Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2025 - EDUC 890 G001

Educational Media as Foundations of Curriculum (4)

Class Number: 4288

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 3 – Dec 2, 2025: Thu, 4:30–8:20 p.m.
    Surrey

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Provides a historically-grounded treatment of the constructive role of technologies in the transmission and production of cultural knowledge and understanding. Students develop a grasp of the ways in which technologies have mediated and transformed the nature of knowledge, the knower, and processes of coming to know.

COURSE DETAILS:

In this course, we will take seriously the proposition that it has never been possible to separate curriculum from the media used to implement it. We will explore this proposition both through literature and our own technology design efforts. In the literature, we will examine the history of various educational media and their use, as well as current technology trends and the scholarship around them. In the design field, students will examine the unique affordances of educational media currently in vogue (such as digital fabrication, digital games, wikis, blogs, and other technologies for computer-supported collaborative learning) by developing their own original designs for learning to suit students and settings that are important to them. Students will benefit from critiques provided both by peers and the instructor before final submissions are due.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

In this course you will begin to:

  • Appreciate the concepts of "technology" and "educational technology" as contested fields
  • Understand the history of educational media in formal education
  • Understand the educational affordances of some popular digital media
  • Understand the issues of privacy and human rights that need to be considered alongside the use of technologies in education
  • Analyze and interpret some current controversies in the field of Educational Technology and Learning Design and the insections of Education and Technology more generally
  • Develop an ability to create and critique projects in learning design

Grading

  • Participation 25%
  • Creative visualization of discussion in educational technologies 30%
  • Learning design 45%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines: The classroom use of technology since 1920. New York: Teachers College. ISBN 080772792X (eBook available to view through SFU Library, or to purchase from Teachers College Press website https://www.tcpress.com/teachers-and-machines-9780807775974)

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Graduate Studies Notes:

Important dates and deadlines for graduate students are found here: http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/important_dates/guidelines.html. The deadline to drop a course with a 100% refund is the end of week 2. The deadline to drop with no notation on your transcript is the end of week 3.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.