Educational Technology is the research and practice field of the use of technological tools in education. It involves exploring the pedagogical potential of these tools and integrating them into education.
It IS about technology in the same sense that it IS about education, it is where technology and education meet, where different choices of tools directly affect learning, not an education carriage pulling the subaltern technology (check: Batson, Trent. It IS about Technology: Integrating Higher Ed into Knowledge Culture. Campus Technology, 08/06/2008).
Examples of uses of technology in education: word processors’ styles to write a paper; editing images with Photoshop; editing videos with Adobe Premiere and using YouTube for education; exploring LMSs – Learning Management Systems, like Blackboard and Moodle; using mashups like Netvibes to manage information sources; using games and simulations for teaching and learning; using virtual worlds, like Second Life, in education; and integrating web 2.0 tools like Google Docs, blogs, wikis, social networks etc. into an educational toolkit.
