The age of instructional design - a focus on content

The main topic of the research during this period, starting from the ‘50s
was related to what content should be taught by using technology and how it
should be organized.The performance criterion was related to teacher performance. In other words, an educational technology is effective if  it can be used to teach the
same contents with the same learning outcomes as teachers do. 
Robert Gagné had an important contribution, by this time to the
instructional design research, stating that knowledge acquisition could be
facilitated by hierarchical sequencing of instruction, from subordinated knowledge
to more complex abilities (Gagné, 1962; White & Gagné, 1978). The main idea of
this theory was that former learning of some prerequisite knowledge facilitates
later acquisition of higher-order skills, but this doesn’t happen when the
prerequisites are learned out of the learning sequences (Gagné, 1962; White &
Gagné, 1978). Also, Gagné (1968) proposed a descriptive theory of the instructive
strategy that includes nine events, which, in his opinion, are critical for an efficient
instruction. The sequence of events are: (1) gaining attention, (2) informing the
learner about the objective, (3) stimulating recall of prerequisite learning, (4)
presenting the stimulus material, (5) providing learning guidance, (6) eliciting the
performance, (7) providing feedback about performance correctness, 8) assessing
performance, (9) enhancing retention and transfer
.
Capitalizing on these ideas, educational technologies have tried to create
tools aiming to maximize learning outcomes of the students. Gagné and Briggs
(1979) provided prescriptions for each of these instructional events, based on the
type of learning - intellectual abilities, cognitive strategy, verbal information,
attitudes, motor abilities (according to the descriptive theory of knowledge,
elaborated by Gagné) - combining them in a matrix with five different models of
instruction. The work of the two authors had at least two major consequences for
the instructional designers (Reigeluth & Curtis, 1987):
  
TO BE CONTINUE .......

Source : Cogniţie, Creier, Comportament / Cognition, Brain, Behavior
Romanian Association for Cognitive Science. 
Volume XI, No. 1 (March), 115 - 129

 

Research trend in Modern world for the field of eduction.

THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 

The field of educational technology found its origins in the discovery made
by researchers and practitioners of the fact that the instruction can be planned,
projected, evaluated and revised before being applied on students. In other words it
can be treated as an object on which a set of procedures i.e. technologies) can be
applied. 
Educational technology is, according to the definition of the Association
for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), “...the theory and
practice of design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of
processes and resources for learning” (Seels & Richey, 1994, p. 231). Another
definition is the one offered by Reisser (1987), who states that educational
technology is the systematic way of designing, utilization and evaluation of the
teaching/learning process, in terms of specific objectives, based on research in
human learning and communication fields and on combining  human and technical
resources.
The research made in the educational technology field, according to Winn
(2002) has moved through four  stages or “ages”, each being built on the previous
one and each of them being characterized by a specific focus, specific theoretical
assumptions and practical implications.
In what follows, we will review the „ages” of educational technology
research, discussing the key theoretical issues, the research directions and the
weakness associated with each of these stages. 

1. The age of instructional design - a focus on content 
2. The age of the message design - a focus on format
3. The age of simulation - a focus on interactions
 
To be continue ........




Sources : www.cognitrom.ro