What is the so-called Instructional Technology?

The term “instructional technology” refers to a collection of tools and methodologies for developing and delivering modules of instruction. These modules often are characterized as being self-paced, i.e. the student can control the presentation of material by repeating a topic as needed or skipping topics that are not needed. Another prevalent characteristic is that the instruction may be distributed. In this scenario, all students are not required to occupy the same physical space at a single point in time. The modules also can encompass multiple media with video, audio and passive as well as interactive computer presentations being in the mix. The methodologies which allow instructors to organize the material and incorporate the various technologies in the efficient and effective presentation of that material aim to optimize the student’s learning experience.

Instructional technology has long been used in the work place (where the $$ to finance such instruction was readily available) and has grown from visually presented talking-points lectures to individually viewed computer-based training DVD’s and video-conferenced classrooms. More recently, academia has joined the action with distance education, computer labs to practice most any topic, and video-conferenced “classroom” discussions or web-based classes. The evolution of instructional technology has been amazing. But something tells me that the best is yet to come!!