The 1994 Definition of the Field: Barbara Seels and Rita Richey

I like the following definition: Theory consists of the concepts, constructs, principles, and propositions that contribute to the body of knowledge. Practice is the application of that knowledge to solve problems and gains knowledge from experience.

According to Barbara Seels and Rita Richey, the 1994 Definition of Instructional Technology is: “Instructional Technology (IT) is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of processes and resources for learning.” However, it does not identify categories of learning. Should it be efficient, effective, direct, adroit and cost-beneficial learning process and resources? Even though it is somewhat dangerous to merely focus on “efficiency and effectiveness” without research or theory examination, it is an unavoidable reason why instructors or instructional designers choose technology in their instruction and design. In addition, as like Dr. Gibbon’s talk, IT should provide various ways (environment) to present instructional materials in order to enrich learning experience. In short, I think the 1994 definition of IT seems to cover all aspects of designing process. However, is it the better definition for IT or Instructional Design (ID)? How do we identify IT and ID?

Gentry's "Educational Technology"

Science vs. Technology:

Science	Technology
· Pure thought	· Action
· Fact + relationship of observed phenomena in nature	· Tools (machines) + techniques + process (procedures) + solutions (economic values) or artifacts.
· Exclusion of human factor	· More human considerations

Education vs. Training:

Education	Training	Instruction
· Employ critical, independent and creative judgment	· Inculcation of skills, habits, attitudes, beliefs and process.
· The enterprise of supplying the conditions which ensure growth, or adequacy of life, irrespective of age.		· The act of providing activities materials and guidance that facilitates learning, in either formal or information situations.

Instructional technology (IT) deals with instructional problems; however, technology (T) is to use systematic application or knowledge to find solutions of variety of problems. Educational Technology (ET) is related to educational problems which are related to instruction, learning, development and management. The following figure is my understanding of these three areas:

Who am I? A scientist or technologist?

I view myself as a technologist because my work intends to be synthetic most of the time. The reason I don't think I am a scientist is because "science is an attemp to deduce and verfy casues from observed effects". It is much more like descriptive. In intructional design, finding the causal relationship is important. However, it is much more important to plan actions, utilize strategies to reach the probabilistic success. Being a technologist needs to presribe the phenomena (situation and problems) and provide many acceptable solutions to one problem or problems. Therefore, I consider myself a technologist.

to be continued...

Instructional Technology & Instructional-Design Theories

The Gibbon’s and Reigeluth’s articles are somewhat conceptual and a little difficult to break down into small elements to be fully understood. However, these two articles provide appropriate fundamental knowledge for instructional designers. They remind us the unseen theory in instructional design along with instructional practice. The similarity of these two articles is: “different teaching methods should be applied in different occasions; variety of instructional solutions and methods are proper to solve the same instructional problems.” As Reigeluth mentioned, “an instructional-design theory is a theory that offers explicit guidance on how to better help people learn and develop.”

The main focus of instructional design is to assist learners learn effectively, efficiently in behavior changes and knowledge accumulation. Instructional designers should have ability to flexibly use the relatively better methods in an instructional situation. These two theories are prescriptive and intend to predict the consequence in the instruction. They are probabilistic instead of questing for “destined successfully.” Instructors no longer consider themselves as “sages”, but employ “fellow learners”, “local real-world resources” and “remote resources” in instruction. Methods of the instructional design have been broadened, and more strategies have been adopted.

Behaviorism, Cognitive, or Constructivism?

Instructional design practitioners not only need to be familiar with learning theories; behaviorism, cognitive and constructivism, but also skillfully adopt the most suitable strategies for specific learners in different task settings. The eclectic approach might be disputable; however, the mission of an instructional designer is to deliver the best solution to tasks for specific learners. As Ertmer and Newby (1993) described successful instructional practices depend on three perspectives: active participation, interaction, practice and feedback. Without the learners’ full participation and interaction, the optimal theory is in vain. Understanding theories helps instructional designers skillfully analyze the instructional environments, learners and tasks. However, the main skill is to know when, what and how to successfully develop and deliver instructional products. As the Chinese saying goes, “spend money on the edge of knife,” get to the point as like giving the proper remedy for the disease.

Thoughts on Cogintive & constructivism

Cognitive information processing (CIP) of human brain is like computer’s processing: input, process, and output. It visualizes the unseen human brain processing. Instructional designers should be trained in this area as a way to view the learning process. There are three stages of information processing; sensory memory, short-term memory (working memory), and long-term memory (permanent). The ultimate goal of instructional design is to strengthen a learners’ ability to retrieve pertinent information from their long-term memory. The first step must be to attract learners’ attention since learners’ brain unconsciously selects what information would be stored in their memory. Through physical and conceptual means, instructional designers can stimulate learners’ memory.

It is common to see that learners do memorize information by repetition. As Driscoll mentioned that elaboration method can encode course materials or information in memory. To elaborate learning objects, learners need to cluster related materials in a meaningful way. Learners usually feel anxiety when inundated with new information. Instructional designers need to strategically arrange course materials linked to learners’ prior knowledge and organize materials with memory strategies in mind. Effectiveness is usually considered an important criterion to evaluate instructional materials. Effectiveness is composed by accelerating learning speed and good performance which is influenced by good memory retention. That is, carefully introducing design materials to strengthen the ability to retrieve the information from long-term memory is crucial.

The main issue among behaviorism, cognitive and constructivism is where the knowledge is from. Is the knowledge really constructed by learners or transferred into the learner? This is an important question to identify before designing instructional materials. From my point of view, it depends on learner’s ages and environments. Young learners obtain knowledge from adults and instructors. They imitate adult’s behaviors, and adults transfer what they know to them. On the contrary, adult learners have enough experience to construct their knowledge during learning process. They can set up learning goals and self-regulate themselves to achieve their goals.

090104 Blog (test 2)

*Specific situations in which I think that I have “learned” something (What are the changes to a person that come about because of learning? )?
.
**When I know simple principle very well and apply it into general situations.
**When I don’t apply the same mistake in similar situations (questions).
**When I become confident to present and practice what I have learned, especially being able to carry out what I have learned in real situations.
**When I can develop new theory, thinking, and skills from the learned knowledge.

*Context surrounding the “learning experience” (*What are the processes by which the results are brought about?)?
**The context surrounding needs to be pleasant and friendly and allow mistakes making before obtaining new skills and knowledge.
**It starts from the simple and basic concepts, then complicate circumstances.
**The positive learning surroundings leads to better learning.

*What facilitated the learning (What triggers the process to occure?)?
**Even though we question behaviorism which somewhat focuses on animal side of human beings, praise and punishment can facilitate learning.
**Human feelings can facilitate learning, for example, love, fear, hatred, and etc. Someone can learn faster if they know they are learning for someone they love; someone would try to learn finance management quickly when they are afraid of the expected bankrupcy in the following months; someone can encourage themselves to learn as fast as they can because others tease or dispise his intelligence. In short, the feelings are related to one’s goals and personalities (high-motivated or low-motivated).
**The instructional method and media can facilitate the learning. The adequent instructional method and media help learners learn more and quicker. The know much thorough knowledge in a pleasant way.
**Curiosity of fixing problems. As saying goes, “curiosity kill the cat”, learners are the same. Commonly, people stop by the spot gathering a lot of people. People like to know unknown phenonma and solve their problems in mind.