"INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY"

What is Instructional Technology?

• Facilitates learning.
• Learning is a process, as is instruction.
• Immersion and authenticity are key components of effective learning.

A complex integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices, and organization, for analyzing problems and devising, implementing, evaluating, and managing solutions to those problems in situations in which learning is purposive and controlled.

Technology is transforming education today, and it will continue to do so tomorrow. Educational technology uses digital mediums to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom and in online environments. 

Educational technology must be viewed in relation to teaching as a whole into the learning process, teachers must understand this relationship in order to be able to make intelligent or fruitful use of technological aids.

The effective use of techonology the classroom are:

Increases student attention and interest in learning.
Increases standarduzed test scores.
Increases higher-order thinking in students.
Increases the future succes of students in life. 

The students learn more in less time when using computer-based instruction and like their classes more and have more positive attitudes toward the curriculum. Research shows that traditional methods of teaching can no longer be utilized to capture the interest of children who are being reared during the rapid growth of the computer age.

As a result, the use of technology can serve as catalyst for helping teachers understand individual learning styles of the children they teach.

Lesson planning should focus first on content and classroom strategies, then on ways in which technologies can enhance the lesson. Building lessons on a solid, research-based foundation of effective strategies, adding appropriate technologies, and strategies should help ensure high-quality instruction that has the potential of maximizing student achievement.