EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

The Meaning:

Technology has significantly affected human as well as other animal species’ ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. The human species’ use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools.

The pre-historical discovery of the ability to control fire increased the available sources of food and the invention of the wheel helped humans in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear weapons.

The word Technology originated from Greek,  ‘tekhnologia’  meaning “systematic treatment of an art, craft, or skill.”

Technology is the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or serve some purpose. It is a science of techniques i.e. methods of doing/getting things done related to any art or science or a particular profession. In short, it is a systematic way of evolving and applying the scientific techniques.

Meaning of Educational Technology

The term Educational Technology was first used by Brynmor Jones Robert in UK in 1967.

Educational Technology is the systematic application of scientific knowledge to education. Educational Technology involves input, output and process aspects of education. Educational Technology stresses on the development of methods and techniques for effective learning. Educational Technology is helpful in making the teaching process objective, easy, clear, interesting and scientific.

Educational Technology facilitates learning by controlling the environment, media and methods. It stresses the organization of learning situations for the effective realization of the goals of education.

Educational technology is any subject that meets these two norms – systematic application of scientific knowledge to the practical tasks and the division of the practical tasks into sections and sub-sections.

Educational technology defines teaching objectives in behavioural terms. It is the science on the basis of which various methods and techniques are developed and constructed in order to achieve pre-determined teaching objectives.

DEFINITIONS:

The National Council of Educational Technology (1971) defined “Educational Technology as development, application and evaluation of systems, techniques, skills and aids to improve the process of human learning.”

G.O.M. Leith (1969): “Educational technology is the systematic application of scientific knowledge about teaching-learning and conditions of learning to improve the effectiveness of teaching and training.”

S. S. Kulkarni (1986): “Educational Technology may be defined as the application of the laws as well as recent discoveries of Science and Technology to the process of education.”

Robert A Cox (1978): “Educational Technology is the application of scientific process to man’s learning conditions.”

Shiv K. Mitra: “Educational Technology can be conceived as a science of techniques and methods by which educational goals could be realized.”

Role of Educational Technology in the Teaching-Learning Process

Educational Technology has absolutely revolutionized the entire education system. Until recently, the teachers used to be the sole interpreter of knowledge to the learners and the textbooks the sole resource. Educational technology has affected the conventional roles and it has opened up the new areas of teacher functions such as management of resources and management of learning. Today, teachers have a range of media to assist and supplement the instructional work.

Teachers can even specify the learning intentions, select the topic, identify the stimulus situation, determine media, manage teaching and finally conduct evaluation and modify the instructions in the light of evaluation results.

Educational process can’t proceed systematically without the help of educational technology. Every aspect of educational system is fully enlightened with educational technology.

1. Educational technology has provided a scientific base to the educational theory and practice. It has transformed a passive classroom to an active and interactive classroom, with audio-visuals, charts and models, smart classrooms and e-learning room which has drastically motivated and increased the attention level of the students.

2. The introduction of educational technology has modernised the teaching-learning climate of the educational institutions. The learners to be exposed to professionally designed programmes on video or computers.

3. Educational technology has helped and supplemented the teachers in their instructional programmes through the structured lessons for remedial, enrichment or drill purposes. The learners get training for self instruction and teachers are relieved of the burden of routine repetition for exercise and revision purposes.

4. Through a systematic organisation of content and instructional materials, educational technology has provided well-integrated structured materials for teachers thus saving a lot of their time which in turn may be utilized for creative work and quality improvement.

5. The training and use of educational technology contributes towards the professional growth of teachers. It equips them in the use of scientific methods for solving educational and administrative problems. It adds to the teaching competence of teachers and inculcates a scientific outlook and scientific temper in teachers and students.

6. Educational technology has improved the teaching-learning process and made it more effective and process oriented. Television, Radio, V.C.R, Computers and LCD projectors etc. have enriched and facilitated effective transmission of knowledge.

7. Educational technology has not only maintained the standards of education but also improved the ways of teaching by giving it Teaching Aids and Programmed Instructional Material.

8. Mechanism of feedback devices for modification of teaching-learning behaviour have produced effective teachers in the teacher-training institutes.

9. Students who appear for higher or competitive examinations have been benefitted by educational programmes on T.V, Radio and Internet.

10. Educational technology has opened up new fields of educational researches in the field of examination process, evaluation and classroom-teaching.

11. Educational technology has provided practices and strategies that help teachers to teach according to individual differences of learners.

12. Educational technology has provided scientific foundation to education through the theories of learning and intelligence.

Thus educational technology is required in each and every aspect of teaching learning process. Educational technology serves all the purposes for modern education. Education today can’t go far without the help of educational technology. The innovations of technology in the field of education have done wonders to educational process. It has not only maintained the structure but also improved the nature of the educational process

Scope of Educational Technology

Educational Technology is as wide as Education itself. Educational Technology implies the use of all educational resources – Men, Materials, Methods and Techniques, Means and Media in an integrated and systematic manner for optimized learning. The below mentioned technologies are included in it.

Behavioural Technology: Behavioural technology is the important component of Educational Technology. It puts emphasis on the use of psychological principles in learning and teaching so that the behaviour of the teacher and pupils may be modified in accordance of the teaching objectives.

Instructional Technology: Instructional Technology means a network of techniques or devices employed to accomplish certain defined set of learning objectives. Instructional technology implies the application of psychological, sociological and scientific principles and knowledge to instruction for achieving the specific objectives of learning.

Teaching Technology: Teaching is the social and professional activity. It is a process of development teaching is system of actions which induce learning through interpersonal relationship. Teaching technology is the application of philosophical, sociological and scientific knowledge to teaching.

Instructional Design: In order to bring desired changes in the pupils’ behaviour, the teaching situations, working tools and new approaches were considered important in addition to the learning principles. The composite form of all these is instructional design.

Training Psychology: Training psychology is an important method of teaching and learning. Its development resulted out of the research work carried out on the complicated training problems and situations.

Training psychology emphasizes that the whole training task should be divided into three parts. These are:

§  Preparing outline of the task.

§  Task analysis

§  Putting the task in sequence. The main role of training psychology is in Teacher Education.

Cybernetic Psychology: It’s a part of training psychology. Cybernetic psychology accepts human beings as machine. Cybernetic psychology emphasizes the fact that all the methods of feedback bring the desired changes by controlling the behaviour of the pupil.

System Analysis: System Analysis is a problem solving process in which the needs of the management are diagnosed and by using an appropriate method for solving the problem, evaluation is carried out.

If you consider the working areas of Educational Technology includes the following: Curriculum Construction, Teaching-Learning Strategies, Audio-Visual materials, Determining Educational Objectives, Training the teachers, Feedback, Hardware and Software etc. In short, the scope of Educational Technology extends to all resources (human and non-human) for the augmentation and development of education. Thus Educational Technology has a wide scope.

Nature of Educational Technology

For understanding the nature of educational technology, we need know the development of the term.

1. The earliest concept of educational technology was linked with the use of audio-visual aids like charts, models, maps, specimens and concrete materials.

2. With the advent of physical science and resulting electronic revolution there came an era of sophisticated hardware and software like projectors, tape-recorders, radio and television, educational technology was taken to mean sophisticated instruments and equipment used for presenting instructional material.

3. Then came, the age of mass media that led to massive communications revolution for instructional purposes. Utilization of radio, television, teletext and computer assisted instruction for individualized learning thus brought more sophistication in the use of appliances and instruments for formal and informal education

4. Then came the concept of programmed learning and programmed instruction for self-instruction and auto-instruction.

5. Then came the application of theories of teaching and learning, micro-teaching, analysis of behaviour and systems approach. The emphasis on systems approach gave rise to other aspects of education like:

§  The educational planning or organization,

§  The psychology of learning

§  The curriculum development and course design

§  The product ion of teaching-learning material

§  Audio-visual method of presentation and dissemination of information, storage and retrieval,

§  The allocation and management of human and non-human resources

§  The cost effectiveness of medial in education

§  Innovation

§  Evaluations

Thus the nature of Educational Technology may be viewed from the entire teaching-learning processes like:

§  Specification of goals and behavioural objectives,

§  Analysis of the characteristics of the learner,

§  Selection and organization of the content or subject matter to be learned,

§  Methods and strategies of the presentation of the content,

§  Use of aid-material, software and hardware, mass media and communication techniques,

§  Effective arrangement of learning situations and learning environment,

§  Effective classroom control and management, and

§  Continuous feedback and evaluation of the results

Conclusion: In brief, Educational Technology is not confined to the use of audio-visual aids, software materials and hardware equipment or be limited to the use of psychological principles and instructional theories for bringing improvement and evaluation of the teaching-learning process. But a wise and judicious application of the available human and non-human resources for enhancement of the teaching-learning process and to provide appropriate solutions to the problems in education.