What is Educational Technology | Page 1 of 12 Defining Educational Technology for Classroom Learning Dr. Marshall G. Jones Winthrop University There is a difference between Technology in Education and Educational Technology. The former describes the application of particular tools, such as computers, in the classroom. The latter is the name of a unique discipline and area of study. This article seeks to provide some basic definitions and to promote a better understanding of Educational Technology as a discipline in order that we can better apply it to classroom learning. Educational Technology or Instructional Technology You may have heard of some terms, such as Educational Technology, Instructional Technology, or Instructional Design and Technology. All of these terms refer to the same field, and they are used by many people interchangeably. Seels and Richey (1994) offered this definition of the field of Instructional Technology Instructional Technology is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of processes and resources for learning. (page 1) I would argue that Seels and Richey’s definition is a good one for the field. However, for the purposes of discussing the relationship to classroom learning, I prefer the term Educational Technology because it promotes a broader understanding of the application of the field. The term Instructional Technology is often used to define an area of specialization within the field that deals with training, the systematic design of instruction, and the part of our field that is most often associated with professional education as it is practiced in the military industrial complex. This is an important component of the field of Educational Technology and one that has tremendous influence in the development of our field. The term Instruction describes well what is done in those areas, namely training people to do particular tasks. But there is a difference between instruction and education. Instruction implies a narrow focus on a particular task, such as reciting your multiplication tables, locating the subject and verb in a sentence, or balancing a particular chemical equation. This is actually a form of training someone to do a particular task. The goal of instruction is typically narrow and can often result in a visible manifestation of success. So if you are going to assess the results of instruction on locating the subject and verb in a sentence you can see a physical manifestation of it, such as underlining the subject and circling the verb. Instruction often provides quite logical assessment strategies: whatever the skill is, have them perform it. So the term instruction is associated more with task specific learning. Education, however, is a broader term that implies life-long learning, and life-long learning is a goal associated more with traditional classroom environments than with training departments.What is Educational Technology | Page 2 of 12 Education is a broad term that describes what happens during classroom learning. While we may have goals for our students during their education, it is often the case that while everybody learns something, not everybody learns the same thing. This is because learning is an internal cognitive event and a complicated one at that. Learning involves many internal cognitive processes, and those cognitive processes are often not visible, or at least do not lend themselves easily to obvious physical manifestations. While we cannot see someone learn their multiplication tables, for example, we can see them provide the correct answers to the question, “What is six times seven?” Assessing instruction is easy; assessing learning is more difficult. Learning is often a private, internal event for many people, and everyone does not learn the same way. In order for learning to occur, instruction often happens. We provide small, unique instructional modules to help people meet a larger educational goal. This is the nature of curriculum: one thing builds on another. So in the field of Educational Technology we use the broader term “Educational Technology” because it can absorb the more specific term Instructional Technology. Educational Technology is not the same thing as Technology in Education. Technology in Education is one of the four perspective’s we will discuss later but for now the best thing to do is to define the term Educational Technology. What is Educational Technology? Educational Technology is a field of study, much like history or literature is a field of study. Researchers and practitioners in the field of Educational Technology may specialize in particular areas, such as corporate training, k-12 education, or Internet based learning, much like an Historian might focus on American History or European History. But as with most fields, the field of Educational Technology holds some commonly held beliefs. The most important one is that Technology is defined broadly. The term technology comes from the Greek word techné, which was defined by the Greeks as a particular activity or kind of knowledge (Saettler, 1990). So in the Greek tradition techné could be a physical device such as a computer or a video camera, but it could also be a type of knowledge, such as Gardner’s multiple intelligences (Smith, 2005). Society today defines technology much more narrowly. Technology today is most often used today to mean a device. In Education today most people think of technology almost exclusively as the computer. But technology could be any tool that can be used to help promote human learning including video cameras, digital cameras, MP3 players, Portable Digital Assistants, and, of course, the computer. But in the field of Educational Technology we embrace the original definition of technology to mean not only devices (we do love things that plug in), but also processes and strategies as well. To illustrate this point we offer up the classic Educational Technology question: Upon its release, what technology had the greatest impact on Western Civilization? Many people will respond that the printing press had the greatest impact. And while the printing press was important, you need to remember that when it was invented in 1450What is Educational Technology | Page 3 of 12 not that many people could read. Other people will site the automobile, the airplane, the telephone or the Internet. All of these were major