What is Instructional Technology?
(text from my final essay for 6100)
Instructional technologists (designers, developers, etc.) are at the forefront of the new information age. They are seeking, developing, and promoting new ways for people to learn and communicate in educational and community settings. Instructional designers wax poetic over the idea of equity and seek solutions to bring all of America's learners to the same technological baseline.
Instructional designers employ design models to create instructional products. These are usually based on some sort of input -> process -> output diagram. A design model, like ADDIE, can serve as a template to produce very specific instructional products. However, models are not one-size-fits-all; processes should be well-fit to best achieve the expected outcome. Models exist for single episodes of learning to the creation of an entire training curriculum.
Instructional designers recognize that there are as many different ways to deliver learning episodes as there are ways for people to gain from them. Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction seek to activate, deliver, and assess learning, as well as encourage learner retention of new information. Bloom's Taxonomy outlines the levels of learning, from simple comprehension of facts to thinking at a higher-order with analysis and synthesis. Additionally, humans learn in a variety of ways. Instruction must be sensitive to the needs of aural, visual, and kinesthetic learners, as well as the culture, beliefs, experiences, personalities, abilities, attitudes, and motivations that make them unique.
Instructional technology has constructivist intents. In a constructivist classroom, knowledge is negotiated between the learner and teacher. The teacher becomes a facilitator or coach in helping the learner achieve new knowledge. Scaffolding is employed to start students on the right path and is slowly removed as they become deeper entrenched in a situation. Furthermore, a constructivist classroom empowers students with the ability to solve problems. Knowledge is connected and accessible as it exists in the world -- not necessarily partitioned into specific and discrete subject areas. There are many different learning theories that can be considered constructivist. Of interest is situated learning, where a learner seeks to become a member of a community of experts. On this path, the learner will use actual tools from the community of practice, participate in simulated situations, and ideally become a practicing expert.
Instructional technology challenges the old guards of education. A competitive, fact-based, industrial classroom may no longer fit in a world of collaborators, problem-solvers, and information services. There is a responsibility that rests on the shoulders of instructional designers to bring new knowledge of technological capabilities to the public. As innovators, it is easy to be burnt by nay-sayers, late-adopters, and the grinding mechanisms of educational bureaucracy.
Instructional design is under rapid fire from the public for ill-fitted solutions to America's educational problems. Assuming that technology means "computer", bureaucrats desire that all schools be technology-equipped. The questions of what to do with computers, who will run them, and who will keep them updated seem to be lost in the shuffle. An instructional designer knows that access to a computer will not better educate America's children, but meaningful content that bolsters a student's sense of accomplishment and a productive role in society will.
Instructional designers argue over the importance of media in education. At best, an instructional designer should choose appropriate media for instructional situations and have the ability to tell a client when a desired delivery is not realistic to the desired outcome.
From a historical perspective, instructional technology is the perpetuation of technological innovation in a classroom setting. This was Thomas Edison predicting the use of moving pictures to be a new educational delivery method. These were housewives learning to cook from Julia Childs in their own kitchens across America. These are students communicating with space station astronauts in an online chat room. This is a child learning how to read with educational software. Instructional technology attempts to bring new innovations to the field of education and find methods that best fit the problems at hand. At the root of said innovation is the ability of humans to communicate with each other. As technology progresses, we become better equipped to communicate at greater distances and lightening fast speeds. The impact of this on education is and can be enormous. Learners can access information that only experts in the field could access as little as ten years ago. If technology (re: computers) were fully embraced, today’s students could get farther faster than ever before.
Instructional technologists are change agents.
Instructional technologists (designers, developers, etc.) are at the forefront of the new information age. They are seeking, developing, and promoting new ways for people to learn and communicate in educational and community settings. Instructional designers wax poetic over the idea of equity and seek solutions to bring all of America's learners to the same technological baseline.
Instructional designers employ design models to create instructional products. These are usually based on some sort of input -> process -> output diagram. A design model, like ADDIE, can serve as a template to produce very specific instructional products. However, models are not one-size-fits-all; processes should be well-fit to best achieve the expected outcome. Models exist for single episodes of learning to the creation of an entire training curriculum.
Instructional designers recognize that there are as many different ways to deliver learning episodes as there are ways for people to gain from them. Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction seek to activate, deliver, and assess learning, as well as encourage learner retention of new information. Bloom's Taxonomy outlines the levels of learning, from simple comprehension of facts to thinking at a higher-order with analysis and synthesis. Additionally, humans learn in a variety of ways. Instruction must be sensitive to the needs of aural, visual, and kinesthetic learners, as well as the culture, beliefs, experiences, personalities, abilities, attitudes, and motivations that make them unique.
Instructional technology has constructivist intents. In a constructivist classroom, knowledge is negotiated between the learner and teacher. The teacher becomes a facilitator or coach in helping the learner achieve new knowledge. Scaffolding is employed to start students on the right path and is slowly removed as they become deeper entrenched in a situation. Furthermore, a constructivist classroom empowers students with the ability to solve problems. Knowledge is connected and accessible as it exists in the world -- not necessarily partitioned into specific and discrete subject areas. There are many different learning theories that can be considered constructivist. Of interest is situated learning, where a learner seeks to become a member of a community of experts. On this path, the learner will use actual tools from the community of practice, participate in simulated situations, and ideally become a practicing expert.
Instructional technology challenges the old guards of education. A competitive, fact-based, industrial classroom may no longer fit in a world of collaborators, problem-solvers, and information services. There is a responsibility that rests on the shoulders of instructional designers to bring new knowledge of technological capabilities to the public. As innovators, it is easy to be burnt by nay-sayers, late-adopters, and the grinding mechanisms of educational bureaucracy.
Instructional design is under rapid fire from the public for ill-fitted solutions to America's educational problems. Assuming that technology means "computer", bureaucrats desire that all schools be technology-equipped. The questions of what to do with computers, who will run them, and who will keep them updated seem to be lost in the shuffle. An instructional designer knows that access to a computer will not better educate America's children, but meaningful content that bolsters a student's sense of accomplishment and a productive role in society will.
Instructional designers argue over the importance of media in education. At best, an instructional designer should choose appropriate media for instructional situations and have the ability to tell a client when a desired delivery is not realistic to the desired outcome.
From a historical perspective, instructional technology is the perpetuation of technological innovation in a classroom setting. This was Thomas Edison predicting the use of moving pictures to be a new educational delivery method. These were housewives learning to cook from Julia Childs in their own kitchens across America. These are students communicating with space station astronauts in an online chat room. This is a child learning how to read with educational software. Instructional technology attempts to bring new innovations to the field of education and find methods that best fit the problems at hand. At the root of said innovation is the ability of humans to communicate with each other. As technology progresses, we become better equipped to communicate at greater distances and lightening fast speeds. The impact of this on education is and can be enormous. Learners can access information that only experts in the field could access as little as ten years ago. If technology (re: computers) were fully embraced, today’s students could get farther faster than ever before.
Instructional technologists are change agents.
posted by EmBot | 11:46 PM
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