The document discusses possibilities for using educational technology in higher education. It begins by outlining objectives of providing a conceptual framework, exposing educators to a range of technologies, and facilitating reflection on appropriate uses. It then cautions that technology alone will not solve problems and must be driven by good educational design. Several challenges for educators are discussed, such as how students can read materials, explore their discipline, engage in learning conversations, practice skills, and produce work. A variety of technology-enabled solutions are presented for each challenge, such as using audio/video, online discussions, simulations, and specialist software. Online learning environments and concerns around bandwidth constraints are also addressed.

1. What’s Possible in Higher Education with Educational Technology?

4. A Cautionary Note Educational Technology will not solve all your problems Time and money spent on technology and online teaching will be wasted unless interventions are driven by good educational design.

6. Learning Interactions Anderson (2003)

7. Five Challenges for Educators

14. Explore: Make the Web Come to You! Newsfeeds mean that you no longer need to come to a web page to see what’s new. Instead you can gather all of this in one place and click through to what interests you

15. Explore: Discipline Specific Portals Sometimes Subject Based Information Gateways are more useful than general web searches. Eg Intute offers portals for a wide range of disciplines.

19. Qualities of Conversation

20. Conversation: Mobile Learning Mobile phones as the only pervasive form of connectivity in Africa Different generations and feature sets Some centres of innovation in Africa eg Research on mobile communication in education and ICT4D at Makerere University

24. Skills: Spreadsheets Example of an Excel based exercise on metal fatigue that runs on a local network

25. Skills: Simulations Internet based simulation on chemical reactions and a virtual microscope

28. Producing: Learning with a wiki

29. Producing: Using Specialist Software Often students will need to use specialist software to develop and show professional skills eg CAD software for architects, film editing software for Film and Media students in a production stream.

32. Uses of Online Learning Environments

33. Learning environment as Walled Garden

34. Environments: Virtual Worlds In countries with ample bandwidth many universities are starting to use virtual worlds such as Second Life for research and teaching

35. Learning Environments: What Now? From Global Voices

37. A Next Generation Learning Environment? Ali Jafari, Patricia McGee, and Colleen Carmean, Managing Courses, Defining Learning: What Faculty, Students, and Administrators Want Or do we really need Personal Learning Environments instead?