Davies, I.K. (1978). Educational Technology: Archetypes, Paradigms and Models. In J.H. Hartley & I.K. Davies (Eds.), Contributions to an Educational Technology, Volume 2. (pp. 9-24). New York: Kogan Page.
Questions for Reflection
1. What is the difference between an archetype, a paradigm, and a model?
archetype: a thought or action which is universally recognized
paradigm: a typical example of an underlying idea which can be used to help explain events
model: a specific and detailed representation of something real
2.What are key characteristics of Davies' three educational technologies?
Educational Technology One: a hardware approach which focuses on the use of technology as teaching devices.
Educational Technology Two: a software approach which focuses on the use of technology to enhance teaching with particular respect to developing worthwhile teaching/learning experiences.
Educational Technology Three: a combination of the hardware and software approach. It places importance on the environment in which learning takes place, as well as the quality and relevance of the overall teaching/learning experience.
3.What are the key characteristics of the audio-visual, the engineering and the problem-solving archetypes of educational technology?
The audio-visual archetype of educational technology serves to assist teaching in several ways: to allow students to experience previously unavailable resources, to deal with students located in different geographical areas and speed up the evaluation process.
The engineering archetype of educational technology involves a step-by-step approach to teaching/learning and incorporates clear definition of objectives with an evaluation step at the end of the process.
The problem-solving archetype of educational technology relies on a variety of skills and possible strategies to reach a certain goal. According to this archetype, there is no best way and no one particular way of reaching the end product.
4.What archetype, paradigm and model of educational technology do you think most of your teaching would fall into?
Most of my teaching falls into the engineering archetype of educational technology. The high school academic science courses that I teach involve year-end government-constructed public examinations which cover all areas of the prescribed curriculum guides. The pressure to cover all objectives and perform well on these exams forces many teachers to employ the most time effective teaching strategies while covering only the prescribed objectives. I would, however, would love to spend more quality time engaging my students in problem-solving scenarios and allowing students to spend the necessary time to demonstrate their strengths to solve real-world problems.
5. Davies wrote his article in 1978, over 20 years ago. Is it still relevant to the thinking of using technology in teaching and learning, today? Why or why not?
Definitely, this article is relevant today. Considering the vast possibilities for applications of technology into todays schools, it is still necessary to contemplate how and why we use educational technologies and not simply to just use them because they exist. This article, in fact, may be even more important today since the number of technology tools is rapidly growing including ipods, web 2.0 applications, webcams, distance education, etc.
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