inquiry, but some features cannot.  For example, students can get current data of their local weather or of interested region's weather using the internet (Taxonomy A2), and then they can map the data (visualizing, A1) and analyze them (A4).  Another activity the program offers is that students can start (to see lightening) and stop a stopwatch (to hear the thunder) to figure out the relationship of distance and time difference between lightening and thunder with simulation (A1).  There are also detailed text references and vivid photos and video clips related to weather science (A2).  For discussion or presentation, students can print out maps and other pictures that they create or use during their activities (B1). 

Other educational use of technology that does not fit into the taxonomy is "Discoveries" CD-ROMs.  The Discoveries series consist of 4 CDs -- ãInto the Forestä, ãIn the Desertä, ãNature Connectionä, ãSky Highä and the CDs have similar interface and structure (for reference, see my review of this series of CDs).  The software consists of three parts: the visual animation of animals and plants, short explanation and further references of the living creatures,  and an electronic journal.  The animation of animals and plants is shown with short music to motivate students and to show how the animals move (Taxonomy A1). If you click on the animated picture, you may see short explanation of the animal or plant (A2).  If you click again, you are led to the library that has detail information (A2) and group activity ideas (I'm not sure where this part should fit into).  The interesting feature of the software is the electronic journal.  Students can copy and paste pictures of living creatures they explored and type their thought or information they just learned.  This could be used for presentation or discussion (B1). 

When I reviewed several educational applications of technology, I found that the first category, media for inquiry, was very broad concept. Most educational applications I can think of as well as many other applications seem to be categorized into this one.  In the "Taxonomy" article, Bruce and Levin mentioned that the first two categories can cover most of educational uses of technology, especially the first one.  And some applications can fit into more than two categories due to this broad definition.  In this perspective, the categories of the taxonomy need to be more specified.
 
 

A. Media for Inquiry

1. Theory building--technology as media for thinking.
2. Data access--connecting to the world of texts, video, data
3. Data collection--using technology to extend the senses 
4. Data analysis

B. Media for Communication

1. Document preparation
2. Communication--with other students, teachers, experts in various fields, and people around the world
3. Collaborative Media
4. Teaching Media

C. Media for Construction

D. Media for Expression