Creativity: A New Era in Educational Technology
The research into effectiveness of educational technology mostly concentrates on the achievement and attitudes of students. Not all the research are achieving the expected high records when effectiveness of educational technology is compared with traditional teaching methods. These types of research usually deal with one type of technology for a short time usage. The effectiveness depends on the factors such as the technology used, for which purpose, how long, by whom, how and for the benefit of whom. These factors are all important and have to be considered in the evaluation of the research. On the other hand, achieving equal effects of technology with traditional methods is itself a success for the other characteristics revealed in using technology. Among these characteristics of technology availability of being used as individualized method, creating the possibility of repeating as much as it is needed until learning is occurred. The technology can also be used independently by students whenever and wherever they want and as long as they want to use their time perfectly.
The field of creativity is not paid enough attention in educational technology. This situation depends on different reasons. The field of creativity has not been studied in detail. The area is complex and requires a lot of work. This field is also new in psychology itself. The researchers have concentrated on this field only for the last two decades. Educational technology being a field of application for psychology has to begin this type of research sooner or later. Now is the time to start this type of research in the field of educational technology because of the vital importance of creativity in different aspects of life.