The theoretical and practical approaches to educational technology and recommending the desired curriculum for Master courses in Iran

The purpose of this study was to investigate the theoretical and practical approaches to educational technology and to offer appropriate curriculum for a master courses in Iran. The research was qualitative and its method was content analysis through semi-structured interviews. The population of the study consisted of experts and professors of educational technology from whom 15 were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews whose content validity was confirmed by several experts were used to gain the needed data. Finally, after completing the interviews, the results were analyzed using categorization method. The results of the content analysis showed that there were three dominant approaches to educational technology; Erernsteinian’s approach focusing on the theoretical foundations of educational technology, McDonald and Gibbons’ curriculum approach emphasizing its applicability and Feinberg’s approach which lies between the two approaches. The proposed curriculum emphasizes the theoretical and practical aspects of the curriculum of educational technology and considers them as important goals in content, teaching-learning strategies and methods of evaluation.