INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY DEFINED

Instructional Technology is a term that is used mainly to define the use of computers in educational settings. Often times, this term has been used to explain the way that computers are used in schools to supplement the learning experience for the student or to make the improve the administrative duties of the teacher. In this definition, instructional technology can include the computer, the software applications on the computer and the peripherals that can be used to enhance the visual output of the computer such as the printers, digital cameras, scanners and cd-burners.

Instructional technology, however, consists of a great deal more than just the computer. Instructional technology encompasses all the technologies that teachers have available to them to assist them in teaching their students.

Instructional technologies include the use of visual aids, audio aids, the computer, the Internet, overhead projection machines, and so on. Tape players, video cameras, cd players, video tape recorders and players, the television should all be considered instructional technologies.

The key to the definition is that these are technologies that are used to improve or enhance instruction. Just having the technology does not make it instructional technology. It is all about how the teacher uses the technology for learning purposes. It is very much like having a book that the child never opens. No matter how good the book is, if it is never used it is useless.