So, What is Instructional Technology?

Hello and welcome to my first official professional blog!  I have a blog for our high school library, but have not ever taken the time to create my own personal/professional blog.  I have been collaborating with many teachers and have worked very hard at educating teachers about technology and how to utilize it effectively in their classrooms.  This blog will be a great way for me to learn how to continue my communication with teachers, not just through my website or monthly professional developments, but through RSS feeds that they can view when they want and I can post as soon as I see something I think would benefit them.  I look forward to blogging this semester about instructional technology! 


So, what is instructional technology? There are so many definitions our text mentions for what instructional technology is, and there has been numerous definitions since the beginning of education and technology.  Instructional technology has been called educational technology, audiovisual instruction, audiovisual communication, etc. Beginning with pictures and charts for students to use to utilizing films, lantern slides, to the television set, computer, and the Internet. Throughout history the definition of what instructional technology is has evolved.

The names and definitions keep changing but there are a few common and consistent threads. Instructional technology is defined by our text with two key components; “the use of media for instructional purposes and the use of systematic instructional design procedures”. Due to the various definitions and thoughts of what instructional technology is, the text suggests that a better term may be “Instructional Design and Technology”. This is a learner centered systematic instructional design using media for instruction. This is not to be confused with instructional media, the physical means that instruction is presented. Instructional design and technology in my own words is a lesson plan created by the teacher that is student focused and created to reach a student centered goal. Through the planning of this lesson the teacher evaluates and implements the best needed technology to reach the student centered goal. Why should a teacher use instructional design and technology? I think that we should use tools in teaching that are most effective at enhancing student learning.  There a many lessons that can be developed that utilize technology appropriately as the most effective means for enhancing student learning. 

I think an epidemic that is occurring in our schools is that teachers think that by using hardware, or instructional media they are implementing instructional technology. Unfortunately, if the teacher did not plan a lesson that enabled the student to use technology to critically think, the teacher did not use technology instructionally. It is not the technology that makes the students critically think, but the lessons that teachers create utilizing the technology that leads students to critically think.

I really do like the idea of calling instructional technology, Instructional design and technology. I think the name places an emphasis on design. Design meaning using a systematic approach to creating lessons. I kind of look at this like the communication process. It is a process that good teachers already use naturally without realizing it or breaking it down. Five key factors mentioned in the text for instructional design are analysis of student need, designing objectives, developing materials needed, implementing the lesson, evaluating the lesson through formative and summative evaluation, and revising the lesson. One thing I did think was interesting is that the text did mention that these are interchangeable, they do not have to be completed in the exact order they are listed in due to formative evaluation. The left brain part of me as a teacher wants to follow these five step by step, but I realize that this would not be beneficial to the overall creation of an effective lesson. It is crucial that the steps be formatively evaluated and revised throughout each step of the lesson. I see how I do this while planning lessons. Sometimes the perfectionist in me lends itself to recreating steps repeatedly until I get the lesson just right to meet the goal set. Each step is important to the design because, first of all it has to be student focused! Each formative evaluation should bring up the question; is this meeting the needs of my students? Through evaluation, you can change and edit as you plan, flip flopping between each step as needed. Below is a chart originally designed by W. Dick, Carey & J. Cary, 2005. I have edited it show my evaluation of how instructional design should flow. I felt like this was a pretty good example of how instructional design can work, I added a few parts that I felt were left out. I thought that this example did not show how you can work between each step interchangeably as needed. Revisions were noted, but it wasn’t very clear that you were able to go back and forth between each step. I also noted that it mentioned creating a formative evaluation at the end of the system. I feel like this should take place between each step, so that you can revise and edit as you plan. So, I have moved that section up to the front of the model. I also thought that the formative evaluation should be focused on three main features, is it meeting the goal set, is it measurable, and is it student need focused? Through formatively evaluating these key features at each step you can better plan and receive a better outcome. I did not see implementation on the chart, so I added implementation and finally wrapped it up with a summative review and needed changes to keep in mind for the next lesson. Through these changes, the students are center thought and the lesson is goal oriented through initial set up and formative evaluation, meaningful performance is set through the goal and objectives, outcomes that can be measured are created in the instructional strategy in accordance with assessment instruments, and the system is self correcting. The last question pending is was it a team effort? I think this can come in many different stages. As mentioned above, while planning things change and as you are planning you will see your needs and build a team of people as you go or you can know what you need in the beginning as the goal is created.

Original image found at www.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_design


I think the instructional design and technology is beginning to develop in our schools. I think that we have come a long way in using technology in the classroom, but still have a long way to go. Based on what I have seen at a K-12 level, I think technology is typically viewed as instructional media. I feel that many teachers find it difficult to create a lesson that challenges students to critically think utilizing technology. I think they use the instructional design, like the model above, daily to create amazing lessons in their classrooms, but lack the knowledge needed to create lessons challenging students while utilizing technology. I think a lot of the problem stems from a lack of how software or web applications work. I have spoken and worked with many teachers who are open to new technology and see how it enhances student learning when used appropriately and effectively with quality lessons pushing students to critically think. I  think that in the future teachers will need to learn about various technologies so that they can create critical thinking lessons and know what technology best fits the goal set.

With adult education and higher education, I have had experience with online classes.  I absolutely love my online classes! I have loved blogging and chatting with all of my classmates over the past two years. I have also loved using elluminate. Taking all of what I have learned back to teachers has been wonderful and challenging. Many are hesitant or don’t know how to create lessons maximizing student achievement utilizing the technology unless I walk them through it or offer to teach them how to use the technology first. Which is totally understandable, but I have had rave reviews on the lessons we have collaborated on and executed. I think that it will be a process for K-12 teachers, but that they know it is inevitable that technology is apart of their schools, lessons, and student's attention. I think that higher education will be the leading force in pushing technology into the K-12 classrooms.  They will be educating the new teachers how to utilize technology correctly and they are on the forefront of using technology now.  A compliment to TAMU Commerce; I was at the Texas Library Conference last year and my staff and I were attending many different technology workshops when my staff began saying that I needed to teach many of these workshops and that they already know the topics being taught.  They thanked me for teaching them all I have learned from TAMU Commerce.  :) 

I think that many teachers are looking for ways to utilize technology and want to learn how. The technology director and I are working together to educate our teachers over various technologies and how to create lessons utilizing technology to enhance student learning. Last year I began working with our High School English teacher on creating a class blog and they were going to blog weekly over their class novel. They were reading Fast Food Nation, so you can imagine what an interesting blog that would be. She also had them keep a journal of their food intake, which would have made for interesting blog as well.  I do think that technology is a great way to enhance student learning and that it will continue to be a driving force in our classrooms and within our lessons through online databases, online textbooks, the thousands of web 2.0 applications, social media, etc. I feel that currently my main task  is to collaborate with teachers and help teach them about how to effectively plan a lesson utilizing technology appropriately and to slowly educate them on the wonderful technologies available for them to use.