Characteristics of Educational Technology

Characteristics of Educational Technology..

 

Characteristics of Educational Technology..

Characteristics of Educational Technology are as follows:

1. It is based on scientific and technological advancements.

2. It is more a practical discipline and less a theoretical one.

3. It is a fast growing modern discipline.

4. It makes use of the research findings of psychology, sociology, engineering, sciences and social psychology etc., and applies the same to the field of education.

5. It brings pupils, teachers and technical means together in an effective way.

6. It is the science of techniques and methods. It locates the problems in the field of education, remedies them and ultimately aims at improving the education system.

7. It is bound to improve the teacher, the learner and the teaching learning process.

Nature of Educational Technology

1. The basis of educational technology is science.

2. Educational Technology studies the effect of science and technology upon education. In other words, science and technology are used under educational technology. Hence, it is the practical aspect of science.

3. Educational Technology is a continuous dynamic, progressive and effect-producing method.

4. New conceptions are possible only due to educational technology such as programmed learning, micro-teaching, simulated teaching, interaction analysis, video-tape, tape-recorder, projector and computer, etc.

5. Educational Technology accepts schools as a system. In this system, the school-building, furniture and teachers act as input while various methods, techniques, strategies and the teaching and examination with the help of audio-visual aids function in the form of a process. Lastly, the output is in of form of ability of the pupils.

6. Audio-visual aids cannot be termed as educational technology. It is because its concern is only with the process-aspect of educational technology and not with the input and output aspects. But if these A.V. aids are used to achieve educational objectives, then it can be put in the category of Educational technology.

7. Programmed Instruction is also different from Educational Technology. Its main cause is that the student learns himself during the programmed instructions. It does not allow interaction between pupil and teacher.

Hence, it can be used only for limited objectives and limited subject-matter. Therefore, programmed instruction is merely a part of educational technology.

8. Engineering Technology is not the educational technology because the engineering technology has manufactured radio, tape- recorder, video-tape and T.V., etc., which are used in teaching as audio-visual aids, but still engineering technology is different from educational technology. In education, it is accepted as hardware approach only.

9. Educational Technology cannot solve each and every problem of education. It can be used successfully in teaching and instructional system only.

10. Some people assume that educational technology will replace the teacher which will make the teacher unemployed one day. It is their mistake. Educational technology can never replace the teacher. It is because of three aspects of educational technology.

These are 1. Input, 2. Process and 3. Output. Input is the teacher’s job and therefore, educational technology cannot snatch the place of a teacher.

In spite of this, educational technology develops cognitive domain only and not the affective domain. Affective domain can only be developed when an interaction between teachers and pupils takes place. Hence, educational technology cannot replace the teacher.

Technologizing Education Is To Optimize Learning Endeavours

In Educational Technology, both hardware and software mechanisms are involved.

Garrison (1989), opines “technology will be viewed here as having both a process (software) and a product (hardware) component, where process is the creative application of knowledge of purposeful activities. A subset of hardware is media, where media are the devices used to distribute information.”

In Educational Technology, hardware covers TV, Computer, Overhead projector, Tape Recorder, Teaching machines etc. Software includes audio/video cassettes, Filmstrips, micro films, slides etc.

Educational Technology is comprehensive. It is associated with all aspects of educative process-methods, teaching strategies, learning materials, handling of various equipment etc.

The following 4 M’s are the major components of Educational Technology:-

(i) Methods, (ii) Materials, (iii) Media, (iv) Manpower.

(i) Methods:

It is concerned with the devices such as Programmed Learning Team Teaching, Micro Teaching, Personalized System of Instruction in Teaching Learning situations.

(ii) Materials:

Instructional materials such as Programmed Text book the material of this type may be handwritten or printed.

(iii) Media:

The media used here are audio, or visual or audio­visual. A few examples are radio, tape recorder, charts, films, educational television etc.

(iv) Man Power:

Man power controls educational technology in every way. Educational Technology without man is zero.

Scope of Educational Technology:

Educational Technology is as wide as Education itself. Educational Technology implies the use of all educational resources – Men, Materials, Methods and Techniques, Means and Media in an integrated and systematic manner for optimized learning. The below mentioned technologies are included in it.

Behavioural Technology: Behavioural technology is the important component of Educational Technology. It puts emphasis on the use of psychological principles in learning and teaching so that the behaviour of the teacher and pupils may be modified in accordance of the teaching objectives.

Instructional Technology: Instructional Technology means a network of techniques or devices employed to accomplish certain defined set of learning objectives. Instructional technology implies the application of psychological, sociological and scientific principles and knowledge to instruction for achieving the specific objectives of learning.

Teaching Technology: Teaching is the social and professional activity. It is a process of development teaching is system of actions which induce learning through interpersonal relationship. Teaching technology is the application of philosophical, sociological and scientific knowledge to teaching.

Instructional Design: In order to bring desired changes in the pupils’ behaviour, the teaching situations, working tools and new approaches were considered important in addition to the learning principles. The composite form of all these is instructional design.

Training Psychology: Training psychology is an important method of teaching and learning. Its development resulted out of the research work carried out on the complicated training problems and situations.

Training psychology emphasizes that the whole training task should be divided into three parts. These are:

Preparing outline of the task. Task analysis Putting the task in sequence. The main role of training psychology is in Teacher Education. Cybernetic Psychology: It’s a part of training psychology. Cybernetic psychology accepts human beings as machine. Cybernetic psychology emphasizes the fact that all the methods of feedback bring the desired changes by controlling the behaviour of the pupil.

System Analysis: System Analysis is a problem solving process in which the needs of the management are diagnosed and by using an appropriate method for solving the problem, evaluation is carried out.

If you consider the working areas of Educational Technology includes the following: Curriculum Construction, Teaching-Learning Strategies, Audio-Visual materials, Determining Educational Objectives, Training the teachers, Feedback, Hardware and Software etc. In short, the scope of Educational Technology extends to all resources (human and non-human) for the augmentation and development of education. Thus Educational Technology has a wide scope.