An understanding of the concept educational technology without a thorough grasp of a related concept like instructional technology is considered grossly inadequate. You, like many other teachers, will be operating most of the time with your basic knowledge of instructional technology as you will soon realize. The common error of using the two terms interchangeably by many people needs to be examined and corrected.
Concepts of Instruction, Instructional Technology and Indoctrination)
Instruction
In our first post, it was mentioned that education is an elusive term. It is a concept that is very broad in nature. It is used to cover such concepts like curriculum, instruction, methodology, evaluation and administration of schools. The task of explaining “instruction” is by no means easier as it is also a concept that has been variedly interpreted.
To many people, as observed by Oluokun and Olayanju (2000), there appears not to be a difference between instructing and teaching. According to Macmillan School Dictionary (2000), the word “instruction” means a statement of something that must be done, or an explanation of how to do or use something. The same dictionary defines an instructor as “someone whose job is to teach a skill or a sport”.
It is obvious from these two definitions that it behooves on whoever is instructing to resort to teaching. Therefore, instruction means the efforts of somebody who is superior in knowledge, skills and attitude to plan, design, implement and evaluate the teaching-learning process for the benefit of the recipients (learners).
Teaching
As a term, it has a long history of usage. Surprisingly, the term has been erroneously misunderstood to mean an act by anybody who is assumed to be knowledgeable to disseminate information to others. It is this wrong interpretation of the term that has led to the appointment of many unprofessionally qualified people performing the task of teaching.
Teaching is a serious business. It is very tasking and highly demanding. It is an art of passing knowledge by way of deliberate arrangement of the task to be learnt, the method(s) to be adopted, the material(s) to be used, the learners, the evaluation as well as the entire teaching-learning environment in a manner that will provide learning arising from the interactions.
It is common saying that “teachers are born” or rather the saying “born teacher”. Of course, since teachers are human beings, they are born. However, “a born teacher” if there is any at all, will perform better with good teacher education background/exposure.
Teaching is expected to produce learning. Therefore, any teaching activity which fails to produce the desired outcome (learning) is not to be taken as teaching. Mind you, there could be reasons or several factors that may inhibit learning to occur even when adequate preparation is made for a lesson, but if the lesson fails to lead to learning on the part of the learner(s), no other word would describe the titration better than to say learning has not occurred.
You are therefore encouraged to engage yourself in teaching-learning process that will venture achievement of the stated objectives. You will be assisted to acquire the basic principles of effecting good teaching in the course of going through this study material.
Learning
Learning is a relatively permanent change in human behaviour arising from experience. The expression “relatively permanent” is used to connote the expectation of the time lag of change in behaviour. The change is expected to be noticed in the person that has acquired the new knowledge for a very long period. It should be part and parcel of him until and unless the acquired knowledge/skill becomes rather obsolete, archaic, and therefore no longer relevant.
The term “behaviour” is indicating where to measure the acquisition of the new knowledge. We are not interested in the physical change but in attitudinal change.
Again, the change in behaviour should be an outcome of the learner’s interaction with the environment rather than an outcome of natural biological changes such as maturations, growth and development.
For learning to take place, learning environment must be sufficiently made conducive. It must be rich in resources as to provide learning experiences needed by the learner for the expected learning outcomes. The use of different forms of media ranging from audio to visual,
audiovisual, model, mock-ups, graphics, projected, non-projected, and realia (real objects) will encourage enabling environment and experiences that can promote learning.
Instruction
Instruction is a subset of teaching. Teachers in their effort to assist learners acquire new knowledge, skills or attitudes do resort to asking them to do certain things, as a form of “order”.
Learners could be asked to follow some steps to enable them arrive at a particular point by the teacher. Instructions, if not skillfully done, would kill learners’ initiatives and thereby encourages dogmatism. However, in a task where strict compliance to rules and regulations are expected, the use of instruction could not be ruled out.
Indoctrination
This is an act of deliberate killing of learners’ reasoning ability. The indoctrination does not give room for the indoctrinate to reflect and make a choice. Teaching done in this form negates the principle of democratization and therefore should not be encouraged. Indoctrination does not allow the learners to be creative and original. It is purely teacher-centred as such, it is not a favoured practice by educators.
Instructional Technology
Instructional technology is a subset of educational technology. Instructional technology is narrower in scope than educational technology. However, both concepts are related.
While educational technology principles can be applied to solving educational problems at the macro level, instructional technology principles can be applied to solving instructional problems at the micro level.
Problems such as designing a new curriculum, designing a new programme, finding solutions to the problem of mass failure, conduct of large-scale examinations, recruitment of new teachers, designing a policy on establishment of resource centres/libraries at the national level etc. are those to be tackled at the realm of educational technology.
However, instructional problems such as management of teaching-learning situation at the classroom level, deciding on choice of instructional media, methods, topic etc. is in the sphere of instructional technology. It is evident therefore that instructional technology is subsumed in educational technology.
Instructional technology can be defined as a systematic way of planning, designing, implementing and evaluating the total process of teaching and learning based on specific instructional objectives, using available human and non-human elements to improve the quality of instruction.
Roles of Instructional Technology Media in Teaching and Learning
The roles of the various instructional technology media in teaching and learning process cannot be underestimated. The under listed are what Karimu (2008) considered as the advantages of media utilisation in instruction:
(1) Increase the rate of learning and at the same time allows the teacher to use more time on other gainful activities.
(2) Reinforce verbal and visual messages. Pupils would generally find it difficult to understand abstract ideas discussed by their teachers. However, if the abstract ideas are put in form of models, pictures, etc. pupils understand them with ease and they remain permanent in their memories.
(3) Through the use of media, emphasis is placed on realistic learning rather than rote learning.
(4) Instructional media have a way of motivating and arresting pupils’ attention.
Pupils’ curiosity and consciousness get increased and thereby provide a sound environment for realistic and enjoyable teaching and learning atmosphere. Terms and concepts that are abstract are best illustrated through the use of instructional media. There are many other advantages which you should find out.
CONCLUSION
The major task of a teacher is done in the classroom where he/she with the learners, with the purpose of effecting learning. In order for him/her to accomplish this role, he/she needs to comprehend and put into practice the principles of instructional technology. Even as teacher-manager, the knowledge of instructional technology is considered vital.
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