Meaning, Nature and Scope of Educational Technology

 Meaning, Nature and Scope of Educational Technology 

Educational Technology.

Educational technology is a new area like educational philosophy, educational sociology, educational psychology, measurement and evaluation in education. 

educational technology provides the basis for the planning and organization of resources for learning and helped in achieving the teaching objectives. 

Meaning of Educational Technology.

J.K Galbraith in his book (The new Industrial state) has mentioned two main characteristics of every technology.

1. Systematic application of scientific knowledge to the practical tasks.

2. The division of the practical tasks into sections and sub-sections. 

Any subject which meets these two norms of the characteristics in the field of education is called educational technology. educational technology does not determine the educational objectives. it is done by the political thinkers and philosophers, keeping in view the wider aspects of society and values. 

Educational technology defines teaching-objectives in behavioral terms. on its basis various methods and techniques are developed and constructed in order to achieve predetermined teaching objectives.

When the teaching objectives are determined, than educational technology seeks to achieve them. it creates conditions by interpreting the input during the teaching process. it selects and applies the appropriate strategy  for achieving the teaching objectives. looking at the output or abilities of the pupils, it is evaluated whether the teaching objectives have been achieved or not. if not, then changes are bought about in the teaching strategies so that the teaching objectives may be achieved. thus, educational technology includes three processes

- Functional analysis of teaching-learning process in which the teacher observes all those components which are applied as input and these come to light through output. 

-Separate or combined search and analysis of those components which are used in the teaching-learning process during input and output.

-Presenting the acquired learning experiences in the form of research outcomes.

Thus, educational technology is the behavioral technology which presents the art of teachings in a new fashion. it controls educational influences with the help of those factors which are used for achieving teaching objectives.

Educational technology is the dynamic, progressive and important mechanism in the field of education which modifies and analyses the various steps of teaching and learning with the help of indoctrinated principles and laws of modern psychology, sociology, engineering, administrative theory, mathematics and other social and physical sciences. it develop educational efficiency by formulating and remodeling according to the needs.

it plays an important role not only in the classrooms but also in the entire school environment, educational administration and educational references.

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Nature of Educational Technology.

Following conclusions may be derived after conducting an analysis of above mentioned definitions:

1. The basis of educational technology is a science.

2. Educational technology studies the effect of science and technology upon education. thus, science and technology are used under educational technology which 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 school as a system. in this system, the school-building, furniture and teacher 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 the form of ability of the pupils.

6. Engineering technology is not educational technology. the engineering technology has manufactured radio, tape-recorder, video tape, and TV etc. which are used as audio-visual aids in teaching. in education, it is accepted as hardware approach.

7. Audio-visual aids cannot be termed educational technology, because their concern is only with the process-aspect of educational technology and not with the input and output aspects. but if these aids are used to achieve educational objectives, then it can be put in the category of educational technology.

  8. Programmed instruction is also different from educational technology because the students learns himself during the programmed instructions. it does not allow interaction between pupil and teacher. it can be used only for limited objectives and limited subject-matter. thus, programmed instruction is merely a part of educational technology.

9. Educational technology cannot solve each and every problem of education. it can be used in teaching and instructional system only.

10. Educational technology will not replace teacher. these are three aspects of educational technology:

-input

-process

-Output

Input is the teacher's job. therefore, educational technology cannot snatch the place of teacher. secondly, educational technology develop cognitive domain only and not the affective domain. affective domain can only be developed when an interaction between teachers and pupils take place. hence, educational technology cannot replace the teachers. however, a teacher can provide benefits to the large groups of students with the help of radio, tape-recorder, and television etc.   

ALSO READ: mass-media and multi media in education, importance of mass media in education. 

Scope of educational technology.

Educational technology got developed as a new subject in the field of education for the last few years. the term 'education' includes teaching learning, instruction and training, similarly the scope of educational technology is also much wider. 

the below mentioned technologies are included in it:

1.Behavioural technology

2.Instructional technology

3.Teaching technology

4.Instructional design 

5.Training psychology

6.Cybernatic psychology

7.System Analysis

In view of the definitions and characteristics of educational technology some general working-areas of educational technology can be pointed out.

-Area of curriculum construction:

In the present technological and psychological age, the application of scientific and technological knowledge is much essential for the curriculum construction. the curriculum construction has become a very tedious job in th field of education. the task of the curriculum construction can be simplified with the help of educational technology.

-Selection of teaching-learning strategies:

The selection of teaching-learning strategies turns easy with the help of educational technology.

-Selection of Audio-visual material:

Another important working area of educational technology is that the teacher can select easily the audio-visual aids with its assistance.

-Determination of educational objectives:

The software aspect of educational technology contributes in the formulation of teaching objectives.

-Areas of Teachers training:

The new innovations in educational technology can be use successfully in teachers training and it is actually being done, such as micro-teaching simulated teaching, system approach, classroom interaction and teaching models etc.

-Areas of Feedback.

In the field of education, educational technology has emphasized on feedback for evaluation. many experiments have been carried out in this area.

-Area of the Hardware's:

One form of educational technology also occurs as hardware devices such as teaching machines, tape-recorder, television, computer and satellite etc. the learning in the classroom can be made effective with their use.

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