Cognitive Computation and Educational Technology

In this paper, I propose a topic on how to combine cognitive computation and educational technology. The two theories belong to different areas. Educational technology has long history in developing its own theories. But the main problems that it faced are lacking of the scientific research methods in studying the laws of teaching and learning. Cognitive computation is younger than educational technology. The Cognitive computation theories are based on the scientific computational methods. The main problems that the cognitive computation theories faced are lacking of applications in a wide area. So the two theories are mutual complementation. In the first part of the paper, I summarize the characteristics of educational technology and cognitive computation. Educational technology has five main characteristics, which are learning, managing/using/creating appropriate technological processes and resources, ethical practice. The main characteristics of cognitive computation are interdisciplinary, new learning theory, artificial intelligence, complex and autonomous system, new hardware and software. So the total new research fields after the combination of the characteristics of cognitive computation and educational technology will reach 25. In the second part of the paper, I analyze the 25 new fields in detail. Many examples are given in the analyses. I summarize the future development of the combination of the two areas finally.