Nickerson (2005) makes the connection between our cognition and ways in which technology is being used to nurture our cognitive development. He discusses the relationship between technology and a person’s interests, and we are beginning to see this now. While Nickerson (2005) predicted this in his article, our technology has advanced from Google and Yahoo being the only search engines to “Siri” from Apple and “Alexa” from Amazon Echo whose job is to help us identify things of interest. Is the next advancement in computer and communication technology going to be that “Alexa or Siri” can read our physiological senses and suggest things of our interest there? This is one way in which psychology and technology have influenced each other.
Another way in which educational technology has impacted the field of educational psychology is through the ways in which technology impacts our motivations and interests. For instance, educational technology has allowed us to measure if technologies indeed make us “smarter” as measured by mastery-skills and improved performance when operating technologies (Salomon and Perkins, 2005). The key thing is that we are using educational technology (i.e. computers, calculators) to predict psychological outcomes such as achievement, performance, and interest. While researchers are using technologies to predict psychological outcomes, they are also using psychological outcomes to predict technologies. Nickerson (2005) discusses this reciprocal process as “the relationship between technology and cognition being one of dependency that goes both ways” (p. 12).
I agree that in many instances technology and psychology have a reciprocal relationship with each other (Nickerson, 2005), and you give some great examples! However, I am curious as to how you see this working out in a classroom. Salomon and Almog (1998) suggest that in some instances technology simply replaces an activity in a classroom and is molded to fit within current theories and practices, without challenging any existing theory, or truly changing any practices. In this instance it appears that technology has been added to the classroom without much pedagogical benefit. Do you still see technology used in this way as beneficial?
I identify with what you say about how we’re using technology to measure psychological outcomes. Things like ESM, Ryan Baker’s BROMP methodology, etc help measure motivation and affect in real time. I think the fact the technology has helped measure these real time has helped distinguish that motivation that people feel in a moment of time may differ from what they feel a few hours later. I guess this has helped advance research on motivation? I wonder what you both think? Do you think this would have been possible without real-time measurement of motivation?
Hi Matthew – Excellent point! In fact, when I was writing this I was also considering this. While Salomon and Almog (1998) suggest that technologies have been used to replaced other forms of activities, I think since 1998 we’ve made some developments in the way technology can be used to enhance pedagogy. For instance, in a psychology course that I took my professor used “PollEverywhere” where she would ask us a question and we would answer using an Iclicker and would instantly show the stats of how the class did as a whole. And then we would often discuss the question as a class or in small groups. I think this activity allowed students to engage with others in the class and helped create a sense of community (in my opinion).
Hi Sukanya – We were discussing this question in our lab the other day. While I think that ESM allows us to measure in time responses, that really could be gathered at a later time, it helps eliminate response bias. When students answer instantaneously, it allows us to eliminate some of that bias that occurs when asking students to reflect on past experiences.
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