Instructional Technology

First, let’s begin with the definition of the “instruction” and “technology”. Instruction refers to activities that are carefully mapped out in every detail, structured by someone other than the learner and oriented toward specific ends (AECT, 2004,p.1).

Technology, on the other hand, is defined as process rather than only devices. It is a systematic application of scientific and other organized knowledge to practical tasks (Galbraith, 1967). As famous philosopher Heidegger (1977) indicates, technology itself is a means to an end. Its definition includes both instruments and human activities. Thus, everything depends on how we manipulate technology in the proper manner as a means to reach the desired outcome.

Based on these definitions instructional technology refers to a structured application of strategies and techniques coming from behavioral, cognitive, and constructivist theories to solve the instructional problems and to facilitate learning through technology under conditions that are purposive and controlled.

#1

Historical Roots

It is obvious that technology has changed from being a peripheral factor to becoming more central in all forms of teaching. However, the role of technology in education is not a new issue. It has always been closely linked with teaching. When we go back at least 2500 years, we can see that technology was in the form of “Oral Communication”. For instance, oratory and speech were the means by which people learned and transmit knowledge in ancient Greece. Some recitative poems such as Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey were memorized by listening, and transmitted by recitation, not by writing or not by reading.

Second key agent of shift in education was the invention of printing press (15th century) in Europe. It made written knowledge much more freely available, just as the Internet has done today. This technology required people to be literate, thus formal education occurred in Europe and it led to Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

Another inevitable idea of education is the use of blackboards and chalkboards. They became used in schools around the turn of the 18th century to educate people in crowded classrooms.

The invention of telephone (19th century) is another big event in human history. However, I am not sure about if it was used as a major educational tool because of the high cost of analogue telephone calls. This was followed by educational radio broadcasting and TV programs in mid 1900s.

As we come to 1954, we meet with first forms of computer-based learning called teaching machine and developed by B.F. Skinner based on the theory of behaviorism. The field also has been highly influenced by other major theoretical perspectives over the last century, which is cognitivism and constructivism.

The use of overhead projectors for training in US Army at the end of World War Two (1945) and the use of electronic projectors (1990s) and presentational software are another significant cornerstone in educational practices.

In 2016, we have been experiencing exponential shifts in technology due to the online learning environments, mobile learning opportunities, MOOCs and social media. As it is indicated in the brief journey of technology throughout the history, most technologies used in education were not developed specifically for education but for other purposes. However, technology always influenced teaching directly or indirectly. Therefore, instructional technology is as old as Homo sapiens.

B.F. Skinner

Robert Gagné

#2

Leaders

The field has been influenced by three major theoretical perspectives over the last century:

Behaviorism
Cognitivism
Constructivism

Instructional design was founded on the pioneering work of individuals such as Edward L. Thorndike. Thorndike developed one of the first “scientific” theories of learning. His was the original expression of the stimulus-response framework of learning that gave rise to behaviorism. The behavioral view of learning dominated instructional design through the 1940s and 1950s, particularly the influential work of B.F. Skinner.

In the 1960s, the cognitive view of learning came to the forefront as work by people like Robert Gagné began to displace behavioral thinking. By this view, learning was defined as change in a learner’s schemata (Reeves, & Reeves, 2015). It is suggested designing the instruction to minimize the cognitive load of extraneous factors. Ausubel, Kohler, Lewin, Chomsky and Sweller are other influential researchers in the field.

In the 1980s, a constructivist perspective of learning began to exert significant influence on the field. Beginning then, more student-centered approaches, such as discovery learning, problem-based learning, situated cognition, and social learning became the subject of increasing attention in the field. Dewey, Piaget, Bruner, Merrill, Vygotsky, Papert, David Jonassen and Thomas Duffy are the key characters in this field (Ertmer & Newby, 1993).

Jean Piaget

#3

Big Ideas

Design ideas coming from Behaviorism:

Use association to link a specific stimulus to a specific response.
Apply chaining that refers to learners automatic performance on specific procedures with pre-determined steps to be followed.
Reinforce desired and weaken undesired behavior in the learning design.
Use discrimination whenever the learning objective requires learners to identify whether a concept belongs to a specific category or not.

Design ideas coming from Cognitivism:

Consider the relevant learner characteristics that will promote or impede the cognitive processing of information.
Design the instruction to minimize the cognitive load of extraneous factors.
Organize the content from simple to complex.
Conduct task analysis and learner analysis.
Let learners identify, filter, select, link, organize, and integrate information under the guidance of a tutor, which may be human or computer-based.
Create tests to evaluate learning outcome.

Design Ideas coming from Constructivism:

Make learners actively use what is learned.
Assess learning based on the creation of original artifacts that represent learners’ knowledge and skills rather than multiple-choice tests.
Revisit context at different times, in rearranged contexts, for different purposes.
Present multiple perspectives and representations of concepts and content.
Ensure authenticity and real-world complexity.

#4

Implementation

The theories and practices in the field of IT can be implemented in higher education institutions in tons of ways. Here, we will talk about our observations on some technology integration examples employed in the learning practices of graduate and undergraduate students at Indiana University.

Online Learning and Blended Classrooms
Project-Based Activities Incorporating Technology
Game-Based Learning and Assessment
Learning with Mobile Devices
Instructional Tools like Interactive Whiteboards and Student Response Systems
Web-Based Projects, Explorations, and Research
Collaborative Online Tools like Wikis or Google Docs
Using Social Media to Engage Students
Flexible Learning Design