Come September and with the starting of the new academic year, we teachers are racking our brains to find new methods of teaching and sharing our experiences with the class. So, this year why not try out something dealing with technology?
Today I find everyone around me hooked on to an ipod or iphone listening to music or surfing on the internet on their laptops. Everyone has become so dependent on technology today. So, why not put this technology to a better use?
I too was a little hesitant about the inclusion of this technology around me all the time, but I convinced myself because of the need to change with the changing world.
The latest Web 2.0 has evolved into many communities, blogs, Wikis, podcasts and other networking sites. These are commonly used by companies for internal communication and teleconferences and conference calls. Companies have been using blogs to talk about their experiences and there are also educational blogs written by professors and teachers to talk about their experiences with technology. Isn’t this a novel idea that allows us to learn how teachers around the world are sharing their knowledge and experience?
All of us want our children to prosper and find a good place in the future where they can accommodate themselves. To ensure this, they need to given all the experiences so that they don’t feel lost in the outside world. As they venture out into the workplace, they should feel accustomed to the use of technology and our school needs to give them this exposure.
Well, this type of learning is not a replacement for old-fashioned traditional teachers, but just a helping hand to fast developing technology. Integrating technology into the schools will help prepare students to succeed in a rapidly changing world.
There are two types of teachers- one type who simply teach and second who change the student learning process or shares new learning experiences. The second type can be used to define Educational Technology. If the teacher herself learns in a different way i.e using technology, then this teacher will think differently and this difference will result in the use of technology in classrooms thus making the student learn more effectively with this style.
Education technology consists of a wide range of hardware, software, and technical equipment used in schools to promote learning. Computers, CD-ROMs, the Internet, e-mail, television monitors, video equipment, and satellite systems for distance learning are some of the education technologies that schools are already using. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to introduce all this in our school?
Technology is like an additional tool to help restructure the ‘already known’ knowledge of a student into something constructive and creative. Utilizing the technology tools in education is in fact Instructional technology.
This can prepare students for their work in college and jobs in the future and it helps them to address real-world problems and learn to tackle them.
So one might ask, is Educational Technology actually like using technology in the process of teaching and learning? Yes, it is. Technology used in making learning and education more interesting and reaching the modern way of teaching. Let us try to understand more about Educational and Instructional Technology here.
According to ICT (Information and communication Technology), Educational Technology refers to the application of technology skills for learning (NETS project, NETS). With the use of technology in classrooms, you can:
- Save notes created in class everyday.
- Reading can be facilitated for strugglers
- Digital story telling made easy and fun in the classroom and more...
So, how exactly is Educational Technology different from Instructional Technology? When I started reading about it, I thought there is a thin line between the two. To learn more, let us look into some definitions and comparisons of the charactersitics of both.
According to Dr. Reeves, one difference between Educational Technology and Instructional Technology is that educational technology "is more craft or art than science" whereas instructional technology "claims to have a scientific foundation."
Instructional technology if not understood properly by the teacher or the student, it might fail (Michael Spector et. al) and so while using it in school you want to be very clear about what you want to do.
Using Educational Technology adds value to teaching, learning by adding, extending or changing what teachers and students do with the effectiveness of technology (Patricia Rogers, 60).
“Instructional technology is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning”(Seels, BB & Richey).
"Educational technology is the application of research, learning theory, emergent technologies, and child and adult psychology to solving instructional and performance problems. The Presidential Commission on Instructional Technology highlighted four areas in which educational technologists perform:
- design of instruction,
- production of instructional products and services,
- management of instruction, and
- evaluation of instruction" (Tom Cutshall, Domains of Instructional Technology).
References:
Cutshall Tom, Domains of Instructional Technology, Retrieved on 6th March, 2009.
http://cutshall.myweb.uga.edu/domain.html
http://cutshall.myweb.uga.edu/edtech.html
Forder Anna, Technology Plays Prominent Role In Classrooms. Retrieved 6th March 2009. http://www.southcountytimes.com/Articles-i-2009-02-20-85213.113117_Technology_Plays_Prominent_Role_In_Classrooms.html
Rogers Patricia, Designing Instruction for Technology-enhanced learning Retrieved on 6th March 2009.
http://books.google.com/books?id=NV0gbN1gawcC&pg=PA59&dq=compare/Contrast+Educational+technology+and+instructional+technology&lr=#PPA60,M1
J. Michael Spector, M. David Merrill, Celestia Ohrazda. Innovations in instructional technology Retrieved on 6th March 2009.
http://books.google.com/books?id=97o0N4jtnKAC&pg=PA165&dq=%E2%80%A209Contrast+the+characteristics+of+educational+technology+and+instructional+technology#PPA166,M1
NETS Project. ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). Retrieved on3rd March, 2009. http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS
Key stone Area Education agency: Retrieved on 2nd March 2009. http://www.aea1.k12.ia.us/technology/NETS_list.pdf
http://www.aea1.k12.ia.us/technology/techliteracy.html
Seels, BB & Richey, R.C. (1994) Instructional Technology: The definition and domains of the field. Washington, D.C. Association for Educational Communications and Technology
Using Technology to Support Education Reform, September 1993 Retrieved on 7th March 2009. http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/TechReforms/chap2a.html
