INSTRUCTIONAL

TECHNOLOGY
Jos Gustavo Espinoza Morales.

Universidad
Gerardo
Barrios.
LIC.
Elmer Jorge
Guardado.

Technology in Education

Instructional Technologys Analysis.

Nowadays, with the evolution of technology we are living in a new
world where everything is becoming more technological than some years
ago. That is why technology has become very important around the world.
Now we can see that this is making a great impact in almost all societies, the
question today could be who is not using technology? We realize that in
every place tech is involved. Children, adults, companies in every place
people are using it. So they are using this useful tools why not use them in
teaching and learning? The use of these tools for teaching and learning is
called Instructional Technology that is why the topic and I know that these
tools helps us in our daily routines but is really important to know how to use
them for our learning and teaching process. There are different models that
show how to do this and to follow some steps and principles.
There are various models but here I will just be focused in some of
them. It is very important to take in consideration an Instructional Design
Model because this helps us to identify students needs and set objectives
where to go. It is not just the use of technology is more than that. One of the
most used model is ADDIE; this is very known for its phases: Analysis,
Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. The first one consists
analyze students, material and environment. The second design material, set
objectives. The third one consists in using the information obtained in the
first phases for getting solutions. The number four consists in distribute the
materials and the last one evaluate if the goals have been achieve. As you
see, it is not so simple to use instructional technology because you need to
be guided for getting more results.
Another interesting model is Merrill's First Principles of Instruction. As
the name says this is focused in principles. There are four principles in this
model that I think if someone follows these principles will have good results.
The first principle is activation this consists in activating the previous
knowledge that the learners have and relating this with the new one. The
second is demonstration, where the learners know what they are learning or
doing. The third one, application of knowledge, learners realize what they are
learning and later they applicate the new knowledge so for example in our
area is language and our case, we as teachers need to give them a real
context where to apply the knowledge, here it is the importance of
technology because this will help us in creating it. The last one integration,
integrate what they learnt in the real world or real life.
As conclusion, I can say that if you do not follow a model you will lose
the main purpose of teaching through technology because it is not learning
how to use technology and we know that is easy to lose the point in this. For
example, using a computer for learning language can be very useful but if

the user forget what is doing, he will be far away of the main goal. In this
occasion, we just saw two models but there are more and some theories of
teaching. We as a teacher in order to use this wonderful technology need to
be aware of these models and methods of teaching.