One of the things I have done over the years is to write about what I think is important in the areas in which I worked and continue to work even in retirement. in 2002 and As part of that activity, I was fortunate to become connected with the Educational Technology Magazine and its publisher and senior editor, the late Lawrence (Larry) Lipsitz.
The Magazine
Educational Technology Magazine was a premiere publication in the field of educational technology. Sadly, with Larry’s passing in 2016, the magazine has ceased publication. The Web site of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), “a professional association of instructional designers, educators and professionals who provide leadership and advise policy makers in order to sustain a continuous effort to enrich teaching and learning” described the magazine:
Educational Technology Magazine is the world’s leading periodical publication covering the entire field of educational technology, an area pioneered by the magazine’s editors in the early 1960s. Read by leaders in more than one hundred countries, the magazine has been at the forefront of every important new trend in the development of the field throughout the past five decades. Its list of published authors is a virtual “who’s who” of the leading personalities and authorities from all over the world active in educational technology research, development, and application. Its stimulating, provocative, challenging articles are eagerly awaited by its loyal readership. It has also published more scores of special issues that have defined the field and created whole new areas for research. There is no other periodical that approaches its high level of prestige within the field of educational technology.
The review stated that Larry, “has personally known every leading authority in educational technology since the 1960s.” I met Larry at a conference we hosted on SCORM at Brigham Young University in 2002. As a contributing editor for the magazine, I was invited to write a tribute for Larry for a special edition, which was published in 2017:
I first met Larry Lipsitz in 2002 at a conference we hosted at Brigham Young University entitled, “Online Instruction for the 21st Century: Connecting Instructional Design to International Standards for Content Reusability.” Meeting Larry and chatting with him during a break with Dave Merrill and Vic Bunderson. He asked me if I would write an article for Educational Technology on SCORM, the conference focus. Although I had been an educational technologist for almost 25 years, I had come from a totally different background than Larry, Vic, or Dave and thus was a bit on the ignorant side as to who Larry was and even more in the dark about the stature of his publication. Indeed, I sadly admit now that I am quite sure I had never seen an issue of Educational Technology, a gap I worked on filling by more than one excursion into old issues in the BYU Library. Returning to Larry’s request and reflecting my naïveté of the day, which had me ever-focused on the notion of “publish or perish,” I responded, “Is your publication peer reviewed?” Dave and Vic both chuckled a bit, and one of them pointed at Larry and said, “He’s your peer!” I seem to remember that this statement was followed up by something like, “If he likes your work, then you can consider it reviewed.” I went on to write that piece that year and quickly became a fan, not only of the magazine but also of Larry. I later wrote other articles, at times at Larry’s request, and I always enjoyed my interactions with him. Our telephone conversations and E-mail exchanges always revealed his deep insights into our field and taught me a great deal. A few years into our association I also discovered our mutual affinity for a certain strain of politics and views on society. Although details of those political affinities and views are out-of-scope for this piece, let’s just say that Larry was wise in many important aspects of life that go far beyond educational technology. My reflection in writing this piece makes me so very sorry that I did not get to know him sooner. I will miss Larry very deeply, as will the entire educational technology field.
The AECT review continued, saying that Larry, “maintained direct daily contact with all of those doing the finest, most up-to-date thinking in this field. The magazine’s book division, also headed by Lawrence Lipsitz, has published more than three hundred books since the 1960s, many of which are classics in the literature and a staple of advanced courses in departments of educational technology and instructional systems design.”
Regular Column
As part of my efforts in the field of educational technology, I was fortunate to be able to write a regular column for the magazine entitled “Educational Technology Points of Inflection.” The first installment appeared in 2013, in which I explained that the series would be “an exploration of the proper mix of how the efforts of teacher and technology can be blended to not only make learning more accessible to more people but also to improve the experience that all learners can have.” I explored current and future innovations in educational technology not only from the standpoint of technological feasibility, but also without the assumption “that just because something can be done it should be done.” Discussions examined various issues that “will influence the potential of various innovations that can improve learning as well as affect their implementation.” In summary, the discussion in the series focused on three areas of concern or issues:
- Architectural
- Logistical
- Philosophical
Architectural issues address what we can describe as software engineering for learning. Logistical issues deal with the organization of the channel for development and delivery of learning experiences. The philosophical area addresses the attitudes of developers, implementers, and learners that affect policies.
These three areas were considered individually or at times at the intersections of issues involving those conditions where two or more of the three happen to overlap. Indeed, it has been and continues to be at those intersections where we find the most interesting topics to discuss as we sought to identify those points of inflection on the curve of technological development where productive changes can take place to help learners learn better in the future.
Those words were taken from the first column, which was published in January, 2013 and entitled, “Getting to Where We Are and Need to Be with Educational Technology.”
The second piece in the series, “Individualization in Learning: A Key Point of Inflection,” explains that success in addressing individual needs in the learning process can help in the development of educational technology. This success will be a key point of inflection on the curve that documents the impact that learning technologies can have on learner success.
Previous Articles
The first piece I wrote in that series appeared in January and was entitled, “Connecting Instructional Design to International Standards for Content Reusability,” which enabled me to begin what has been for me a rewarding opportunity to comment on trends in the area of technology in education in which I have worked since 1976.
See this page for a listing of my contributions over the years to the Educational Technology Magazine.