• Early definitions: Instructional Technology viewed as media:

 

• The early definitions viewed instructional technology as instructional media: the physical means via which instruction is presented to learners.

• Rots of the field have been tracked back to at least as fare as the first decade of the twentieth century.

• From that period through the 1920s, the use of visual materials (ex. Films, pictures) has increased in the public schools. These activities were part of the VISUAL INSTRUCTION MOVMENT.

• One of the first textbooks on visual instruction defined it as “the enrichment of education through the ‘seeing experience’ [involving] the use of all type of visual aids”

• During the late 1920s through the 1940s, as a result of advances in such media as sound recording, radio broadcasting, and motion picture with sound, the focus shifted from visual instruction to AUDIOVISUAL INSTRUCTION.

• During the first half of the twentieth century the field was viewed as instructional media.

 

• 1960 and 1970s: Instructional Technology viewed as process:

 

• During the 1950s, particularly the 1960s and the 1970s, number of the leaders in the field of education argued that rather than equating the field with media, they discussed it as being a process. Fro example, Lumsdaine (1964). Indicated that ET could be thought of as the application of science to instructional practices.

 

• The 1963 definition:

 

• In 1963, the first definition to be approved by major professional organizations of the field was published. It too indicated that the field is not simply about media. The first definition produced by a commission established by the department of audiovisual instruction, now known as the Association of Educational Communication and Technology (AECT).

• The definition is deferent from traditional view in several respects:

  Rather than focusing on media, the definition focused on the design and use of messages, which control the learning process.

  Identified a series of steps that individuals should undertake in designing and using such messages. Those are planning, production, selection, utilization, and management. These steps are similar to several of the major steps often associated with what has become know as systematic instructional design.

  Placed an emphasis on learning rather than on instruction.

• From these events some leaders of the field saw the nature of the field changing.

 

 

4. The 1970 Definition:

 

• The changing nature of our filed is more apparent in the next 1970 definitions, produced by the commission of instructional technology. The commission is established and funded by the US government to examine the potential benefits and problems associated with increased use of instructional technology in schools. The commission report included two definitions:

  The first, reflected older view of the field:

In its more familiar sense, it [instructional technology] means the media born of communication, which can be used for instructional purposes along side the teacher, textbook, and blackboard.

• The second, described it as process:

It [Instructional technology] is a systematic way of designing, carrying out, and evaluating the whole process of learning and communication and employing a combination of human and nonhuman resources to bring about more effective instruction.

• This is the first official definition that mentioned “systematic” process and its steps.

• Also, the definition indicated that the field is based on research. And the goal of the field is to bring more effective instruction and learning.

 

5. The 1977 Definition:

 

• In 1977, AECT adopted new definition. It was different from the previous definitions. It consisted of 16 statements spread over seven pages followed by elaborations that spread over nine pages of tables and nine chapters.

• The first sentence was:

Educational technology is complex, integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices, and organization for analyzing problems and devising, implementing, evaluating, and managing solutions to those problems, involved in all aspects of human learning.

• Much like 1970, this definition place emphases on systematic design process.

• This definition was the first to mention the analysis phase.

• Also, it is the first to include human learning problems and solutions which is known today as performance technology.

 

6. The 1994 Definition:

 

• During 1977 to the mid 1990s, many developments affected our field.

• Cognitive and constructivist learning theories began to have a major influence on design practices.

• Technological advances, such as microcomputers, interactive video, CD-Rom, and the Internet, have influenced the profession.

• The advance of communication technologies led to increasing interest in distance learning, and new instructional strategies (ex. Collaborative learning).

• As a result of the many influences, by the mid 1990s the field of instructional technology was very different from what it was at 1977. Thus it was time to redefine the field.

• Work in the 1994 was officially commenced in 1990 and continued until 1994, when AECT published: Instructional Technology the Definition and Domains of the Field (Seels & Rechey, 1994).

• The definition: instructional technology is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, managing, and evaluation of process and resources for learning.

• The five domains (areas of study) are not linearly related.

• The authors purposefully excluded the word systematic to reflect interest in alternative design methodology such as constructivist approached.

 

7. Reiser and Dempsy (2002, 2007):

 

• The field of instructional design and technology encompasses the analysis of learning and performance problems, and design, development, implementation, evaluation, and management of instructional and noninstructional processes and resources intended to improve learning and performance in a variety of settings, particularly educational institutions and the work place.

• Emphasize: systematic process, the use of technological resources, and human performance technology.

• Points on improving human performance technology.

 

8. The latest AECT Definition:

 

• At the beginning of 2006, an AECT committee was finishing work on a book presenting a new definition of the concept of educational technology (Januszewski, in press).

• The definition will be: educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.

• The word ethical, focused on the fact that those in the profession must maintain high level of professional conduct.

• The definition focuses on that instructional interventions created by professionals intended to facilitate learning.

• Recognized the important role of the learners in determining what they will learn.

• Indicated one of the goals of professionals in the field is to improve performance