Section 1: Defining the Field

Since I was waiting on my textbook to arrive I tried to get an early start and really thought about what I thought instructional or educational technology was.  The best definition that I could come up with was that instructional or educational technology is the use of any technology that aids in instruction.  This is a very general definition but my ideas come from other classes that I have taken and what I think of when I use technology in my classroom.   It was very interesting to read about the changes over the years concerning how to define instructional media.  As I was reading, I began to realize how hard it must be to create a definition for a field that changes so much! Although my definition was very general, I feel like as I read the definitions, in the order that they were listed in the book, I agreed with them more and more.  Oftentimes I would wonder why I didn’t include a certain thought in my own definition.  I didn’t mention anything about instructional design in my original definition, mainly because I didn’t realize it was a separate part of instructional technology.  I am so glad that the next chapter explained instructional design!

The lesson that I would like to compare to the 6 characteristics of instructional design is one that I developed for another technology class.  This math lesson is designed for kindergarten students who have had some practice with numbers to 10.  Before this lesson, students will have been taught numbers to 10 and how to use one to one correspondence to count numbers to 10.  They will also have been taught and had ample time to practice recognizing numerals and will have had practice matching numerals to a set of objects. I could list several specific TEKS that this lesson covers but the main goal for the lesson is for the students to be able to compare numbers to ten. I opened the lesson with a review of counting objects in a group to 10 modeled under the document camera with students counting along. After several examples, we worked together to complete a pencil and paper activity to teach the students how to compare numbers. The students then played a game located on the website for the kindergarten McGraw-Hill workbook to practice their skills.  The next day we went to the computer lab and the students worked on the IXL math website to complete the activities for comparing numbers to 10. I was able to check the IXL report to see how well the students did and pull small groups to reteach as necessary.  I feel like this lesson was very successful and adhered to the 6 characteristics of instructional design.  Every part of my lesson was focused on the students and their learning, I knew what the goal was for my lesson and had ways to determine if the students were learning, and while I did allow time for review and recalling information, the students had ample opportunities to perform their new skills.  I picked the activities for this lesson alone without consulting anyone, but in a way, I would consider the creators of the games and websites that we used to be my partners in making this lesson successful.

 

I think that Reiser excludes teachers, chalkboards and textbooks from instructional media because most discussions about instructional media that were discussed in the textbook did not include those things as instructional media.  I do however believe that teachers, chalkboards and textbooks should be considered instructional media.  I do not think that the purpose of instructional design is to incorporate media into instruction. I struggled with this decision.  On one hand I thought yes, that is exactly what it does but after reading I now feel like instructional design is a procedure that helps focus the use of instructional media on productivity and learning.