The Notion of Theory and Educational Technology: Foundations for Understanding

SUMMARY

Words serve as social tools. Not only do words like democracy or politics take on different meanings depending on many factors, so do terms like education, curriculum, research and educational technology.

Though knowledge (e.g. theory) can be arrived at in different ways, its use depends on the particular method. The use of ‘theory’ in educational technology is questioned. This paper sees empirical verification as virtually impossible and our major theoretical questions are normative, involving choices rather than empirical data.