Educational Technology vs. Instructional Technology: A Comparative Analysis

Educational Technology and Instructional Technology are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct nuances.

• Educational Technology: This broader term encompasses the use of technology to enhance the learning process. It includes a wide range of tools, from simple calculators to complex virtual reality simulations.

• Instructional Technology: A more specific term, it refers to the design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning. Instructional technology focuses on the systematic application of technology to achieve instructional goals.  

Roles of Educational and Instructional Technology:

• Enhanced Learning Experiences: Both technologies aim to create more engaging, interactive, and effective learning experiences.

• Personalized Learning: They can be used to tailor instruction to individual students' needs and learning styles.

• Accessibility: They can make education more accessible to students with disabilities or those in remote areas.

• Global Collaboration: They facilitate collaboration among students and teachers from around the world.

• Data-Driven Instruction: They can help educators collect and analyze data to inform their teaching practices.

Recent Trends in Educational and Instructional Technology:

• Artificial Intelligence: AI is being used to create personalized learning experiences, automate grading, and provide intelligent tutoring systems.

• Virtual and Augmented Reality: VR and AR are being used to create immersive learning experiences, especially in fields like science, history, and engineering.

• Gamification: Incorporating game-like elements into learning can make it more engaging and motivating for students.

• Adaptive Learning: Technology can adapt to the student's pace and understanding, providing individualized instruction.

• Online Learning: The popularity of online learning platforms has increased significantly, providing flexible and accessible education.

• Mobile Learning: The widespread use of smartphones and tablets has led to the development of mobile learning apps and resources.

• Social Learning: Technology can facilitate social learning and collaboration among students.

In conclusion, both educational technology and instructional technology play crucial roles in modern education. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative and effective applications in the classroom.

1.2      Educational Technology and Instructional Technology– Role and Recent Trends.

Role of Educational and Instructional Technology

1.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 programs 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 organization 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 contribute towards the professional growth of teachers. It equips 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. 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. has not only maintained the standard 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 behavior 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.   has opened up new fields of educational researches in the field of examination process, evaluation and classroom-teaching.

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

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

Recent Trends in  Educational and Instructional Technology

App (Application)— This is a piece of software often with quite limited capabilities that can be found on various phones or other portable devices. They are often free, or very cheap, but can also work on  a model "in app" purchases where you can buy add-ons to the original software. They were originally associated with smartphones and tablets, but the term is now used to refer to software in general.

Analytics— This concept is linked to the growth of data available in the world that is increasingly used to measure academic performance.As we increasingly interact with technology and that technology records what we do and can measure the amount of time some one interacts with material, how they progress through it, how well they do in a test or activities, then an analysis of this data can give information on how well a person is doing. This information is increasingly displayed on‘dashboards’ that give a graphical representation of someone’s activity or performance.

Augmented reality (AR) — When a mobile with the right app installed is pointed at an object phone like a picture, that has a trigger connected to it, additional material will be loaded on to the mobile device. So you may have a picture on the wall of the classroom of various famous tourist sites around the world. Pointing the mobile phone at the picture will bring up additional information.

Bring your own device/technology(BYOD/T)—This is a growing and developing practice where learners are encouraged to use their own mobile technologies in or outside of the classroom. It is predicated on the idea that many learners have smartphones, tablets and laptops and the school or college provides connectivity via Wi-Fi.

Community of practice (CoP)—A term that is used to describe a group of people who work together as a learning community. Term originally coined by Etienne Wenger.

e-Portfolio— A piece of software that allows the storage of different types of learning materials that can then be shared. Allows Learners to record their learning journey, reflect on progress and for teachers and potentially parents and employers to see how a learne rhas progressed.

Flipped classroom— A term in current use to describe the previewing of (mostly) video material before a class, so that time in classroom can focus on discussion or activity rather than being given content by the teacher.

Gamification — This is where elements of digital games are applied to the classroom, so in a digital game you have to score a certain number of points before you can progress to the next level, but you can work through the level as many times as you like. Their use is often seen as quite behaviouristic and digital game designers argue that gamification is not the core of what gaming is about.

Google Drive, Google webpages and Google Classroom — A collection of useful tools provided by Google in which you can create different kinds of documents which are stored online (in the cloud).Documents are of various types, but they are built so that it is easy to share documents and work collaboratively.

Google Webpages allow you to quickly create web pages and Google classroom provides away of linking up all the other tools into groups, monitoring progress, etc. Google Classroom needs to be set up at an institutional level.

Infographics— A way of summarising and presenting data using easy-to-read charts and small pictures. These days associated with specific pieces of software that support the development of the infographics.

Interactive whiteboard (IWB)— An electronic whiteboard that is touch-sensitive and is used in combination with a projector to show various kinds of material in the classroom that can be interacted with using the touch-sensitive surface. Most IWBs come with specialised software that enable teachers to create their own materials. They have linked speakers. Many publishers have produced digital versions of their textbooks that include different kinds of activities that make use of the IWBs features.

Learning Management System (LMS)—These are sometimes called virtual learning environments (VLEs) and are essentially a collection of tools, like forums, assessment tools or content display tools, that enable teachers or publishers to collect a number of materials in one place.They can be monitored to check on access.

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)—These are (mostly) freely available courses produced by universities across a range of subjects. They usually consist of a combination of video materials with associated discussion forums and some form of testing, usually in the form of multiple-choice questions. Courses are usually taken by large numbers of people at the same time, so they are essentially self-study.

Podcasts — These can be audio or video. They are essentially a recording of a talk, discussion, lecture, a demonstration of a process or a story. Audio podcasts are easy to distribute on a variety of mobile technologies including MP3 players and phones. Video podcasts are often streamed, but can also be made available offline either by downloading them when there is access to the internet or on SD cards.

QR(QuickResponse)codes—These are like a bar code and allow a quick link to some ready-made materials. They are added to coursebooks to extend the content. They are being replaced by augmented reality triggers.

Social networking tools — There are many of these, including Facebook, WhatsApp and WeChat. These allow the creation of communities who can exchange ideas on a variety of topics.They have essentially replaced earlier tools like discussion forums. A tool like WhatsApp has the advantage over a public tool like Facebook that it is a closed community.

Video conferencing tools— A range of different tools exist, including basic ones like Skype or more sophisticated online classroom tools like Adobe Connect.

Virtual reality (VR)— A 2D or 3D online environment where you can engage in activity that you would do in the real world, like visit a museum, or something it would be impossible to do, for example to go inside a volcano, and get an idea of what these environments are like. Virtual reality tools are used also for training people in skills like surgery or building construction.

Wiki—A webpage environment that anyone who is given access to it can edit the pages.