Robert A. Reiser and John V. Dempsey, Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 2nd Edition, breaks the definitions of Instructional Technology into a time line which spans from the 1920s until now. My thoughts about instructional technology have always revolved around its use, at the time I have been introduced to it. For instance, my earliest memories of technology were in the banking industry, working as a word processor. We had IBM computers and used telex machines and dedicated word processors. Having recently graduated from high school (1976), the term used was computer technology. It wasn’t for instruction; it was a tool of work. We worked in computer labs. Programming languages I learned, in college, 1976-1979, were FORTRAN and ITRAN and we were working towards becoming Computer Scientist. My earlier years in high school, we had media centers, located in the libraries. There wasn’t any cross-over between these media centers and departments which ran the main frame computers which the school districts, I assumed housed in some secret lab somewhere. Students did not have computer labs in school, as we have today.
I am not impressed with inner-profession squabbles over how best to name the field. I can suffice satisfaction that its practical use and applications have broadened over time. I see how terminology has evolved and changed with the introduction of new technologies and their uses. Technology is evolving so fast, naming the field, would seem to be a trivial event.
A few other tidbits of interest to me include the fact that the inclusion of a standard of ethics, “the AECT Code of Ethics (Welliver, 2001),” had not been introduced earlier within the field. Another thing I did not know was that the study of the field of technology went as far back as the early 20’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment